Love island: second-hand clothes and trouble with fast fashion
Written byTimes Magazine
But what are the environmental issues related to fashion, and how are they different from used clothes?
What is the fast mode?
Maker Love Island announced a second-hand policy, saying British shoppers were increasingly concerned about fast fashion.
The term describes the rapid change in fashion trends and the transition to cheap, mass-produced goods - with ever-new lines.
This leads to a wardrobe "full of clothes," says fast fashion activist Elizabeth Klein. Oxfam research shows that the average British person owns 57 items that are never used. So what is the impact of fast fashion on the environment?
Garment production consumes a lot of natural resources and causes a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.
Overall, according to the United Nations, the fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions - more than the aviation and shipping sectors combined.
And global apparel sales could grow by as much as 65% by 2030, the World Bank predicts, partly due to continued growth in online shopping.
Much of fashion's environmental impact comes from the raw materials used to make clothing:
- Cotton for the fashion industry employs about 2.5% of the world's agricultural land
- Synthetic materials such as polyester use about 342 million barrels of oil every year
- 43 million tons of chemicals are needed annually for the production of clothing, such as dyeing
- The industry also uses a lot of water.
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