Trendy, fast and changing, “fast fashion” is destroying planet earth.
In Europe, fashion companies offer an average of 2 collections per year. Now some brands like Zara offers 24 collections per year, while H&M offers 12-16.
Fast fashion encourages a throwaway clothing culture. Lots of them end up in the dump. About one garbage truck full of clothes is dumped every second. In total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year. That’s enough to fill the Sydney Harbour annually.
People bought 60% more garments in 2014 than they did in 2000 — and kept the clothes for only half as long.
With over 1 billion garments being produced annually, the fast fashion industry is the world’s second largest polluter, following the oil industry.
The apparel industry uses a lot of power and is responsible for 10% of all carbon emissions globally.
Clothing production is also water-intensive and polluting — introducing toxic chemicals into the worldwide water supply.
Do you know: Making a pair of jeans produces as much greenhouse gases as driving a car more than 80 miles.
One t-shirt takes 2,700 litres of water to make. That is 1,350 days of drinking water for one person. A single t-shirt and jeans you wear uses 20,000 litres of water to produce.