Fast fashion: the double-sided mirror behind the trend (Part 5)

2025-04-02



(II) Environmental protection issues are prominent


With the continuous improvement of environmental awareness, environmental protection issues in the fast fashion industry have received increasing attention. The production model of fast fashion brands is usually characterized by high energy consumption and high pollution, which has put tremendous pressure on the environment.
During the production process, fast fashion brands need to consume a lot of water resources and energy. According to a report by the Global Sustainable Fashion Alliance, the global fashion industry consumes about 82 billion tons of water and produces about 7.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, accounting for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Taking the production of an ordinary pure cotton T-shirt as an example, from cotton planting to garment production, about 2,700 liters of water are consumed, which is equivalent to a person's drinking water for two years. At the same time, clothing printing and dyeing and other links will produce a large amount of wastewater containing chemical substances. These wastewaters are directly discharged without effective treatment, which will cause serious pollution to the soil and water sources.

The rapid renewal of fast fashion clothing has also led to a serious problem of clothing waste. Consumers often buy new clothes frequently in pursuit of fashion trends and discard old clothes. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, about 80% of the clothing produced each year in the world ends up in landfills. In the UK and the US, 1.4 million tons and 11 million tons of clothing and accessories are discarded each year, respectively. On average, each American family throws away 30 kilograms of old clothes a year. In China, 26 million tons of clothing are discarded each year. Many of these discarded clothes still have a certain use value, but due to the lack of effective recycling and reuse mechanisms, they can only be landfilled or incinerated, which not only wastes resources but also causes secondary pollution to the environment. Environmental organizations have also severely criticized fast fashion brands. Several French organizations have jointly launched an "anti-fast fashion" campaign, dumping 10 tons of donated clothing in front of the French Senate to warn the society that the serious consumption problems brought about by fast fashion cannot be ignored and advocate a sustainable fashion lifestyle. These criticisms and protests have further exposed the environmental problems of fast fashion brands to the public eye, causing a negative impact on the brand image.


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