Fast fashion businesses produce clothing quickly, which they achieve by using low quality materials and cheap often unethical labour. There are now 52 "micro-seasons" per year in the fast fashion industry, meaning that new clothes are manufactured every week and anything unsold is thrown out. Within each micro-season, brands will overproduce by about 40%. This unending stream of clothing can only mean one thing - that our planet is being depleted of resources, and the people who make these clothes are suffering.
Because these clothes are so cheap to buy, they are often worn just a few times before being discarded or donated. 2 million tonnes are clothing are donated each year, which is more than second hand / op / thrift shops can manage. To deal with excessive donations, 84% of unpurchased thrift clothes are exported overseas to countries like Ghana where it creates an environmental catastrophe.
Essentially, other countries are the dumping grounds for our textile waste. 40% of the clothing we ship overseas has no value and can't be resold in these countries. As a result, 160 tonnes of textile waste must somehow be disposed of per day. Usually they are taken to informal unregulated dumps which are often located next to poorer villages, where it is burnt releasing harmful gases into the air or left to decompose. Synthetic textiles, like polyester, can take hundreds of years of decompose however.
Also, these textiles end up being washed into the ocean during the rainy seasons where it piles up on beaches and chokes marine life. Combined with other threats such as climate change, plastic and microplastic pollution, agricultural run-off from cleared land and sewage waste, oceans and marine life are having a hard time dealing with multiple sources of stress.
By choosing where which brands we buy our clothes and accessories from we can avoid supporting fast fashion and help break this destructive cycle. Upcycled options, like the bags that I make and sell, are one great way to find beautiful, one-off accessories for yourself or as gifts. They also help to reduce waste ending up in landfill and the ocean. To find some unique denim bags, just head to my shop.