Why it’s Time to Slow Down: The 7 Key Ethical Issues in the Fashion Industry

Photo by Karina Tess on Unsplash

Do you still remember the time when shopping for a piece of clothing used to be a special event that happened only a few times a year? Then it has slowly become a form of adrenaline-rush activity: grabbing as many pieces at the lowest price possible, wearing them few times and than throwing them away. It seems to good to be true. Because it actually is.

We are so used to associate purchases only in terms of cost to our budget, but in fashion industry specifically there are always hidden costs. Many fast-fashion as well as luxury companies have a long history of sweatshop labour, dangerous working conditions, environmental issues raised in their supply chains accompanied by distraction marketing methods and other ethical issues. We are uncovering the most prominent ones:

1. Poor working conditions

A vast majority of clothing sold daily is produced in developing countries in difficult and dangerous conditions. Two main incidents – fire in garment factory Tazreen Fashion and collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh – which killed more than 1,200 garment workers combined, were just the peak of an iceberg. Despite the public attention given to the issues, there still remain companies that continue to employ workers in critically substandard conditions, exposed to harmful chemicals, emotional and physical abuse.

2. Low wages

In the pursuit of the low retail prices the fast fashion companies exploit the cheap labour of millions of garment workers in Second and Third World countries whose wages fall far short of a minimum living wage. Although the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has defined a living wage as a basic human right the salaries paid to workers many times do not even cover their basic needs, not to mention the emergencies. Garment workers are therefore forced to work after hours and can’t afford to refuse work in case of illness, pregnancy or questionable working conditions.

3. Child labour

Although child labour is forbidden by law in most countries, it continues to be the source of low cost production worldwide. According to International Labour Organisation an etimated 170 million children (11% of global children population) are engaged in working, many of them within the fashion supply chain requiring low-skilled labour like harvesting, yarn spinning, garments production etc. These children are often exposed to harmful chemicals, subjected to long working hours and stripped of their fundamental right to education and better future.

4. High natural resources use

Fashion industry still relies mostly on non-renewable natural resources that significantly contribute to the climate change. The garments we wear daily have been selected for their specific functionality and optimised for cost, but they have notable disadvantages in terms of land, water and fossil fuels required for their production. Plastic-based textiles use large amounts of energy, while natural materials farming needs high volumes of fertilisers and pesticides (unless farmed organically) as well as significant amounts of water, often in already water-scarce areas.

These clothes you bought impulsly might have been cheap to you, but once you add to them the real cost someone else in the world had to pay, you see that cheap in fashion simply doesn’t exist.

5. Animal cruelty

One of the significant ethical issues in fashion industry is also animal cruelty. Raising and hunting wild animals solely to harvest their fur is highly inhumane practice. Furthermore the pollution of animals’ natural habitat often disrupts their food chains and prevents them to live wild and free.

6. Environmental pollution

As a result of growing middle-class population across the globe and increased per capita sales in mature economies, clothing production has approximately doubled in the last 15 years and has become one of the main polluters of our environment with huge carbon footprint. As reported by Ellen MacArthur Foundation greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production in 2015 totalled 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 – more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping in the world combined.

The fashion industry also has direct local impact. Although communities benefit from the employment, locals are constantly jeopardized by the exposure to harmful chemicals, poor environmental practices and unsufficient safety regulations. Toxic chemicals, dangerous dyes and heavy metals used to bleach, dye and print on materials, leach from the textiles into the groundwater in the process of production as well as at our homes when the clothing is washed. Meanwhile, synthetic fibers, like nylon, polyester and acrylic, are essentially a type of plastic made from petroleum. And we all know that when thrown away, plastic does not compost – it sits in soil and floats in the oceans forever.

7. Increased consumerism and waste

The current fashion system predominantly operates on take-make-dispose model where high volumes of non-renewable resources are extracted to produce clothes that are often used for only a short period of time, after which they usually end up in landfills. As highlights the report “A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning Fashion’s Future” from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation the clothing is massively underutilised. Worldwide the average number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago and now amounts to only 7 – 10 wears. Considering that only 1% of materials is recycled into new clothing, we shouldn’t be too surprised that “one garbage truck full of textiles is landfilled or burnt every second”.

What can we do?

Sooner or later brands will need to take individual responsibility for all the ethical and environmental issues raised in their supply chains, but only the collaborative effort of consumers will really transform the industry. So what can we do? Read these tips and become a more mindful fashion consumer.

Written by Sandra Gubenšek

There is more:

/ Editorial note: And who made your clothes?

/ 10 Steps to Becoming More Conscious Fashion Consumer

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