In a journal about the ethical appeal and sustainability of cheap clothing, fast fashion, also known as disposable fashion, is defined as low cost clothing that is made for the purpose of wearing only a handful of times. Fast fashion is the clothing equivalent to fast food. These items often mimic current luxury trends but come at a fraction of the price in order to be more accessible to the general public, aimed mostly at young women. In a society where trends change daily, the idea of fast fashion appeals to people who want to have the latest hot item. The fast fashion industry is one that relies on impulse behavior. Fast fashion appears in malls across the country and prices are so low that the disposal of these items is almost painless. However, fast fashion is environmentally unsustainable and it exploits low-wage workers in other countries around the world. Fast fashion is a dangerous industry that harms lives around the world.

According to Lisa Chau, the founder of a private consulting firm, the average American purchases eight pairs of shoes and 68 articles of clothing annually. Fast fashion relies on this rapid cycle of buying an item, wearing it once or twice, then throwing it out. Because of this, secondhand clothing stores have had a hard time selling items. It is estimated that a New York based Salvation Army only sells about 11,000 items out of the five tons of clothing processed daily (Zarroli). These single-use items are bad for the environment and result in the overcrowding of landfills around the world (Chau). In a time where so many people are concerned with the carbon footprint this generation leaves, people believe the way to decrease waste is to eat organic food or use online books. People rarely think that their clothing is harming the environment (Annamma). 

The fabric used to create these fast fashion items is very environmentally unsustainable. For example, polyester is the most widely used manufactured fiber in the world. Polyester is made from petroleum and manufacturing this fabric is extremely energy intensive and requires large amounts of crude oil. In addition, polyester is not biodegradable, which is a problem because fast fashion clothing is worn very few times then disposed of. Fast fashion items are also made with cotton, the crop that accounts for a quarter of all the pesticides used in the United States. Cotton is useful to fast fashion industries because it keeps prices low and production high (Claudio). Cotton is used in nearly 40% of our clothing, making it the most widely used fiber in the world. Cotton is also one of the thirstiest crops in the world, however the government funds cotton growth in Arizona. Cotton production accounts for 2.6% of our annual global water usage. One cotton t-shirt requires 2700 liters of water and a third of a pound of chemicals to produce (Mellina). Uzbekistan is the sixth leading producer of cotton in the world. In the 1950s, two rivers in Central Asia were diverted from the Aral Sea to provide irrigation for cotton production in Uzbekistan. Now, water levels are less than 10% what they were in the 1950s. For the past 50 years, the sea has become polluted with fertilizer and pesticides from the nearby cotton fields. This shows how damaging cotton production can become to our environment (Sweeney).

Fashion, which is a $2.5 trillion industry, is the second most polluting industry, right behind oil. Textile mills are polluting waterways and harming surrounding communities. Almost 20% of global industrial water pollution comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles. Countless toxic chemicals including formaldehyde, chlorine, and even metals such as lead and mercury, reaches our water supply from textile dyeing and these chemicals are often unable to be filtered or removed (Water Pollution). Dyes are extremely harmful to the environment. For example, the Citarum River is considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world because of the pollution of countless dyes. Clothing manufacturers dumped their chemical waste into this river causing this river to be deadly to aquatic life as well as humans. This water reportedly will burn human skin coming into direct contact with the stream. More than half a trillion gallons of fresh water are used in the dyeing of textiles and the dye wastewater is often discharged into nearby rivers.

Production and labor costs have started to rise in China so United States manufacturers have begun moving their factories to places where manufacturing is cheaper, such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. These countries often do not have the necessary materials needed to manufacture the clothes at the pace that the corporations need so they often need to ship materials from countries such as China, the U.S, and India. These goods are shipped via shipping container and sent by rail. This involves using huge amounts of fuel to power these shipping containers, which is extremely environmentally harmful. One container ship can produce as many pollutants as 50 million cars in just one year and the fuel used for container ships is 1,000 times dirtier than highway diesel (Glynis).

Today, it is estimated that less than 2% of the clothing Americans wear is actually made in the United States. Companies such as Gap are employing workers overseas in order to mass-produce their merchandise. Recently, Gap was accused of using underage female workers, as young as 15 years old, working 18-hour shifts. Gap agreed to make an effort to stop this, but as recently as 2007, Gap was again accused of employing underage children ages 10 to 13 in sweatshop-like conditions (Mahlmeister). Zara once manufactured all their goods in Europe but now outsources at least 13% of their manufacturing to various countries such as China and Turkey. This lower manufacturing and lower labor costs result in a higher profit for fast fashion CEOs and executives.

China is the largest exporter of fast fashion in the world, accounting for 30% of world apparel exports. Each year, Americans purchase 1 billion garments in China, or four pieces of clothing per American citizen. Chinese workers have reported making as little as 12 to 18 cents per hour working in poor conditions in unsafe factories. Because there is fierce competition around the world, workers in these factories are forced to work longer hours without breaks (Claudio). These workers are working seven days a week, up to 70 hours a week, and are victims of constant discrimination. Women rarely get maternity leave and there are no childcare facilities which forces women to find alternative ways to care for their children while they are working, which can be costly. The working conditions are extremely unsafe. In 2009, approximately one million workers were injured and about 20,000 suffered from diseases due to their work. One dangerous process the workers have to endure is called sandblasting, a technique used to treat denim so that the fabric has a worn look. This process exposes workers to silica dust, which can damage their respiratory passages and cause silicosis, a very serious disease, which can lead to death. Sandblasting was banned in 1966 but fast fashion corporations have been able to find legal loopholes in order to continue this practice (Sweatshops in China).

Gap and Old Navy has been the subject of criticism for employing workers in sweatshops in countries such as Bangladesh. For example, twenty-year-old Morium Begum lost her baby after being forced to work 100-plus hours a week while she was pregnant. She was often slapped or beaten and her wage was 20 to 24 cents an hour. The second largest garment exporter in Bangladesh owns the sweatshop where Begum worked. This exporter has 26 factories and 30,000 workers. Pregnant workers are often fired because they are not able to work as quickly or as many hours as the other workers. One man recalls asking his manager if his wife would be able to go on maternity leave and was brutally beaten by the manager then by the security guard. These workers live in tiny hovels and say that by the third week in the month, they are nearly unable to buy food because their wages are so low. Major U.S. retailers are aware of this abuse and still continue to use these factories to make their clothing (Lazare).

Although fast fashion comes at an extremely low price, it is still highly profitable for the owners of the fashion label. For example, the CEO of H&M is the 28th richest person in the world and the CEO of Zara is the 4th richest person in the world. H&M CEO attributes the success to the fact that the stores are always changing. When a person walks in to a store on a Tuesday, the merchandise will be completely that Thursday. This is due to planned obsolescence, which is defined as a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and require frequent changes in design or termination completely.

Zara, one of the most profitable fast fashion corporations, has developed a business model that creates a continuous cycle of designing new products, manufacturing these products, then quickly getting them to Zara stores around the world. In order to do this, Zara uses a supply chain that consists of two primary warehouses in Spain. These warehouses receive shipments of clothing from suppliers and ship replenishment inventory directly to each Zara store around the world twice a week. The most important aspect in this process is to determine the number of units each size of each article of clothing that should be included in each shipment to each store worldwide. Zara is unique in that stores only display merchandise when there are enough available sizes. This is because customers generally feel negative when they want to purchase an item then discover that their size is unavailable, often causing the customer to not buy anything from the store. When a store runs out of a major size- small, medium, or large- store associates move all inventory of that article to the back. They do not do this, however, when the store runs out of minor sizes- XXS and XXL. This means that shipments must be made only a few hours after the store determines current store inventory or previous day sales. Zara is constantly replenishing inventory so customers are able to find new bargains every time they enter the store (Caro).

One way that corporations could make fashion more environmentally sustainable would be using waterless dye technologies. These technologies have been invented but have not been implemented by corporations yet because it is expensive to install and does not yet work on every fabric. Another way corporations could make their production of fashion more environmentally friendly is by using organic cotton. Fashion labels such as Eileen Fisher, Stella McCartney, and Ralph Lauren have begun using organic cotton and are working to produce their clothing with less water and carbon emissions. However, these brands are pricy and are not affordable for a large percent of the world. Eileen Fisher has embarked on a mission to share her insight about sustainable fashion with other clothing manufacturers (Glynis). The real change will come only if big, affordable brands find a way to sell sustainable clothing at a price that people can afford and made with quality so that people can keep these items for years. One change that regular citizens around the world could make would be researching a little before they buy their clothes. Clothing made in America is more environmentally friendly and was not made by an exploited worker from across the world. Although clothing from Forever 21, Gap, Old Navy, and other fast fashion retailers is so cheap, it is harming our environment and forcing people to work in dangerous conditions. We must ask ourselves, is my cheap clothing really worth that?

