Is fast fashion destroying our environment?

[Music] the influence of fast fashion spans continents clothing giant Zara is now worth thirteen billion dollars with stores in over 93 countries admittedly I've made my fair share of purchases from H&M and uniquely with my favorite being a blue bathing suit I bought for $10 at H&M ten dollars how can a piece of clothing be that cheap to make transport and advertise well to be honest it can't there are huge humanitarian and environmental costs that are hidden by in an expensive price tag although these fast fashion companies have committed numerous human rights violations today I'm only going to look at the environmental issues that are caused by the mass production of cheap clothes the phrase fast fashion is used as an umbrella term to describe the accelerated process of turning new design ideas into clothes on the retail floor in the case of a story like Zara for example it takes a mere 14 to 21 days from the inception to the sale of a product in this ability to create new trends very quickly combined with savvy marketing campaigns has meant that stores like H&M and forever 21 can quickly change every item in their store to drum up hype about a new line of clothing much like a fast food chain that is constantly changing its menu items in order to stay relevant these fast fashion stores can introduce new clothes almost weekly not only does this mean that consumers are tempted to buy the newest and best pants or shirts but it also means that older items quickly become irrelevant this constant overconsumption has high environmental concept on the supply side of the equation most clothing is now made of a material called polyester which is a petroleum-based fiber that requires large amounts of fossil fuels for manufacturing according to Forbes that number has now reached up to 70 million barrels of the year and the rise of fast fashion went hand-in-hand with a rise in polyester production now polyester manufacturing for clothing far outpaces other common materials like cotton or wool this presents a major problem especially considering that polyester is a non biodegradable substance polyester can take anywhere from 20 to 200 years to degrade depending on the conditions and is one of the leading causes of micro plastics in oceans because when wash polyester clothing shed fibers that then find their way into larger water streamers in short polyester is really cheap it makes the cost of manufacturing thousands of pants much cheaper than before and it's able to do this because it offloads all of its expenses on to the environment but fast fashion has also given rise to a host of post consumption environmental problems namely waste the average American sends 81 pounds of textiles to landfill each year and this is partly driven by a constant exposure to marketing campaigns explaining out with the old in with the new the environmental harm caused by this new profit centered industry is not at all reflected in the price tag the fashion industry is now the eighth most polluting industry in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and is responsible for 92 million tons or 4% of the world's annual solid waste so the real cost of my bathing suit is much higher than $10 but unfortunately as consumers we can only do so much to influence the fashion industry's practices considering this there are a few better options than buying from fast fashion companies for one there are companies like Nashville based Elizabeth Susan which works to create transparency about the cost and production they're high-quality seasonless clothing but even better than buying something new from a more ethical company is buying secondhand or swapping clothes with friends and family not only are you diverting clothes from the landfill but you also stop participating in a system that treats its workers poorly and destroys our environment thanks for watching videos like this one take a lot of time and effort to make ideally I would love to support myself off this channel but that can only really happen with your help if you liked the video consider subscribing and clicking the little bell next to it or even better tipping me financially on patreon otherwise I will see you in two weeks

Channel: Our Changing Climate

Views: 287,260

Keywords: Video Essay, Environment, Climate Change, Our Changing Climate, OCC, video essay film, video essay channels, video essay music, fast fashion documentary, fast fashion environmental impact, fast fashion environmental, fast fashion environmental effects, fast fashion and climate change, H&M, Zara, Uniqlo

Id: YOA0D0i5-fA

Length: 5min 6sec (306 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 23 2018