
The dirty industry of fast fashion is causing an environmental “emergency” - NicoJuicy
https://qz.com/1222569/fast-fashion-is-causing-an-environmental-emergency/
======
77ko
Having worked in the supply chain for companies producing fashion clothing for
popular western brands, it is eye opening and terriying the amount of
work/energy/inputs which goes into making clothes.

To give a denim example:

Cotton growing wrecks the land, farmers gets peanuts.

I'll give a pass on the actual fabric making and sewing process, but what
really got me was the amount of energy and robots used to destroy denim to
make "distressed" jeans.

In some processes you have many hours of fabric being distressed, in wheels,
in drums filled with different types of pebbles, giant presses, even lasers to
slice them up... the jeans spent more energy and way more time getting ready
for fashion then they did getting produced. (not considering cotton growing
time).

All this work to produce something which lasts a lot less then it could, and
probably will get thrown away soon. Clothes need an environmental impact
label.

I have a new found respect for man-made fibres like polyester, polypropylene
etc as producing those fibres is so much cleaner than natural goods, and
instead of having to spend a lot of energy getting the fabric to "feel" right,
you just modify the properties of the fibre by changing how its produced.

Edit: Fashion is one of the few remaining industries where obsolutely zero
consideration is given to environmental impact when designing and producing
clothes. This isn't just a poor country thing where they make clothes in a
enviornmentally destructive way, the design of the clothes involves IMHO a lot
of un-necessary production steps for an extra minuscle percentage of
improvements.

Other industries, like say car parts, think about things like the energy
inputs to their production process from the design state onwards, fashion
doesn't. Even in sevice industries like making web apps, people think about
inputs, and design to use as few of them as possible.

~~~
code_duck
Hemp is a good alternative to cotton that has similar advantages -
biodegradable, non-toxic, allows skin to breathe, but does not require input
of toxic chemicals to produce.

One major drawback of synthetic fabrics that is recently coming to light is
the tiny particles they constantly shed, which are too small to be filtered by
most municipal water systems and are now found all over in lakes and rivers:
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/20/microfib...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/20/microfibers-
plastic-pollution-oceans-patagonia-synthetic-clothes-microbeads)

~~~
fwgwgwgch
Talking of hemp, hemp "concrete" blocks are also considered good for
buildings.

~~~
scythe
Hemp-lime aggregate is good insulation, but cement-fiber aggregates do not
have the characteristic properties of more famous composite materials.
Additionally, Portland cement is highly basic and tends to weaken wood, so the
hemp is not really acting as a reinforcement in this case, but a filler which
reduces density. Hempseed shells (the indigestible portion of hempseed) are
often preferred here. See:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-
reinforced_concrete](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-reinforced_concrete)

------
spodek
The documentary The True Cost
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGp5_Sfbss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGp5_Sfbss)
covers many of the problems with fast fashion -- the pollution, exploitation,
and more, but especially the pollution.

I stopped shopping those stores since watching it. I recommend it.

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TazeTSchnitzel
There's also a looming huge problem right now with recycling. Traditionally
old, worn-out clothes could have their fibres reused. But the cost of new
textiles has been pushed so low that it is destroying the market for recycled
textiles. And so we're producing ever-the-more of this stuff and recycling
ever-the-less of it. An environmental catastrophe in the making.

~~~
Buetol
From Wikipedia, we are recycling more-and-more: 2.8% in 1960 to 8% in 2011:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_recycling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_recycling)

Also we recycle low-quality clothes as isolation for example.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I don't know the numbers so I'll use some made up ones as an example.

2.8% of 10 tonnes of textile waste leaves 9.72 tonnes to landfill.

8% of 1000 tones of textile waste leaves 920 tonnes to landfill.

Herein lies the problem.

~~~
dredmorbius
Garment production doubled 2000 - 2015.

[https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-15/no-one-
wa...](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-15/no-one-wants-your-
used-clothes-anymore)

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moreorless
Tried starting a company to connect big brands with manufacturers. It was not
a pretty picture. The brands made it almost impossible for the factories to
make a decent profit without cutting corners.

~~~
kiliantics
From my understanding (mainly from reading this article[0]), it's almost
impossible to find all of the original producers of most clothes. The
manufacturers usually have subcontractors, who themselves have subcontractors,
etc. and it will often go as far down as just being made by some woman in her
home while she is minding her children.

[0] [http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-myth-
of-t...](http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-myth-of-the-
ethical-shopper/)

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vira28
We have been lately going "Organic" when it comes to food. Hopefully, we will
do the same for our clothing too.

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cooervo
This is why I prefer buying ecological clothing, its more expensive but also
better quality: [https://www.vatter-fashion.com/](https://www.vatter-
fashion.com/)

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vira28
This is the ultimate reason why my friend started this and they have been
getting a good traction. [https://aprl.la](https://aprl.la)

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damoonvisuals
Does anyone know where to buy their clothes ethically?

My girlfriend and I always try to buy resale if possible, but we still end up
buying resale clothes which qualify as "fast fashion".

~~~
snowwrestler
I try to buy from Patagonia.

They were one of the first major brands to popularize the environmental impact
of their clothing, especially cotton. They made a major push 25 years ago to
educate consumers on the impacts of cotton, and switched to entirely organic
cotton to help reduce those impacts.

They also helped create 1% For The Planet, were an early adopter of Bluesign,
early adopters of recycled polyester for their clothing, and most recently
have been promoting reselling and repairing used clothing.

I don't think its hyperbole to say that Patagonia was one of the very first
companies that started the line of thinking you see in this QZ article.

On a personal note, most of my Patagonia clothing has been very durable. I
have Patagonia stuff that is 20+ years old that I still use every year.

~~~
soared
Patagonia is great but obscenely expensive - a solution that does not scale at
all.

$300 sweater jacket [http://www.patagonia.com/product/mens-down-sweater-
jacket/84...](http://www.patagonia.com/product/mens-down-sweater-
jacket/84674.html?dwvar_84674_color=RGBY&cgid=mens-jackets-
vests#tile-3=&start=1&sz=24)

~~~
m_mueller
Isn't that inflation adjusted pretty much a normal price for a down jacket 30
years ago? Something that you'd buy once every 3-4 years or so? At least
that's how I'm still treating this. Also, I'm Swiss, so my sense of pricing
may be off here. But winter shoes and winter jackets for us is something
expensive that one doesn't buy often.

~~~
Avshalom
300$ USD is ~25% of a entry level workers monthly pay (net) in the US. Housing
frequently hits between 50-30%, transportation another ~20%. Which means buy a
300$ anything means not eating that month for a large % of the US. Obviously
Patagonia is still running which means there are enough people who can spare
that but it's not universal (see the Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Inequality).

ETA: 300$ = 25% => 1200 a month net => 1500 gross (if no state taxes) => 9.38
an hour IF we assume the completely unrealistic 40/week

~~~
IntronExon
That sounds like a problem with depressed wages, not the price of the coat.

~~~
m_mueller
Exactly. Again, I will use Switzerland as an example and give a few typical
salaries:

Banker in Zurich with 10y experience: 12k USD/M

Engineer in Zurich with 0y experience: 8k USD/M

so far it probably sounds pretty normal for people used to SF / NY levels
right?

Here's the difference:

Mc Donald's cashier in Zurich: ~3500 USD/M

 _Median_ Salary in Zurich: ~6000 USD/M

 _Median_ Salary across Switzerland: ~5600 USD/M

These give you the low and mid points of the salary spectrum. It's just much
more compressed than in the US - this Patagonia jacket should be <10% of
anyone's monthly salary, probably affordable for >90% of population. If it
isn't, then it would be if you take social services into account that are
designed to correct for such market mistakes that leave people behind in
poverty.

And this is Switzerland, mind you, probably the most US-like libertarian and
decentrally governed place in Europe. All of this would be affordable to
Americans if your government wouldn't just pander to the big corporations and
throw out money by the boatloads for insanely overpriced defence contracts.

~~~
ridewinter
Switzerland is a small country benefitting from being the hub of a
disproportional amount of global banking and commodity trading. I think that
props up the minimum wage at McDonalds. That being said, the pride that the
Swiss - from a McDonald’s worker to bus driver - show in their jobs is
noticeable to this American.

~~~
m_mueller
Banking revenue is 7-9% of Swiss GDP, on par with many industrial nations.
Commoditie Trades are disproportionate to Switzerland’s size for sure, but I
fail to see how that translates to salaries in McDonalds - their main target
market is hardly bankers and commodity traders. I think it has much more to do
with the social safety net which imposes an implicit minimal wage (companies
have to offer something significantly above what one can get from the
government).

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msadowski
Only after reading "Let my People go surfing" by Yvon Chouinard I realized the
potential scale of this issue. I now think twice before buying clothes and I'm
willing to pay extra for better quality that will last me longer.

Anyone has an idea what would happen to economy if we stopped buying things we
don't need? Would we see a total market collapse?

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hi41
Does anyone know which as companies make clothes for longevity? Choosing such
clothing will help us move towards sustainability.

~~~
alexkiritz
They have guides on here.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/)

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antiroyalty
The GoodOnYou app takes a stab at evaluating a brand's ethical and
environmental choices.

~~~
gt_
That does not sound profitable.

~~~
icebraining
The popularity of "organic", "green" and such say otherwise.

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Aloha
I always try to buy clothes that are made of heavy durable fabric, preferably
american made.

~~~
oh_sigh
But what would you do if you wanted to be fast fashionable? Presumably you
either don't care about fashion, or only wear 'timeless' pieces, which while
they don't go out of style, don't set you apart with your fashion choices.

~~~
Aloha
I consider fashion to be a secondary concern to durability and wearability
(comfort) - I'm a traditional geek in this way.

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sevensor
I think I missed something in the article. What is fast fashion?

~~~
fourmii
Fast fashion is when clothing companies quickly latch on to fashion trends and
then manufacture quickly and often really cheaply clothing. H&M are famous for
this, they are often out with the latest trends, selling super cheap and
usually not of great quiality. And thus essentially making clothing
disposable.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_fashion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_fashion)

~~~
sevensor
Thanks for filling me in!

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ggm
Sumptuary laws needed here.

