The fashion business has undergone a change because to fast fashion’s quick cycles of production and consumption. However, the widespread usage of dangerous chemicals throughout the production process is the phenomenon’s hidden underbelly.
These products pollute the environment and offer major health concerns to both workers and consumers, from pesticide-filled cotton fields to hazardous dyes and finishing compounds. In this blog, we’ll examine the hazardous chemicals utilised in fast fashion and examine methods for doing away with those chemicals to create a healthier future.
Fast fashion accelerates supply chains and drives costs down to meet constantly evolving consumers’ demands. Fast fashion brands and retailers employ factories in faraway countries where labor costs are very low. They offer jobs to local underdeveloped communities trying to make a living.
Cheap and trendy clothing that samples ideas from the celebrity culture, Catwalks, etc, and turns them into garments in high street stores at a flying pace to meet consumer demand can be defined as Fast fashion
Fast Fashion Advantages
Today’s consumers get a lot of advantages in fast fashion. This is the reason it’s so successful despite its disadvantages. It’s very exciting to shop for new trendy clothes weekly. Fast fashion remains popular because it’s practical and convenient.
Fast fashion has been rising in popularity over the last 2 decades. It allowed brands and retailers such as Forever 21 GAP, Primark, Zara, and H&M to evolve into large multinational corporations.
Fast fashion is the term applied to express a famed business model in the clothing industry. It explains the consumption, production, and Design of cheaply made clothing inspired by the latest trends.
Fast fashion is now everywhere. People like fast fashion because it provides instant satisfaction. Fast fashion brands and designers offer new modern pieces of clothing motivated by runway shows at a cheap price very quickly.
Today’s consumers want affordable and popular clothing before anything else. Social media personalities and celebrities promote them to buy more pieces of these garments, which often have a very bad quality standard.
With the help of fast fashion, today’s consumers can buy new popular clothes at a very cheap price. They can afford the latest articles and styles regularly because they are cheaply made.
With living in such a fast-paced world, Fast Fashion allows for more affordable clothing. The latest trends are sold to the masses, and people get what they want and do not have to wait around for anything as there are now so many retailers and brands to choose from, either in-store or online, with e-Commerce becoming the biggest industry on the planet as the human race moves deeper into the digital era.
Fast Fashion Disadvantages
The fast fashion industry is known as the most wasteful industry because constant replacement of clothing is required. Fast fashion encourages a culture where clothes are thrown away before their real-life cycle has ended. Most of these clothes are disposed of before there are worn out and get replaced by new trends.
The majority of fast fashion waste is neither recycled nor donated. It either goes to a landfill or gets incinerated. This leads to a large amount of air and land pollution. These cloth wastes can take up to as long as 200 years to decompose. This is why our planet is getting polluted more and more by manmade waste material at.
It may come as a surprise to many people that around 8% of global climate impact is contributed by the Clothing industry. The carbon emissions from an average person’s annual clothes usage are equal to taking a flight of more than 4000 KMs.
The fast fashion industry exploits workers by making them work overtime and paying them low wages. It also damages the environment by using toxic chemicals that are used to manufacture clothes which pollutes the environment.
Fast fashion promotes overconsumption, and as a result, tons of textile waste is thrown away. Polyester is one of the most popular Fabrics which is derived from fossil fuels and is non-biodegradable so it can stay in landfills for more than 200 years even natural materials such as cotton can be harmful to the environment since they require large amounts of water and pesticides.
Fast Fashion Industry and the health hazards
Many people think that anything micro cannot be a big problem, but microplastics and microfibers are a key part of what is wrong in the fashion industry. It is because these microfibres are microplastic that come from thick fibers like polyester and nylon every time we wash our clothes. Each wash sheds around 70,000 microfibers. These microfibers are consumed by aquatic organisms like fish which ultimately causes their death.
1.1 Pesticides and Herbicides
One of the fibres that is most frequently used in fast fashion is cotton, which has undergone extensive pesticide and herbicide treatment. Both the surrounding ecosystems and the farmers who grow the crops are at danger from these toxins.
Skin irritations, respiratory difficulties, and even cancer can result from prolonged contact to these harmful compounds.
1.2 Dyes and Pigments
Fast fashion uses synthetic dyes and pigments with hazardous chemicals to generate vivid colours and designs.
For instance, azo dyes have a reputation for releasing cancer-causing substances when they come into touch with perspiration or saliva. These substances have harmful effects on human health and can be absorbed via the skin.
3. Formaldehyde
FFormaldehyde is frequently used to keep fabrics from shrinking and wrinkling. However, long-term exposure to this substance might result in cancer, lung issues, and skin sensitivities. Consumers who wear clothing coated with formaldehyde and textile workers are both at danger.
4. Chlorine
To get a pure white colour in textiles during the bleaching process, chlorine is utilised. However, using bleaching solutions with chlorine as a base might lead to the creation of dioxins, which are extremely harmful and persistent in the environment.
Dioxins build up in the food chain and offer serious health hazards, including problems with the immune system and reproduction.
5.Polyester
Petroleum is used to create polyester, a synthetic fibre that is frequently utilised in fast fashion. Chemicals that are considered carcinogenic, such ethylene glycol and antimony trioxide, are used in the manufacture of polyester.
Additionally, when polyester clothing is cleaned, microplastic fibres are released into the sea, damaging marine life and perhaps making their way into the food chain for humans.
6. Nylon
Another popular synthetic fibre is nylon, which is produced utilising a number of chemicals, including adipic acid and caprolactam. These chemicals’ manufacture produces hazardous byproducts that add to the pollution of the air and water. The manufacture of nylon also uses a lot of energy, which worsens the environmental effects.
7. Water Pollution
Nylon, another well-liked synthetic fibre, is made from a number of compounds, including adipic acid and caprolactam. The production of these compounds results in dangerous byproducts that increase air and water pollution. The environmental implications are made worse by the energy-intensive process used to make nylon.
8. Soil Contamination
Pesticides and dyes used in the textile industry have the potential to pollute soil, causing ecological disruption and lowering agricultural output. These substances can linger in the environment for lengthy periods of time, endangering both plant and animals.
9. Chemical Management Systems
Implementing robust chemical management systems within fashion supply chains is essential for identifying, tracking, and reducing the use of harmful chemicals. Brands can establish strict guidelines and protocols to ensure that only approved chemicals are used in the production process. Regular monitoring and testing can help identify potential risks and enable prompt action to mitigate them.
10. Collaboration with Suppliers
To promote transformation, fashion businesses may collaborate closely with their suppliers. Brands may urge their suppliers to use safer chemical practises by developing long-term relationships and offering assistance and resources.
In order to improve chemical management practises, collaboration might also entail information exchange, undertaking collaborative research, and putting training programmes into action.
11. Industry Initiatives and Partnerships
To address the problem of dangerous chemicals in fashion, a number of industry initiatives and alliances have arisen.
Brands, suppliers, and other stakeholders come together through organisations like the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) to strive towards the industry’s elimination of hazardous chemicals. Collaboration via these program may strengthen efforts and encourage change throughout the whole sector.
12. Consumer Awareness and Education
It is vital to inform customers about the dangerous chemicals used in fast fashion and the significance of choosing sustainable options. By being more knowledgeable about the effects of harmful chemicals, customers can make wise choices and support businesses that place a high priority on sustainability and safety. This need for safer products has the potential to transform the whole sector.
Taking care of your clothing properly might help limit your exposure to chemicals. Customers may help extend the life of their clothing and cut down on the need for frequent washing, which can release microplastics and chemicals into water systems, by learning proper washing, drying, and storing practises.
What can we do to prevent it?
One should choose clothes that are made of fibers such as. Linen, Recycled fibers, etc. as they have low water consumption. We should also choose natural or semi-synthetic fibers. One can buy fewer clothes of better quality and that is recyclable. Choose organic fibers. Choose sustainable brands and yes, also let us not forget to wash new clothes before using them.
Conclusion
Fast fashion has negative impacts on human lives that go beyond the attractiveness of stylish clothes at low prices. The dark side of this sector is a major concern, with issues ranging from labor exploitation and subpar working conditions to environmental destruction and mental health effects.
As buyers, it is important for us to priorities sustainable and ethical fashion choices by endorsing companies that place a high value on environmental protection, worker rights, and openness. We can develop a fashion business that respects human life, advances social justice, and safeguards the wellbeing of both people and the environment by calling for change and demanding responsibility.
Fast fashion has to be detoxified through a multifaceted strategy comprising cooperation, innovation, and consumer awareness. The fashion sector can lessen its reliance on dangerous chemicals and pave the way for a safer and more sustainable future by switching to organic and regenerable fibers, introducing non-toxic coloring techniques, encouraging supply chain transparency, and putting in place effective chemical management systems.
By making thoughtful purchases, demanding transparency, and supporting a fashion sector that puts the health of both people and the environment first, customers can help this change. Together, we can bring about real change and purge the fast fashion industry.
Recommended Readings:-
What's Your Reaction?
