Fast fashion has gotten even faster thanks to social media, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts are now expressing concerns about the long-term effects of faster trend cycles.
What’s happening?
During the pandemic, people relied entirely on social media to determine fashion trends since they couldn’t go out to meet friends or see what others were wearing. Since then, though, the trend of relying on social media has persisted.
However, social media moves quickly, and as a result, fashion trends rise and fall, sometimes in the span of days or weeks.
To keep up with quickly changing trends, fast fashion companies are working faster than ever, meaning the clothes they produce last for even shorter amounts of time, reported State News. This quicker deterioration of clothing results in more textiles ending up in landfills and other places (and there is already an abundance of textile waste produced by fast fashion each year).
Apparel textile and design junior Lily Stroub told State News, “Nowadays, clothes are made out of much cheaper materials and they’re not made to last anymore.”
The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that landfills in 2018 received approximately 11.3 million tons of textile waste.
Stroub explained to State News, “Because of (TikTok’s) short content style, it’s pumping out very fast fashion trends. These trends change week to week; it’s toxic.”
Why are fast fashion trends concerning?
Quicker trend cycles mean consumers never get their money’s worth when purchasing fast fashion. Even if the clothing bought doesn’t deteriorate in a matter of months, the trend will go out of style in weeks or months, making the product irrelevant.
Once a trend is out of fashion, most consumers will no longer wear it, and often, this unwanted clothing ends up in a landfill, where it takes up valuable space and produces harmful gases as it breaks down.
The ever-quickening mass production of cheaply made clothing also raises questions about the labor practices fast fashion companies use to get clothing onto the market promptly.
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What can you do to prevent textile waste?
There are plenty of things you can do to help reduce the amount of textile waste sent to landfills, but one of the simplest is switching from fast fashion to thrifting.
Instead of purchasing clothing that will probably fall apart sooner rather than later, you can shop at local thrift stores for clothing that will likely hold up better. This will not only save you tons of money but can also lead you to score fabulous finds on quality products.
Sending your old clothing to thrift stores so other people can benefit drastically reduces textile waste, too.
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