IndexFast fashion: argumentative essayEffects of fast fashionEnvironmental problemsSocial issuesWhat can be done?ConclusionWorks CitedFast fashion: argumentative essayIn recent years the fashion industry has undergone a dramatic change towards a new industry model known as fast fashion. With this recent change we must ask ourselves: what is the true cost of this fast fashion industry? In a world characterized by growing concern for environmentalism and social justice, we must examine the industries we interact with every day, including the fashion industry. Fast fashion has negative impacts on both the environment and human rights and requires a reexamination of a flawed system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, the fashion industry has not always worked with this model. Until the 1960s, the United States produced 90% of our clothes. However, today we only produce 3% of the clothing we purchase in the United States. This drastic decrease in the production of locally made clothing in recent decades is due to a change in the fashion industry. This change is known as fast fashion. Fast fashion has transformed an industry that once had 2 to 4 seasons into an industry that now has 52 seasons in a year. There has been an increase in the number of products made. Big brands like Forever 21, H&M, Gap, Topshop and Zara are all leading brands in the fast fashion industry. The real question is: what is the fast fashion industry leading to? Effects of Fast Fashion Due to the export of labor, production prices of clothing and, consequently, clothing prices have dropped dramatically. This decrease in the quality of materials, craftsmanship, and price has led to several factors, including the consumer's ability to easily obtain an item of clothing at an affordable cost. Since the cost is so low, the consumer is willing to give up the quality of the material and will buy a $5 t-shirt knowing that they will only get a few marks from it. “Zara estimates that its clothes are worn no more than seven times and to meet this demand it creates two new lines every week” (Taplin, 2014). This cheap clothing leads to shoddy materials that will eventually tear. While Zara's estimates are only seven times, many other fashion brands openly estimate that their clothes will not last more than ten washes, meaning that after that time the material will fall apart due to the substandard materials used. However, consumers seem to be content with this given the current model of the fashion industry. They are encouraged to frequent clothing stores every ten to fourteen days, which is how often they change clothes. Environmental Issues Due to the low cost and poor materials used, many of these clothes are thrown away, usually within a year or two of purchasing them. This has led to a huge increase in the number of textile products in landfills. The average American throws away 82 pounds of textile waste every year. More than 11 million tons of textile waste in landfills comes from the United States alone. Most of these fabrics are not biodegradable and will remain in landfills releasing harmful chemicals for hundreds of years. Some people might think that donating clothes to charities or thrift stores might be a viable option rather than throwing clothes into landfills. While this is a good option, many thrift stores are overwhelmed by the amount of clothes donated, usually only 10% of theclothing donated to thrift stores actually gets sold. The rest of the clothes are often shipped to other countries such as Haiti. Haiti once had a booming economy, centralized in tailoring. Today, cheap clothes are being shipped to Haiti and other third world countries, in some cases causing their economies to collapse. Haiti's tailoring business, which was the primary foundation of their income and economy, has become essentially obsolete. As a result, many people became workers in factories to produce cheaper clothes. The consumerist habits of first world countries ultimately have lasting and negative impacts on third world countries who are left to pay the real cost of our excessive consumption. To shift attention, the fast fashion industry is not only harmful to the environment in the amount sold and thrown away, but it is also the second most polluting industry in the world, after oil. Not to mention the harmful chemicals used to grow cotton, the material used in many clothing items. The cotton used in many clothing is often sprayed with harmful pesticides. The application method is very popular and often farmers simply spray the entire field. This use of pesticides has a huge ecological effect that can contaminate soil and local drinking water. These fertilizers and pesticides are known as green narcotics, which means the more you use them, the more you need them. Monsanto is one of the largest seed companies in the world. Monsanto will genetically modify cotton seeds and sell them to farmers. These seeds have been redesigned to absorb more chemicals. This BT cotton has a gene inserted from a bacterium that produces a toxin and is intended to control pests on its own, which is the huge selling point of Monsanto seeds. Monsanto has a monopoly on seeds and is able to sell these genetically modified seeds at high costs, up to 17,000% more. Many farmers, however, will purchase these seeds hoping to reduce costs in pesticide use. However, the seeds do not live up to their promises of controlling pests, leading to increased use of pesticides. Interestingly, Monsanto also produces the pesticides used to treat plants, leading many people to believe that this system is corrupt. Monsanto also owns companies that develop medicines for sick people which are very expensive. Suspiciously enough, a correlation has been found with pesticide use and disease. Punjab is the largest user of pesticides in India and most of the cotton is grown in this area. Dr Pritpal Singh has studied the effects of pesticides on human health. In this area where pesticides are widely used, there is an increase in the number of birth defects, tumors and mental illnesses. Seventy to eighty children in each village have some form of mental retardation and physical handicap due to pesticide toxicity. Due to poor farmers getting deeper into debt because they need to buy seeds every year from Monsanto at high prices and buy more seeds and more pesticides, many farmers resort to suicide. In the last sixteen years, more than 250,000 suicides have been recorded in India due to debts in the fashion industry. That's one farmer every thirty minutes and it's the largest wave of suicides recorded in history. Social Issues Shifting attention to the social justice concerns of the fast fashion industry, many companies export production to developing countries with inadequate labor laws leading to the widespread use of sweatshops. . Bangladesh has become the second largest exporter ofclothing after China, mainly due to the fact that it is able to produce clothing at low cost. But this cheap clothing comes with high costs, including low wages, factory disasters and poor working conditions. There are currently 40 million textile industry workers working. 85% of these workers are women and many are paid less than $3 a day. These workers are among the lowest paid people in the world, sometimes earning as little as $10 a month. In a $3 trillion a year industry it is shocking and scandalous that these workers receive such low wages. In addition to the low wages these workers deal with, many also face poor working conditions. Workers are often surrounded by harmful chemicals that they are forced to breathe every day. They work long hours in building that can sometimes be unhealthy. These conditions often lead to industrial disasters in the fashion industry. On April 24, 2013, an 8-story garment factory in Rana Plaza collapsed, killing 1,127 workers, mostly young women. This is one of the worst industrial disasters in history. In the previous decade, there were over 800 factory-related deaths in Bangladesh alone. 100 of these deaths occurred in the year before the Rana Plaza accident. By minimizing costs, many aspects are reduced, including in terms of safety. In an industry where factory owners must compete with each other to produce clothing, it's important to understand that worker safety is too often compromised. 10% of seats in Parliament are occupied by factory owners in Bangladesh. With this political connection, it is no wonder that so many corners are consciously cut and that the government is unwilling to take responsibility and regulate factories. The fact of the matter is that unless we reduce the demand for clothing that is produced in factories they will continue to increase their means, usually to the detriment of workers. “You can't have the corporate social reasonableness department saying that overtime hours in the factory must be kept at reasonable levels and then the purchasing department demanding delivery of 10,000 pink blouses in a week” (Taplin, 2014). To ensure fair wages and working conditions, the current model of the fashion industry must change to ensure that workers are treated fairly. Benjamin Powell argues, however, that sweatshops are part of the process that raises living standards and will allow workers to acquire higher wages and better working conditions over time. Kate Ball Young, former supply manager for Joe Fresh, says these workers could be far worse off. Workers choose from a series of bad options. She maintains that “there is nothing inherently dangerous about sewing clothes.” Even if these workers are effectively choosing from a number of bad options, it is important to realize that we can give these workers a better option. As previously stated, 40 million workers work in the textile sector today. We have the ability to give 40 million people a good option and not just one bad option among many other bad options. Others argue that if we don't export to these developing countries many people will be left without jobs and will starve. So we're doing them a favor by making them work in sweatshops, right? Wrong. The argument is not necessarily to stop exports to developing countries, because that would ruin their economies. The aim is to ensure fair working conditionsto the people who make the clothes we wear every day. It is their fundamental human right and it is our job to ensure that their human rights are not violated. What can be done? Which brings us to the question: Who is to blame for fast fashion? Now, this isn't necessarily to assign blame, but more importantly to shed light on the role we all play in the fashion industry. Some may say that companies exporting to developing countries are to blame, but the fact is that many of the factories sign up for subcontracts to other unapproved factories to offset demand. So the fault could lie with the factory owners, who after all are the ones who put workers in these conditions. However, the factory owners are just trying to cope with the large orders that are being placed. The consumer is the one who requests these clothes. If we as consumers were more aware and realized where our clothes come from and the processes they go through, fast fashion would not have such an impact on the world's environment and people's human rights. In a study conducted on young consumers in Hong Kong Kong and Canada it was found that, although these young people are often environmentally conscious, they do not associate sustainability with fashion (Annamma, 2012). What other options do consumers have? Luxury brands are a viable option because they often focus on the quality and craftsmanship of the product. However, many people cannot afford this alternative. Another alternative is ethical fashion. The biggest downside to ethical fashion is the style, which usually offers a lot of basic t-shirts and jeans and not much else. To convince consumers to purchase ethically it is necessary to appeal to their desires. Another method is guilt politics which forces consumers to be held accountable in their fashion purchases by their peers and society as a whole (Beard, 2008). While having this information about fast fashion is vital, it's worth nothing if we don't. something to change it. So what can we do? The simplest thing we can do is buy less. When we buy something we need to be smarter buyers and look for ethical fashion. We need to take responsibility and ask ourselves whether the clothes we are buying are durable and whether they will still be in fashion in a couple of months. This will ensure that the clothing we purchase we will wear for years to come. We need to make sure we only buy what we need and will wear. Even if we buy the most sustainable and ethical item of clothing in the world, if we don't wear it those materials will still go to waste. Don't throw away old clothes. Try finding fun ways to reuse old clothes, like turning them into rags or deconstructing and reconstructing a new item. Finally, we can wash our clothes less. When we wash our clothes only as much as necessary, the garment lasts longer. Additionally, 80% of a garment's total energy consumption comes from washing the garment. When you buy something, shop smarter and look for ethical fashion. Keep yourself accountable and ask yourself if it is durable and will still be in style in a couple of months, which will ensure you can wear it for years to come. Make sure what you buy is actually necessary and that you will wear it. Even though it is the most sustainable and ethical t-shirt in the world, if you don't wear it it will be wasted. Don't throw away your old clothes. Discover fun ways to reuse your old clothes, such as turning them into rags or deconstructing and reconstructing a new item. Finally, wash your clothes less. Washing your clothing only when necessary helps the garment last longer and accounts for 80% of a garment's total energy consumption:, 1(1), 97-110.