Fast fashion is clothing that is produced in third world countries that do not adhere to child law regulations and focus on cheap labor, producing clothing that is not enforced by Environmental and Safety regulations.
Fast fashion is affecting everyone in the world one way or another. In China, Bangladesh, and other countries, children are forced to work in sweatshops. It is estimated that there about 168 million children are working in sweatshops during this time.
According to The World Counts,“1 in 6 children between the ages 5 to 14 years old are in some form of child labor.”
The environment is suffering heavily from fast fashion. According to Business Insider, “Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams.”
The biggest problem with trying to shop sustainably is that it can be way too expensive for people to afford, which leaves them with no other option besides fast fashion. Additionally, there are alternatives such as thrift shopping or “shopping at second-hand stores," such as Depop, Esty, eBay.
Fast fashion is so popular amongst consumers because of the lower prices it provides for the buyer. Another reason why fast fashion is bought so often is because of how quickly the products are made so that the stores can stay with all the trends.
It’s crazy to see how many stores are a part of fast fashion. For example, Nike is a huge company that owns many sweatshops in other countries, such as China, Indonesia, India, Thailand. The workers are paid extremely low wages. It goes to show that they are just taking advantage of the workers, due to them just needing any time of income for their families to survive. Nike is just an example of the many fashion corporations that exploit people to make their clothes.
Fast fashion is destroying our environment and is affecting many worker’s lives poorly. It is sad to see the toll that fast fashion has taken on the world. There needs to be a huge change in the fast fashion industry.
