Op-Ed: What's your waste size?

As I sit here writing this, I am wearing a patterned dress by Ecote that I purchased two years ago from Urban Outfitters for about $60. I do not know where the raw materials of the dress were produced. I do know that the fabric was sewn together and transformed from a piece of cloth into a dress in China, but I do not know anything about the person who held the dress in their hands and sewed it together. Nor do I have any information pertaining to this person’s wages, life expectancy, working conditions or quality of life.

This general lack of knowledge is the reality of the fast fashion age. Retailers such as H&M, Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters have the ability to add new styles to their shelves and usher out old ones in as short a time as two weeks. Consumers flock to these stores in search of the latest trends; we purchase oversized sweaters, graphic T-shirts and pairs of jeans without considering their unique histories. These garments are made so accessible and affordable that it becomes easy to fall into a pattern of over-consumption without thinking about the greater implications of our purchases.

Monday, April 24 marks the four-year anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Bangladesh. Rana Plaza produced clothing for companies like J.C. Penney, Primark and Zara. 1,134 workers were killed in this disaster and thousands more were injured. Some were forced to amputate their own limbs in order to escape the rubble. This is just one example of the unsafe conditions under which the people who make our clothes must work.

We are all culpable of unknowingly supporting this industry and practice. For instance, the Tufts bookstore sells brands that are implicated in fast fashion, such as Champion, Under Armour and Vineyard Vines. As an Environmental Justice and World Literature class, our goal for this article is to educate our community about the realities of fast fashion and encourage our peers to rethink their clothing purchases. In order to appropriately and effectively make this change, it is imperative that we first acknowledge the various issues associated with the fast fashion industry.

When you think of pollution, what comes to mind? Perhaps it is the strip-mined tops of mountains, the smoke towers of coal power plants or the heaps of disregarded plastic floating in the ocean. More than likely, you do not think of the shirt on your back. Regardless of this, the fact remains that the fashion industry is the world’s second greatest polluter, following closely behind the oil industry.

The carbon footprint of the fashion industry is immense. Assessing a garment means considering everything in its lifecycle from the pesticides used in cotton farming, the toxic dyes used in manufacturing, the waste discarded clothing creates and the tremendous quantity of natural resources that are used in all stages of the process -- extraction, farming, harvesting, processing, manufacturing and shipping.

At each stage in its life cycle, there are endless lists of staggering statistics. Consider, for instance, that it can take over 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Or that by some estimates, in one year, a single garment-transporting ship will produce as much cancer and asthma-causing pollutants as 50 million cars. 

We have become a society of consumption: The world now consumes 80 billion pieces of clothing each year. Fast fashion ensures that our needs as consumers are never satiated, creating an unparalleled demand. The industry is intentionally designed to make us feel out of trend with styles that continue to change at a rapid rate. In this system, it is nearly impossible to stay current on trends at any given moment, thus prompting us to consume superfluously because we are made to feel that the clothing in our possession is not enough or is old.

Additionally, in this model, clothing is designed to fall apart, ensuring that the cycle of excessive consumption continues. It is easier and cheaper to justify new purchases when the quality of our garments is declining and not made to last. As a result of this, the average American throws away over 68 pounds of textiles per year. 

It is important to note that some companies have begun to implement “take-back” programs because consumers are becoming increasingly cognizant that the supply chain does not end at the cash register. H&M recently began allowing customers to bring in old clothes so that they can be recycled back into textile fibers. However, recycling does not absolve H&M from its role as one of the biggest contributors to the fast fashion industry, churning out a new inventory every two weeks. Recycle programs and thrift store drop-offs can give us the illusion of sustainability, therefore inadvertently perpetuating the cycle of over-consumption.

Informed consumers can avoid the demands of corporate-driven trends by investing in clothes that last. Supporting small, local companies that sell durable clothes will save money in the long run, encourage more ethical treatment of workers and have a smaller footprint on the planet. Regarding clothing as a long-term investment completely will overhaul the role of the fashion industry in society and consumer habits. Likewise, purchasing used clothes, repairing and transforming current clothes and swapping clothes with friends are other ways to easily facilitate a move toward a more sustainable lifestyle.

The Environmental Justice and World Literature class wants to address the issue of fast-fashion consumption because it directly pertains to many people on this campus. As we approach the end of the school year, clothes will begin to accumulate in dorm dumpsters only to be replaced by the next year’s trends. We encourage you to consider these mountains of rejected apparel and think about where they came from and where they are going.

If you would like to learn more, come visit our social action education project at the Mayer Campus Center tomorrow from 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. to learn how you can be a change agent just by altering your relationship with clothing.