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When I first moved to the UK, fast fashion was the least of my concerns.
I had plenty of other things to worry about: life was stressful with work, concerns about money were ever-present, and raising a child added to the daily pressures.
My perspective shifted dramatically after watching the documentary “Dead White Man’s Clothes,” which exposes the impact of fashion waste on communities in Ghana, Africa.
Watching the effects of the fashion industry on people who looked like me was a profound wake-up call.
I’m ashamed to say that it was only when I saw how the system affected people in such a personal way that I truly began to understand the wider effects of my clothing choices.
Today in 5 minutes you’ll learn :
- The social impact.
- The environmental impact.
- The health impact.
- What you can do about it.
The Social Impact
Labour and human rights
When countries lean heavily on the garment industry they’re at the mercy of whatever terms foreign brands dictate.
This means labour rights and environmental standards get thrown out the window as they try hard to keep brands happy and maintain their income.
Many garment workers are not paid living wages. An estimated 85% of them are women who also have the added of ‘bonus’ of dealing with ‘everyday’ issues like discrimination, sexual harassment, and abuse.
And because cheap labour is in high demand, children end up working in these rough conditions too, impacting their health and education.
It’s a different world out there, yet it’s hard to imagine because we are so far removed from it—especially when our new clothes are presented to us all prim and proper in shiny malls.
Local economies and communities
Think about the local communities whose lives and incomes depend on the land and water around them.
When heaps of unwanted clothes find their way into rivers and the sea, they clog up waterways and harm fish populations.
Fishermen lose their jobs, and people lose their food source.
This is currently happening in Ghana which has been named ‘fast fashion’s dumping ground by the Guardian.
And all those affordable clothes flooding in from overseas are also hurting the local textile economy.
I sadly watched this happen in my hometown in Nigeria.
What used to be a thriving place for producing colourful traditional cotton fabric is now a desert with abandoned mills.
They just couldn’t compete.
We had to say goodbye to our rich textile traditions and the jobs that came along with it.
So, when we talk about the impact of the fashion industry, it’s not just about the environment and animals; it’s about real people struggling to get food and make a living because their natural resources are being trashed.
The Environmental Impact
Natural resources
From growing raw materials like cotton to dyeing and washing fabrics, the fashion industry is one of the largest users of water in the world.
Good on you (Fashion’s water impacts)
Cotton is the most common natural fibre used to make clothes, but it also requires a lot of water to grow.
To produce the cotton for just one t-shirt, you’re looking at using around 2,700 litres of water—roughly what someone drinks in over 2.5 years!
But the issue doesn’t just stop at water.
Farming cotton requires a lot of land and pesticides.
Pesticides don’t only kill the intended pests.
They also kill beneficial insects, birds, and fish—so fewer species are able to survive and thrive in the area.
And that’s how we go from biodiversity to bye-bye diversity.
Dirty Water
Guess where the dirty water from dyeing clothes gets dumped?
Into rivers that contaminate local water supplies, disrupts eco systems and fills all the living things that survive with chemicals.
With over 1,600 chemicals going into our clothes, you’ve got to wonder about the state of that water—what it looks like, smells like, and even tastes like.
Microplastics
How many clothes in your wardrobe are made from polyester, nylon, acrylic, acetate, rayon or spandex?
I have some bad news.
Everytime you wash those clothes, they leach tiny particles of plastic into the water.They have been found in both tap and bottled water, and even some of our food.
So it’s safe to say we are all eating, drinking and sleeping with microplastics at this point.
CO2
The entire lifecycle of clothing, from harvesting and processing raw materials to producing and distributing clothes requires a huge amount of energy.
Much of this energy is from fossil fuels, which means we’re constantly pumping out greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air.
Hello, global warming.
Waste
We are also churning and tossing clothes out like there’s no tomorrow. About 85% of textiles are either dumped in landfills or burnt(in the US).
Many of them are made from Polyester, which can take up to 200 years to break down—leaching more chemicals and microplastics into the soil and water.
And don’t even get me started on all the plastic packaging—bags, polybags, bubble wrap—that’s used to protect garments during transportation and storage.
Each item comes in its own separate plastic bag and although they can ‘technically’ be recycled, the reality is a significant portion of them are not.
Health Impact
Now, imagine what all of that environmental and social impact is doing to people’s physical and mental health. It’s a public health crisis that we’re pushing under the rug.
Workers
Garment workers are exposed to a shocking number of toxic chemicals like endocrine-disrupting polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), phthalates, chromium, and formaldehyde—all used in dyeing and treating fabrics.
These chemicals cause everything from skin conditions and breathing problems to reproductive harm and cancer.
And let’s not forget the physical injuries and mental burnout from working crazy long hours in terrible conditions while dealing with the constant stress of job insecurity.
Consumers
If workers are being affected by the chemicals, what about everyone who wears these clothes?
Award-winning journalist Alden Wicker has written a whole book about it.
“In To Dye For, Wicker reveals how clothing manufacturers have successfully swept consumers’ concerns under the rug for more than 150 years, and why synthetic fashion and dyes made from fossil fuels are so deeply intertwined with the rise of autoimmune disease, infertility, asthma, eczema, and more. In fact, there’s little to no regulation of the clothes and textiles we wear each day—from uniforms to fast fashion, outdoor gear, and even the face masks that have become ubiquitous in recent years.”
‘To dye for’- Amazon book description
And guess what?
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
What Can We do?
I must admit, writing all of this made me feel overwhelmed and hopeless.
First of all tackling the problem requires collective effort and the burden can’t only lie on us.
Manufacturers and brands need to stop producing unnecessary clothes at this point.
But are they going to intentionally shoot themselves in the foot?
No.
That’s why we need more policies and regulations that require companies to produce clothes sustainably and champion a circular economy.
But do I trust the government? No (I’m pessimistically optimistic)
What about us?
Well, we can learn how to become mindful consumers of fashion.
But will it change the world?
Not directly.
- For starters, it will change your life.
- When it does, you can’t help but speak about it’s benefits.
- Then you’ll slowly or quickly realize that you’re not just a consumer.
- And maybe you’ll use your newfound power to start pushing for systemic change.
I’m optimistically ?optimistic.
My previous preloved therapy letters will show you where to start.
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See you next week!
-Yosi.
