The fashion industry is notoriously opaque. There is very little information on the business practices of fast fashion brands. The lack of transparency means that consumers have no way to know if a company’s environmental practices are sound. Many environmentalists and scientists have attempted to measure the key environmental impacts the fashion industry has. However, these numbers are typically estimates based on census and collective measures.
It is also very difficult to even begin to picture the tremendous impact fashion has on the environment. Who on earth would think about environmental destruction when you have a stylish new bag in your hands? We are just so far removed from the processes the damage the environment, both temporally and physically. Not only are we physically unable to see the destruction, we may not even live long enough to see the full impact of our actions. In this scenario, how are we to know what consequences our actions have?
This section will cover what we currently know about the environmental impact of fast fashion. I will cover how a fast fashion garment is produced and the issues surrounding it. Subsequently, I will cover the ways that the environment has been damaged.