By Cara Mu International Relations/Business Administration, Ivey Business School ‘22 (UWO) on behalf of Monest.

The fast fashion industry is notorious for the environmental footprint created, and is one of the largest — if not the largest — producers of waste. In the last 15 years, fast fashion production has doubled, accounting for 60% of all textile production, and the implications of this have been severe. 73% of clothing ends up in landfills and less than 1% is recycled into new clothing. The apparel industry is also responsible for an immense amount of water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Each year, the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water and half a million tons of plastic microfibers are dumped into the ocean — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. Furthermore, the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

But fast fashion is not just harmful to the environment; it also has a detrimental impact on society, especially vulnerable communities. Cheap labour in developing countries is exploited to manufacture unspeakable amounts of clothing. In fact, 97% of clothing manufacturing operates in developing countries. This allows the fast fashion industry to perpetuate unjust and sexist social systems around the world. Social injustice embeds itself in fast fashion on so many different levels, yet it is the millions of people around the world who produce the world’s clothing that are physically, socially, and economically suffering the consequences.

Worker Exploitation
Fast fashion companies continue to get away with not paying garment workers livable wages and guaranteeing safe working conditions. Oftentimes, companies lack policies that ensure proper conduct from their suppliers. For instance, Uniqlo has outsourced garments from two factories in Jaba Garmindo, Indonesia, that have been under investigation for labour rights abuses. The allegations include claims of firing pregnant workers and harassing trade union members. The Jaba Garmindo factories collapsed and fell into bankruptcy, leaving nearly all workers to continue to fight for $5.5M USD in severance pay owed to them. Since 2007, over 300 claims have been filed with the state of California against Forever 21, accusing the company of creating deplorable work conditions akin to those of sweatshops. Research further indicates that many factories currently fail to comply with minimum wage laws. Even if they actually do meet minimum wage requirements, these wages are often times too low for basic needs. More recently, brands have also cancelled orders due to Coronavirus, which means workers are not even guaranteed wages for work they have already completed. For instance, over 150 workers in China claim that Adidas used the pandemic as an excuse to fire them.

Not only are these workers impacted at their workplaces, but in their homes too. Operations like textile dyeing releases heavy metals and other toxins into waterways which adversely impacts nearby residents even further. Meeting wastewater compliances are rarely policed, leaving accountability to the brands and factory owners. During the dyeing process, runoff of chemical dyes end up in water sources communities of color depend on for survival. In China, 70% of the rivers and lakes are contaminated by 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater from the textile and dye industry The documentary River Blue explores fast-fashion’s effects on major rivers in China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Zambia. The water in these rivers has become a public health crisis with a high incidence of cancer and gastric and skin issues affecting those who work in the industry or live nearby. Workers in a denim wash house in Guangdong are inadequately protected against potassium permanganate, a corrosive denim-fading agent. Coming out of the factory, “a bluish-black substance” spews into a river nearby, its waters irrigate contiguous farms.

Injustice to Women
In addition to general labor exploitations, fast fashion also exacerbates systemic sexism. With about 74 million textile workers globally, 80% are women of color. Due to loose regulations in developing countries, these workers are forced to deal with numerous occupational hazards including dangerous conditions and discrimination. Workers along the supply chain have historically faced disease, cancer, endocrine system damage, adverse reproductive outcomes, injuries, and death due to workplace conditions. 

Factory owners take advantage of women’s unequal position in societies around the world. They pay them less, demand more, eliminate job security, and diminish their rights. More and more, research demonstrates that women experience physical and verbal abuses in these factories. In Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, some women workers are so poorly paid they are forced into the sex trade to make ends meet. In 2020, reports emerged detailing the practices managers took at a Nien Hsing (a Taiwanese firm) owned Lesotho factory which served as a major supplier to Levi's. Managers at the factory were forcing their workers to have sex with them to keep their jobs. When one young woman declined the manager's inappropriate proposition and reported the violation to the HR, she was promptly fired. The Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) finds that incidences of rape, sexual assault, and harassment are widespread at the factory. 

Systemic Racism
The economic exploitation that fast fashion is reliant upon is a legacy of colonialism. From the 1500s until the middle of the 20th century, European imperialism was a way to create extractive states and oppress non-white people. The legacies continue to this day. The impact of environmental hazards on people of color is disproportionate. In order to keep production costs low, fast-fashion companies use environmental racism to their advantage. 

Aside from not ensuring worker rights in their factories, fast-fashion companies have also devalued people of color by stealing their designs. For example, in 2019, a black independent designer discovered Fashion Nova stole her crochet design. This lack of diversity in leadership is the reason why brands continue to release insensitive ads and products (i.e. H&M monkey ad and Gucci’s blackface sweater). It is the reason why models of color are underrepresented on the runway, and it is the reason why garment workers continue to be exploited.

At the end of a garment’s lifecycle, the garment will often end up being donated to a thrift store. Studies have found that 80% of donations do not get sold at thrift stores, and are often shipped overseas to developing countries. The U.S. exports over a billion pounds of used clothing every year — and much of that winds up in used clothing markets in sub-Saharan Africa. These items often will end up in a landfill or be sold in a marketplace at extremely low costs, which stifles the growth of the sub-Saharan African fashion economy. The influx of secondhand fast-fashion items arriving in these counties has become a problem which has led to three East African countries initiating a ban against receiving secondhand clothing from the U.S. 

Even though the fashion industry is making small steps in increasing outward representation and equality, there is still a long way to go. Just last year, in June of 2020, a new Instagram account began highlighting employees' experiences with racism at Nike. According to its description, the page's goal is to amplify "Black voices from current and former Nike employees" by encouraging people to submit their stories via an anonymous Google form. It is not enough to put one person of minority in a room or on a billboard. For a cohort to be representative it needs to make up at least 30% of the overall staff. People of colour need equal representation at board level, across management levels and in the creative spaces. 

Final Thoughts
Fast fashion impacts everyone, whether directly or indirectly. All stakeholders must assume responsibility and take appropriate actions accordingly. Companies can alleviate the harm done by establishing policies, and ensuring suppliers are in compliance. From a consumer standpoint, actions also need to be taken to mitigate harm. Some good practices that consumers can adopt include repurposing clothes and buying second-hand to give products a new life. Overall, consumers should research companies and hold them to higher standards, using their dollar vote to push companies to make changes. Check out sites and organizations that are dedicated to bring more transparency to consumers.

A good example is Monest, a site that gathers information about the policies and actions of brands and evaluates them based on various social and environmental issues. The site also has a built-in tool that allows users to compare the scores for up-to 3 brands at a time, making it easy to see how brands perform against each other in different areas. Minimize the injustices caused by fast fashion companies by leveraging your purchasing power today.