Fast Fashion Is Hot Garbage | Climate Town

whenever i need to look like the kind of guy who understands fashion i cram myself into a suit that looks like it was made for some kind of european heroin addict and for the low price of 30 dollars you too can walk out of an h m dressed like your slenderman's younger brother in fact at prices like these it can be more expensive to clean your clothes than it is to throw away your dirty clothes and buy all new ones and i know that sounds like the kind of plan that was invented by some sort of nine-year-old king but it's actually pretty close to reality because the average garment in america is worn just seven times before it's thrown away and if you're thinking well it's a good thing i donate my clothes to other people that's not actually happening oh you're donating your clothes but that basically just means that your clothes take a little trip to the salvation army where they say thank you for your service before 90 of all clothes donated to a thrift store get rejected and sent straight to a landfill or a textile waste mill with stores like h m uniqlo zara guess and gap selling low quality clothes at bargain basement prices americans buy an average of 68 items of clothing every year which seems like a lot of clothes but it's not even all the clothes because 10 of clothing produced gets worn zero times because it never gets bought and it just goes straight into the garbage not this specific garbage obviously this is just a visual represent you know what you get it but the point is fast fashion is so big and wasteful that it produces more co2 than france germany and the uk combined fast fashion is devastating to the climate and it is a husky-sized human rights violation but it is so profitable that it's projected to triple by 2050 unless we change something we are currently knocking on the door of a climate catastrophe and we need to be reducing our co2 emissions instead of greatly increasing them and how we deal with fast fashion may determine if we're able to avoid some of the worst parts of a climate disaster but unlike most of the systemic causes of climate change there's actually something you can do about fast fashion maybe hi i'm raleigh williams a sort of discount burt reynolds type and a climate science and policy grad student and this is a video about fast fashion welcome to climatetown now fashion wasn't always about buying five dollar dresses or trying to look like a sexy haysack mission very much accomplished by the way before the 1800s people either made their own clothing bought it secondhand from slop shops or went to their local tailors or seamstresses in any case they wore the garments until they fell apart or they died at the ripe old age of 29 the way god intended so while ultra rich people like kings queens or the wealthiest rooks could afford fancy fashion and trends durable clothing was the name of the game for most people basically i'd be wearing this suit until i looked like some kind of accountant that got sucked into the jumanji game for 15 years but then the industrial revolution happened and people who talked like this had more less people who done talk like this were spending more time working in factories and had less time to make their own clothes so a spike in demand for ready-made clothes was met with an abundant supply of cotton from america because of slavery slavery well demand for clothes plus a cotton supply plus new textile technology allowed clothing to be produced at a much greater scale at a lower price allowing more people access to more types of clothing now all of this new technology and money made factory owners and slave owners a fat stack of cash because they paid their workers practically nothing or actually nothing and they profited massively from the economies of scale technically slavery ended with the ratification of the 13th amendment in 1865 but poor working conditions and intentionally low wages kept factory owners incredibly rich and these cartoonishly evil men did things like lock the exits and stairwells so that their workers wouldn't be tempted to take breaks from their nightmarish working conditions or steal a pair of socks and then on march 25th 1911 a fire broke out in this building and if you're hoping that maybe this isn't the triangle shirtwaist factory building you're out of luck the workers in the factory were unable to escape the fire because the factory owners did that thing where they lock everyone in and 146 people mostly women between the ages of 14 and 23 were killed when they either burned alive or jumped to the pavement eight floors below it was tragic and it shocked the nation and of [ __ ] course the factory owners ended up making money on the tragedy because of an insurance claim and some shiesty courtroom moves two years later the owner of the factory actually got caught locking the doors again and he got the electric chair oh no he got fined 20 which was the minimum allowable fine for that kind of thing anyway over the next 40 years and with the help of francis perkins the secretary of labor under president roosevelt enough labor reforms were implemented that working in the fashion industry was maybe kind of okay i mean you weren't making chess piece money but at least you had a weekend insurance time off and best of all the goddamn doors weren't locked at the risk of leaving out a ton of context everything i've described so far is traditional slow fashion clothing is designed manufactured shipped and sold domestically and as recently as i'm not gonna die for this video as recently as 1990 more than half the clothes bought in america were also made in america but between 1990 and now so much manufacturing went overseas that america now makes less than two percent of its clothes and now almost every item of clothing worn in america has to first make a co2 intensive international trip before anyone wants to dress up to go to brunch or church or baseball game what do people do anymore and we're not talking about one little international trip to paris and back since the only thing manufacturers really care about is minimizing production costs the life of a shirt might begin with cotton grown in india then gets sent to mexico to be processed then gets sent to bangladesh to be sewn together then get sent to colombia to have the tags sewn on then get sent to miami to be distributed to a store in georgia but what's a little thousand tons of heat trapping gas in the atmosphere if it means you could buy this very real shirt that says fridays would be like squad goals and just to be clear clothing manufacturers didn't move their factories to other countries so that they could make better clothes they did it so they could go back to treating their workers like they did in 1911. now since companies didn't have to pay for vacations or health insurance or fire extinguishers their profits shot through the roof like a drunken cowboy hey are people gonna actually get that cowboy what's up the cowboy line you just said the cow shot through the roof line yeah it's a it's like the number one cowboy thing where they get drunk at a bar they got too much whiskey and they're like whoop whiskey you know they shoot up into the room i think that's prospector you get it right you getting this i don't think i get it you're me what do you mean you don't get it i just don't think it's clear it's you know what what okay we'll put a part where both of us belabor this and then i'll do a patreon page plug at the end of it okay right here and people can just make fun of you in the comments if they wanna roast me in the comments and sign up for my patreon they're gonna do that and their profits shot through the roof like end of sentence and sure these major american manufacturing companies who move their factories to china india bangladesh etc could have used that money to pay their workers a living wage and they did not [ __ ] they did not they used that money to expand executive salaries by 500 but wait it gets worse because as the cost of manufacturing clothes shot through the floor like a drunken cowboys upstairs neighbor clothing companies were able to sell clothes for cheaper which means people were able to buy more clothes and not like an extra shirt that says catch up with jesus or my other shirt is a truck the average american is now buying five to six articles of clothing every month which is five times more than we did in the 1980s the decade we did everything right [Music] so as consumers bought more and more clothes it started a cycle that paid executives to hire more overseas workers at starvation wages to make more low-quality clothes to ship them over to america to put them in stores that told people that the color of the season is blue baby and you just gotta buy it ah no one has landed a kickflip since 1999. and if you're familiar with my general kind of climate change shtick uh you'll guess that i'm only talking about this because the spike in manufacturing has come at an enormous cost to the climate when you grow cotton or manufactured plastic to make clothes it generates co2 you also need like 1800 gallons of water to make a single pair of jeans which seemed high to me and then i did the research and it turns out all of the sources confirmed that including levi's own website so like wow when you process the cotton and plastic it also generates co2 when you transport it to stores around the world when you buy it in an online purchase hell when you throw it away or donate your clothes all of that is generating more co2 are you an actor i'm doing a youtube video oh i'm not an actor i'm a comedian which is way worse i'm sorry thank you love you too james good to meet you what a nice guy all told the fashion industry contributes to 10 of our global greenhouse gas emissions which is crazy high but it's also a little abstract and it's not super landing for me right now and i promise i can do better how about this take a company like zara zara did roughly 26 billion dollars in sales in 2019 and is so insanely profitable that the dude who invented zara armancio ortega became one of the 10 richest people on the planet for selling shirts that say [ __ ] like kiss me on monday they make so much money that every other brand is just gagging to be as profitable as zara so they're trying to do more like what zara does which as it turns out is crank out co2 30 faster than the nearest fast fashion competitor zara manufactured about 840 million garments this year about 97 of all the cotton plastic and metal used in all those garments was brand new never before used material made specifically for those garments now if you remember the intro which feels like it was so long ago roughly 10 of fast fashion merchandise is never sold and just thrown away which means zara just manufactured roughly 84 million pieces of trash out of almost entirely new material all that cotton gone all that oil extracted to make the plastic gone all the fossil fuels used to transport all that material wasted and for what so we could stock a shelf full of literal garbage well sheesh daniel could recycling our clothes maybe help us out here unfortunately not really see in the same way that it's cheaper for a company to make a new plastic bottle than it is to recycle an old one fast fashion clothing is this delightful blend of plastic microfibers and cotton to give our pants that double baked in stretch the problem is it takes a lot of work to separate those plastic fibers back out which means more workers and less profits and that's just not gonna work for these companies that really love money and at a time when we can't throw out clothes fast enough zara h m guess and the other fast fashion super friends are making billions of disposable garments every year that's trillions of gallons of water billions of barrels of oil airplanes and freighters crisscrossing the globe to distribute these disposable clothes burning fossil fuels at insane rates and making piles of textile waste in our landfills and some brands will make the argument that fast fashion is the only way poor people can afford to dress well which is maybe an okay argument if you hear it and then immediately get kicked in the head by a mule because if you think about it for about five seconds you'll realize their argument is just we don't want to exploit the poor people we already exploited when we ship their jobs overseas by making them pay high prices for clothes so we're going to go ahead and exploit the even poorer people overseas and they really don't want you to think about the third option which is hey let's not exploit any poor people and let's just reduce the profits at the top by a little bit and also also do you remember the triangle shirtwaist factory fire and all those human rights violations but working conditions are literally worse than that in dozens of countries right now hundreds are dead hundreds more might still be buried alive after officials in bangladesh say factory owners ignored and ordered to evacuate some 400 dead hundreds still believed to be missing now much better hosts than me have made much better videos than this one about the human rights violation that is just at the heart of fast fashion and so rather than butchering all of those i've linked them in the description and i encourage you to watch some of them okay okay calm down dogs i know this script has been cool it i know this script has been super super dark up until this point but we have officially entered the we have a way out phase and the big change we need to make is policy now despite fast fashion having a documented history of labor abuse and environmental destruction it is largely unregulated let me give you an example a company like gab sub contracts to a factory in bangladesh that company uses child labor gap turns a blind eye until some journalist figures it out how old are you do you go to school gap pretends to be shocked they fire that subcontractor gap then just gets a new unregulated subcontractor you're 14. and the whole cycle starts again i'm shocked shocked to find that gambling is going on in here you're winning sir oh thank you very much regulating the supply chain means passing laws like germany's recent supply chain due diligence act which basically forces companies to assess any human rights and environmental risks in their supply chain and to establish an adequate and effective risk management system now you may have noticed that a lot of those words haven't exactly been hitting the gym and the law only forces companies to make an effort rather than guarantee they prevent the violations but compared to america's complete lack of federal clothing supply chain legislation they're the god damn incredible hulk france also passed a law that requires a carbon label be included on their textiles but trying to fix a supply chain from the demand end is like trying to turn a cruise ship by leaning really hard to one side there are a handful of state level supply chain and manufacturing bills coming through the pipeline that have similar flavors to the german one and you can check those out and throw your support behind them links in the description and if you're looking to make a difference on a personal level surprise you actually can fast fashion is very much a social movement and you can be a leader by moving in the other direction and refusing to buy fast fashion you can even use the three r's number one if you have a big event you can rent an absolutely bang an outfit or borrow it from a friend but that counts as the r from rent and if you need clothes you can buy pre-owned clothes and i know that's not exactly starting with r but that's the best i could do and i'm so sorry and also if your clothes are damaged you can repair them okay that's fun plus you learn a new hobby remember hobbies is what we used to do before we had phones those are the three r's baby hey webb heads a little note here there is some controversy about that first r rent a study from environmental research letters found that in some cases the extra driving transportation and frequent dry cleaning makes renting clothes worse than buying new clothes so research wherever you're renting from beforehand or maybe wear something you already have it looks great i promise and somebody please tell me a word for pre-owned that starts with r because i honestly could not find one anyway shout out to dana thomas fashion opolis great book and when it's time to get rid of your clothes try your best to resell them or go to clothing swaps or give them to friends or family i mean you can still donate them as a last resort but just know that 90 of what you donate is probably about to make really good friends with a seagull at the dome and if you do have to buy new clothes and you don't but if you do you don't but if you do you should buy from someplace that actually gives a [ __ ] about their supply and manufacture so the next time futureyou just has to buy something consider starting by researching the brand you're buying from or by using a third-party source like united by xero now i offered to plug united by zero for free but those dorks literally paid me to shout them out right here this is it 15 minutes into a video they paid me for this insane but just so they get their money's worth united by zero aggregates a bunch of independent brands that are vetted by actual scientists and are either up cycled or made to order or economically circular or just generally produced in a more thoughtful sustainable lower carbon way they have a whole website you can scroll through and check out if you feel like it but the bottom line is that companies are going to chase after customers so if you as a customer place more of an emphasis on measurable sustainability companies are going to try to cater to you so first and foremost push your representatives to pass laws about fast fashion and join up with organizations that are already working towards that i linked a couple in the description but if you have a little bit of a google i bet you can find some local groups in your area to join up with and by all means be part of the movement by avoiding fast fashion from now on the color of the season is there is no color because that's a stupid idea unless it's blue i have this blue suit i got a bunch of blue shirts that i wear all no you know no there's no color of the season that's dumb and bad and it's gone okay thank you so much for watching climatetown see you later well that was about four minutes longer than it needed to be huh seriously thank you so much for watching i really appreciate it and i'm going to keep making more videos but if you do want to support the channel i just started a climatetown patreon page and the link is in the bio wait people have to pay for these videos now oh no they're still all on youtube for free this would just be if you wanted to like help me make them faster and better oh also uh exclusive behind the scenes content and interviews and like stuff that gets cut from the final videos so you want people to pay for the stuff that's not good enough to be free i am just hoping that a few people might want to send like five bucks a month uh my way because you appreciate what could be described as highly researched low budget super try hard climate comedy climate comedy or like edutainment no like infotainment and you have to pay for it only the bad stuff the good stuff is still free right okay this i feel like this really went off the rails hey man don't look at me you're the one trying to get people to donate to your climate comedy patreon page and the link is in the bio i have not tried marijuana [Music]

Channel: Climate Town

Views: 1,302,619

Keywords: fashion, fast fashion, fashion nova haul, fashion haul, climate town, carbon emissions, pants, shirt, h&m, zara, gap, guess, uniqlo, brands, rollie williams, rollie, climatetown, dry cleaner, shopping spree, recycling

Id: F6R_WTDdx7I

Length: 18min 39sec (1119 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 23 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Asarhaddon]

Working from home for the past 18 months made me realise how little clothes I need - now I wear maybe one-fifth of the stuff I have.

[u/bitetheboxer]

Also... it has taken over in fabric stores. 85% of fabric is plastic/polyester

[u/DavidHewlett]

And, after all, what is a fashion? From the artistic point of view, it is usually a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

— Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

[u/zebra-in-box]

I buy less but more expensive clothes for the environment

[u/lordduzzy]

I would be happy to pay more for ethically sourced clothing. But it's so many layers deep that you are still just as likely to be supporting the same corrupt manufacturing plants.

[u/swooopyy]

I am so glad my mom made me shop at thrift stores as a kid. I fucking hated it at first, especially since my school had a lot of rich kids in designer clothes and carrying their books in Chanel bags. Then I found a pair of designer jeans for $5 and kind of started to get the appeal.

Then I got to college and wanted to totally revamp my wardrobe. But I was broke (and saving my money for weed lol) so I truly started embracing thrifting, and having clothing swaps with friends. Some of my favorite and most interesting pieces that I still wear today (or remember fondly) were from thrifting, or gifted by friends.

Now I’m almost 30 and have more than enough money to buy new clothes. Which I did for a year or two before I realized how little joy it brought me.

I’m back to thrifting/consignment shops and nothing compares to finding something really cool, and then it fits. I can walk out with like 8-10 new items and have spent less than $100. Then every few months sell my unwanted clothes to a consignment shop, and put the credit towards a refreshed wardrobe.

It’s really just the way to go. I’ll never be wealthy/stylish enough to keep up with current trends anyway. 😅

[u/MarcHendry]

I was right all along to wear the same metallica t shirt for 15 years

[u/sloopSD]

As a non fashion type, thought this would be a boring video but ended up learning a lot and enjoying it. Also learned that my current “style” made me a part of the movement against fast fashion and I didn’t even have to do anything. Sweet!

[u/HyperApples]

And don't make the mistake that end-user cost is correlated with sustainability/human rights!

Some of the cheapest clothes have good practices, and some of the most expensive clothes just have huge markups, relying on their "brand identity" to justify the price tag.

This is one of the many reasons policy and enforcement must lead the way, not consumer choice. We have too little information and too little time to make informed decisions.

The easiest choice you can make is to re-wear the same clothes until they fall apart.

Here's some info we found on this subject:

https://www.enrichmentality.com/does-ethical-fashion-expensive/

https://www.enrichmentality.com/did-a-child-make-your-childs-clothes/