Spurred on by the Black Friday discounts last November, waves of faster, more intense, more violent shopping were witnessed in many places worldwide. In addition to the lines in front of the stores and the struggle for coveted products, we now require the focus, speed and agility of a tiger to purchase the goods in our shopping carts online. Actually, when you think about it, it is no longer a one-day thing. Today, shopping in this way has become the norm. There is tremendous pressure to keep up with the ever-changing fashion world and share our style on Instagram as soon as possible. Thus, we have adapted to the era we live in: the era of fast fashion.
See now, buy now. Everything must be done quickly. The product we choose with a click can be at our front door the next day. We come across thousands of new products promising to change our lives if purchased; honestly, almost every product makes that very promise nowadays. As a result, we are constantly monitoring retail outlets, closely following trends to maintain pace with the rest of the world. Black Friday and days like it stimulate the desire to shop in us even more, and almost every day, an alluring item is discounted. If we don't have room in our closet, then we can buy a new one. The important thing here is to continue consuming. Welcome to the fast fashion era, the T-shirt you wear today may be garbage next week. Some may ask: If it's so satisfying, why do we have to be careful?
Before the Industrial Revolution, fashion was not a fast-changing concept for the average Joe. Back then, we had to procure the materials for the garment ourselves and sew the clothes – that is, make our outfits ourselves. We would then use the garment, the end result of this costly and time-consuming process, for many years. With the Industrial Revolution, the sewing machine entered our lives, making the process a little faster. However, the real breakthrough came in the early 1990s. “Fast fashion” entered the scene when a very famous chain store emphasized that the design, production and sale process of a garment could be completed in 15 days.
Still, 20-30 years ago, new products were divided into only two seasons, autumn/winter and spring/summer. Today, the number of fashion seasons has increased to 52, thus we're introduced to a new style every week. In this case, a T-shirt worn a week ago can be outdated by the next. This massive consumer trend leads to 92 million tons of textile waste annually worldwide. Some 84% of the clothing produced is still in landfills or waiting to be incinerated. If adequate measures are not taken and our shopping speed continues at the same rate, it is estimated that we will throw away more than 134 million tons of textile products by 2030. If we recycle the products we use, we can reuse 95% of them.
Being on-trend, a definition that is constantly renewing itself, appears sophisticated and glamorous from afar. It can even shine up close when we have it on. However, the desire to constantly buy new items with never-ending discounts is contributing to a growing environmental disaster. The textile industry and the fashion world, the sources of all this, are responsible for 20% of global wastewater and 10% of global carbon emissions. The sector, which produces our favorite shirt that we demand in a rainbow of colors, is the second-largest polluter after the oil industry. Most of us only witness the store-to-closet part of the journey of the T-shirt we bought. We do not know where it came from, which raw materials were used in its production or how many natural resources it required. This detachment makes it very easy for us to throw that T-shirt away.
Some labels list the raw materials used to make the product. However, information such as where the product comes from, who makes it, what the working conditions are like and how much water is used are not included on the label. We often don't think too much about it. However, we can say that the T-shirt we bought visited more countries than we did by the time it was placed on the shelf. Since 1980, textile production has shifted to Asia and developing countries in order to benefit from the cheap labor force. While China was the leader in production for a long time, with the improvement of working conditions and rising wages, production sites shifted to countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and India, where conditions are worse and wages are quite low. In fact, 1,133 people lost their lives in the Rana Plaza disaster that took place in Bangladesh in 2013, the world's fourth-largest industrial accident.
A T-shirt passes through the hands of many manufacturers before it reaches us. Different stages, such as fabric production and fabric dyeing, take place at different facilities. Generally, our clothes are made from two raw materials: cotton and polyester. Polyester is not a natural substance; it is a kind of plastic derived from petroleum. For this reason, its carbon traces are also high. The production of cotton is more gradual, and the most fundamental problem here is the amount of water used in its production. The pesticides used in the production of cotton also harm people and the environment. Child labor in the sector is another social problem.
The next step is shipping. Now let's think about our T-shirt and the trip it took to get home. Its raw material, cotton, is grown in Uzbekistan, then goes to Bangladesh for processing, then to India for dyeing. Finally, it arrives at the store and then to our closet next to another 20 of our other T-shirts. During production, our T-shirt meets many new cultures and takes a half-world tour. The average cost of this process for the environment is 2,700 liters of water as well as a social cost that we cannot calculate at the moment. It has an irreversible effect on the future. And a week later, it completes its mission, takes its place deep in the closet and a new one soon arrives.
They say our clothes are a representation of ourselves. There are those who say that fashion reflects not only our sense of style but also our character. It may be true up to an extent, however, the main focus here is the incessant shopping spree we seem to be on. We are part of the never-ending production and consumption cycle due to the constant release of new clothes, our desire to share ourselves on social media and many other rather superficial reasons. In fact, the effects of the measures we will take individually and the changes we can make in consumption are much greater than we realize. Consumer behavior can reduce the impact of the clothing world on global warming by 20%. As individuals, we have this power. Small changes we can make in our lives will have a huge impact.
There are several useful ways this can be achieved using a sustainable approach to fashion. One of them is recycling. We can return our unwanted clothes back into production by recycling them. Another way is to use clothes for a long time. Another method we can use to ensure sustainability is to use second-hand goods. At the same time, we can make conscious choices while shopping and buy fewer clothes. If we opt for colors that can be combined easily, pieces that are compatible with each other and more durable products, we will help reduce consumption. Washing our clothes at lower temperatures and using an environmentally friendly detergent while washing also reduces the damage we do to nature. The most important step will be not to shop according to the ever-changing trends. We can create our own timeless style. The last stop on the journey of the T-shirt we picked should not be the dump to be incinerated.
