Saving Our Earth: Slowing Down the Fast Fashion Industry

Abstract

Today's fashion consumers thrive in the industry with unique outfit creations and styles while our earth suffers the consequences of the horrific textiles industry and the ever-present battle of sustainability. The fashion industry contributes greatly to global CO2 emissions, water consumption, water pollution, microplastic pollution, and waste production (Niinimäki et al., 2020). The industry has already reached double the textile production since 2000 and will continue along this path unless we continue to go forth and recognize the ethical misconduct of the textile industry. The fast fashion phenomenon pushes consumers to buy more and provides apparel with shorter lifespans, which further adds to the world's environmental damage and has made it difficult for efforts to increase sustainability to create an impact. Businesses can drastically change their ways by putting in more effort to use certain materials instead of wasting water and using so many chemicals in their current production. We need to slow down. We need to stop producing and consuming clothes without a second thought and at such fast and unsustainable rates. This research project aims to educate people on how to bring back the values of sustainability in a world dominated by fast fashion.