Running head: FAST FASHION AND ITS EFFECTS ON OUR PLANET 1

FAST FASHION AND ITS EFFECTS ON OUR PLANET

Sofía Medina Lozano

Graduation project, Rochester School

Pilar Tunarroza

September 24, 2021

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Have you ever wondered what impact our clothes have on the environment? According to
the World Economic Forum, “The fashion industry produces 10% of all humanity’s carbon
emissions and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply” (McFall-Johnsen,
2020). Nowadays, people look for clothes that give them comfort but as well that have a low
price to be able to keep buying from new collections. This is what characterizes fast fashion,
where priority is the constant change of collections due to trends, the use of materials that
have a very low cost and does not offer durability. This causes people to throw up clothes
very quickly and keep buying new ones. You might not notice how big of a deal this issue can
become, we as a society follow fast fashion models which produce an enormous quantity of
pollution. By turning a blind eye to the situation it can cause effects such as water waste and
pollution, amount of residue generated, and greenhouse gases emissions.
Water is one of the most used resources in numerous industries, and fashion and textile
ones are not the exceptions. To manufacture one kilogram of textile, it is calculated that 200
liters of water are used, wasted, and contaminated on multiple processes such as washing
processes, agriculture, and dying. As claimed by the United Nations Environment
Programme, 3,781 liters of water are needed to manufacture a pair of jeans, including the
production of the cotton to the delivery of the product to the stores where it is going to be
sold. The sad part is that if these statistics are just to explain how much water a pair of jeans
needs, imagine how much water was used in everyone’s wardrobes. The fashion industry
wastes around 93 billion cubic meters of water each year, an amount that could supply
around five million people.
When referring to dying fabrics, It is known that color is one of the most attractive things
to people, consequently, the fast fashion industry uses it to acquire customers. This is why
water is a key factor because without it dying processes wouldn't be possible, around 20 % of
wastewater worldwide comes from fabric dyeing and treatment. (Ellen McArthur
Foundation). Post-production water contains residual dye, mordants, toxic chemicals such as
dioxins, which are carcinogenic and possibly disrupt hormones; toxic heavy metals such as
chrome, copper, and zinc, which are known carcinogens; and formaldehyde, a suspected
carcinogen, and microfibers, and all of these substances are expelled into water streams
without being treated in the majority of cases. (Mukherjee, 2014)
The amount of water that is wasted, of course, depends on what materials are being
produced, if it is either natural or synthetic fabric. When talking about synthetic fibers (such
as polyester, acrylic, nylon) it is safe to say that these are the most demanded materials within
the fast fashion model because of their cheap and practical fabrication. Although these
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materials are low-priced on a monetary level, they have a truly exorbitant cost when referring
to the environment and water usage part. It is known that these are materials made out of
polymers (as well as plastic bottles) derived from petrochemicals, which means that water
contamination regarding synthetic textiles relates completely to microplastic pollution. When
textiles undergo washing processes, the fabrics go through a lot of chemical and mechanical
stresses which lead to the microplastics (monomers) being released into the water. This is a
huge problem because it is not only contaminating the water that is being used in the
wastewater treatment plants, but it is disturbing the well-being of the sea’s ecosystem when it
is poured into it. This procedure contains multiple by-products such as solvents, salt,
surfactants, ionic metals, and their metal complexes, toxic organic chemicals, biocides and
toxic anions which contribute to aquatic toxicity. (Parvathi,Maruthavanan,Prakash, 2009)
On the other hand, when it comes to the manufacturing of natural fabrics, (mainly cotton)
the procedure that consumes a big amount of water in agriculture and crop growth. Cotton is a
very water-intensive crop; it is estimated that it takes an average of 3,644 cubic meters of
water to grow one ton of cotton in the top fifteen cotton-producing countries. This is due to
the numerous production stages cotton goes through, which produces multiple impacts on
water resources. According to the report of the World Wildlife Fund, it takes more than 2,000
gallons (7.57 m³) of water just to be able to produce one cotton t-shirt. This amount of water
is approximately what a person needs to survive for 11 years or so. It is known that globally,
cotton consumes 100 billion gallons of water every year. As well, it is known that cotton
crops are one of the most pesticide dependent in the whole world, it is approximate that
cotton farmers use an average of 360 pounds (163.29 kg) of fertilizer per acre of the cotton
field every year. These pesticides accumulate in the underground water, and this is not very
good for us because these waters usually supply wells and springs that are used for human
consumption.
Another one of the most disgraceful effects that the textile industry has is the amount of
residue that is generated. Long ago, in 920 since the first world war started, people usually
mended and repaired clothes when they were damaged, and even tailored them, so they could
fit other family members to avoid the need to buy new garments. This “resulted in an
Approximate 10% reduction in the production of trash” according to Susan Strasser in her
book Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash. Despite this, nowadays, it is extremely
incredible how the lifespan of a T-shirt has reduced so much, and its path from a store to a
landfill is tremendously brief.
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Fast fashion has changed the way that we see fashion because it has helped to strengthen
the idea of the necessity to buy clothes to follow trends and current fashion tendencies. This
causes people to notice the waste products it causes, and how the rate of purchase and
disposal is growing every day. Under the authority of the EPA Office of Solid Waste, it is
known that Americans discard around 68 pounds (30.84 kilograms) of garments and textiles
per person each year, and clothing and other textiles are about 4% of the municipal solid
waste. This accumulation of residue in landfills is due to, first, the lack of biodegradable
materials (synthetic microfibers) and the fact that these fabrics take millions of products and
processes to be recycled, which makes it easier to produce them than to recycle them.
Lastly, it can be said that the fashion and textile industries, both contribute hugely to the
greenhouse effect due to the multiple gaseous emissions it generates. According to UNECE,
these industries are responsible for 10% of the global carbon emissions, which means that
they surpass other human activities such as international flights and maritime shipping. It is
estimated that the manufacturing of a pair of jeans emits around 33.4 kilograms of carbon
equivalent. (UNEP, 2018) If things keep being like they are and there’s no change, it is
calculated that the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions will surge more than 50 % by
2030. Textile mills produce carbon emissions in different processes of the manufacturing of
the material. One of the most polluting procedure includes boilers, where substances such as
nitrogen and sulfur oxides are produced
Overall, it is crystal clear that the textile industry is hand in hand with the fast-fashion
model has had a huge impact on the environment concerning water usage, residue generation,
and gas emissions, and if we as humans do not become conscious about the current situation,
it might be very harmful to future generations to live in a world that has no healthy resources
because of people’s negligence. The dizzying pace of apparel manufacturing will surely be
one of the causes of the environment’s destruction unless we do something. Reducing the
carbon and water footprint concerning clothes and textiles production might be the best
option if we want our children to have a pleasant place to live in. This one is the second most
polluting industry in the world and even so, demand continues to grow.
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References

Sudeshna Mukherjee, S. M. (2014, December 31). Environmental and Social Impact of

Fashion: Towards an Eco-friendly, Ethical Fashion. CORE. Retrieved September 10, 2021,
from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/72803427.pdf.

Levy, M. G. (2021, April). How to make fashion sustainable. American Chemical Society.
Retrieved September 16, 2021, from
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues/2
020-2021/april-2021/sustainable-fashion.html.

Claudio, L. (2007, October 0). Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing
Industry. ResearchGate. Retrieved September 16, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6035885_Waste_Couture_Environmental_Impact_o
f_the_Clothing_Industry.

Written by Morgan McFall-Johnsen, J. R. (n.d.). These facts show how unsustainable the
fashion industry is. World Economic Forum. Retrieved September 16, 2021, from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environme
nt-pollution/.

Ranson, B. (2020, February 14). The true cost of colour: The impact of textile dyes on water
systems. Fashion Revolution. Retrieved September 16, 2021, from
https://www.fashionrevolution.org/the-true-cost-of-colour-the-impact-of-textile-dyes-on-wate
r-systems/.

Soth, J., Grasser, C., & Salerno, R. (2000, August). The impact of cotton on freshwater
resources and Ecosystems. WWF. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from
https://wwf.panda.org/?3686%2FThe-impact-of-cotton-on-fresh-water-resources-and-ecosyst
ems%2F.

World Wildlife Fund. (2013, January 16). The impact of a Cotton T-shirt. WWF. Retrieved
September 29, 2021, from
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/the-impact-of-a-cotton-t-shirt.

Fashion is an environmental and social emergency, but can also drive progress towards the
Sustainable Development Goals. UNECE. (2018, March 1). Retrieved October 15, 2021,
from
https://unece.org/forestry/news/fashion-environmental-and-social-emergency-can-also-drive-
progress-towards.
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www.fibre2fashion.com. (2008, November). Process analysis impacts of textile

manufacturing: Environmental impacts of textile manufacturing: Solid waste pollution in
textile manufacturing. Fibre2Fashion. Retrieved October 15, 2021, from
https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/3771/process-analysis-environmental-impacts
-of-textile-manufacturing.