10% of global emissions come from fashion, the third-largest manufacturing industry in the world. Much of the creation and waste from this industry are due to “fast fashion,” which is the response to the demand for an abundance of cheap and trendy clothes that enables consumers to buy garments without restriction and throw them out when they go out of style.

Fast fashion brands, like Shein and Forever 21, create massive amounts of clothing at a low price point that are quickly bought, worn, and discarded. They are rarely made to last, often comprised of cheap materials because they are expected to be abandoned. Fast fashion capitalizes off of trend cycles that make a certain style popular for a short amount of time, then quickly replaces it with new styles. These microtrends force consumers to buy and get rid of entire wardrobes to stay fashionable.

This accelerated rate of spending money then disposing hardly-used garments creates extensive amounts of emissions and waste. One polyester t-shirt is estimated to produce about 5.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide, and clothing is also extremely water-intensive; one of the many devastating impacts of irrigating cotton includes draining 85% of the Aral Sea, and a single pair of jeans uses 3,781 liters of water.

Many people brush off this incredible cost to the environment, saying that unwanted articles are donated to secondhand clothing stores where they will be given a new home, but in many cases, that isn’t true. Many clothes don’t even make it to thrift stores, and when they do, most aren’t sold.

It is estimated that 200 million tons of clothing are incinerated or added to landfills every year in just the United Kingdom alone. It typically costs $45 to dispose of one ton of textile waste, and we generate millions of tons annually. New York City alone spends $20.6 million a year to dispose of wasted clothing, and it was reported that in 2012, 84% of unwanted clothes were either incinerated or added to the landfill.

On top of the slim portion of textiles that make it to thrift shops, only a small percentage of the inventory sold at secondhand clothing stores are sold. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, only 10-20% of donated clothing is sold. With only a small amount of people purchasing secondhand items, thrift stores are forced to find a way to get rid of their unsold inventory. Leftovers are sold to textile recyclers, but those businesses are struggling with the surplus they are given as the price for their materials dwindle with supply rising and demand remaining the same.

Make an effort to get clothing from a sustainable source, whether that means a carbon-neutral brand, or from thrift stores, friends, or relatives. The enormous amount of emissions and waste will continue to grow unless people decide to make a change.

I said that I would talk about seaweed in my last synopsis, and while I still want to, I was recently assigned a project about climate change and I wanted to include information about textile waste.

I thrift all of my clothes, and I urge the people around me to do so as well. I’m really glad that it has become more normalized to shop secondhand, but it’s devastating how prominent fast-fashion retailers continue to be. However, I’ve encouraged a lot of people to try thrifting, and a lot of the time they are surprised by the prices and selection offered at secondhand stores.

I was shocked when one time I talked to a friend about going thrifting and she said she didn’t want to, because “doesn’t that take away clothing from poor people?” Although she had good intentions, I was surprised that she was taught that thrift stores were exclusive to people who couldn’t afford new clothes, when such a small fraction of donated clothing is bought and even the outlets where you pay by the pound are overflowing with stock that is never sold.

Hearing that comment really inspired me to do some research and educate others on the topic. I plan to do a future synopsis where I discuss secondhand resellers, so stay tuned to learn with me!

Womack, Amelia. “Fast Fashion Isn’t Cheap – The Environment Is Paying for It.” The Independent (Daily Edition), 02/19 2022, pp. 30. ProQuest; SIRS Issues Researcher, https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2635690173?accountid=163174.

Alden Wicker. “The Earth Is Covered in the Waste of Your Old Clothes.” Newsweek, 16 Mar. 2017, https://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/09/old-clothes-fashion-waste-crisis-494824.html.