New Year | New DIY Fashion Resolutions Series - How fast fashion fuels climate change, Intro
- Shidonna Raven
- 18 minutes ago
- 2 min read
By Helle Abelvik-Lawson
September 22, 2023
Source: Green Peace
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The Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013 sparked a call for change in the global fashion industry. But 10 years on, more than 100 billion clothes a year are made – mostly from oil turned into polyester – by people working in dangerous conditions. This is fast fashion’s impact on people and the planet.
You know the feeling: wardrobe full of clothes, nothing to wear. Online, fashion sales fill your feeds. Clothes are cheaper than ever, and even cheaper in the sales, which now happen year-round.
Then there’s the other end of it all. The charity shop bag by the door that seems self-refilling; the rails in those shops full to bursting. The buyer’s remorse at the clothes clogging our closets.
Why is there so much clothing now? What’s it made of and who made it all? And where does it all end up when it’s no longer wanted?
Frankly, the fashion industry doesn’t want you to know the answers to these questions.
They don’t even want to reveal how many clothes they actually produce each year. 100 billion pieces a year is an estimate from a decade ago, before the explosion in ultra-cheap, disposable fashion from companies like Boohoo and Shein.
What we do know is that the unnecessary overproduction of clothing is a leading cause of climate change and plastic pollution. The demand for oil to make polyester is even fuelling Russia’s war, according to the Changing Markets Foundation.
And – even 10 years on from the Rana Plaza factory collapse – the fast fashion industry is still a chain of human misery. Some 75 million people (mostly women) are extremely poorly paid for skilled work in fashion manufacturing. Deadly industrial accidents still happen regularly.
How can you make your DIY one of a kind. How will you decorate and supply your back to school/college? Which crafts do you do?
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