Fast Fashion: what we are not seeing

Written by Awareness News, published on March 25, 2021

The term “fast fashion” refers to the highly profitable first world fashion industry grounded on
the low-cost mass production of clothing, accessories and footwear in third world countries, which
allows consumers to purchase new, trendy and readily available garments for the lowest prices.

Approximately 80 billion pieces of new clothing are purchased every year, leading mass production of
clothing to account for 8% of worldwide carbon emissions and placing the fashion industry in the top
5 of the most polluting industries in the world. Moreover, this industry is considered to
be the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply.

On top of that, fast fashion uses pesticides for dyeing and production, leading to a heavy pollution of
waterways in many developing countries. This happens because whilst in developed countries
governments ban most of these chemicals, in the poorer ones their dependency on the clothing
industry does not allow them to do so, which leads us to the main damage made by this industry: its
tremendous impact on the countries in which production takes place.

Because most multinational fashion companies set their factories in countries with inadequate labor
laws and little to no government control, working conditions are dehumanising and dangerous,
as many people do not have the luxury to turn down any form of work and have no choice but to
work under these conditions in order to survive.

These conditions include a 14 to 16 hours of work per day, seven days a week while facing physical
and verbal abuse from their supervisors and often locked in closed spaces filled with toxic
substances and no ventilation.

However, the main issue taken by the fast fashion industry into developing countries is child
exploitation. The race between companies to find the ever-cheaper sources of labor, in order to
achieve the common goal of maximising profits, has led them to neglect basic human rights and cope
with some of the worst forms of child labor.

While the treatment and compensations of textile workers in developed countries is inhumane and a
potential violation of basic human rights, there are positive effects. The choice between a life on the
streets and a modest-paying job is a choice between life and death for many in developing countries.
Not to mention children, without a certain commitment to a place to spend their time, tend to fall
towards prostitution and drugs as a way to make ends meet.

In addition, this industry employs thousands of workers and, in an extreme scenario where
people simply stop consuming, it will cause many who really need this job, despite its atrocious
conditions, to lose it and be in an even worse financial situation. The lesser of two evils.

Garments -Kleidungstücke
Dyeing -Färben
cope with – mit etwas zurecht kommen
violation of – Verstoß gegen
atrocious – schrecklich, furchtbar

1. Summarize the text in your own words.

2. Explain in your own words the term “fast fashion”
3. Outline the negative effects of “fast fashion”.
4. Outline the positive effects of “fast fashion”.
5. Translate the last two paragraphs as closely as possible.