[Music]
the influence of fast fashion spans
continents clothing giant Zara is now
worth thirteen billion dollars with
stores in over 93 countries admittedly
I've made my fair share of purchases
from H&M and uniquely with my favorite
being a blue bathing suit I bought for
$10 at H&M ten dollars how can a piece
of clothing be that cheap to make
transport and advertise well to be
honest it can't
there are huge humanitarian and
environmental costs that are hidden by
in an expensive price tag
although these fast fashion companies
have committed numerous human rights
violations today I'm only going to look
at the environmental issues that are
caused by the mass production of cheap
clothes
the phrase fast fashion is used as an
umbrella term to describe the
accelerated process of turning new
design ideas into clothes on the retail
floor in the case of a story like Zara
for example it takes a mere 14 to 21
days from the inception to the sale of a
product in this ability to create new
trends very quickly
combined with savvy marketing campaigns
has meant that stores like H&M and
forever 21 can quickly change every item
in their store to drum up hype about a
new line of clothing much like a fast
food chain that is constantly changing
its menu items in order to stay relevant
these fast fashion stores can introduce
new clothes almost weekly not only does
this mean that consumers are tempted to
buy the newest and best pants or shirts
but it also means that older items
quickly become irrelevant
this constant overconsumption has high
environmental concept
on the supply side of the equation most
clothing is now made of a material
called polyester which is a
petroleum-based fiber that requires
large amounts of fossil fuels for
manufacturing
according to Forbes that number has now
reached up to 70 million barrels of the
year and the rise of fast fashion went
hand-in-hand with a rise in polyester
production now polyester manufacturing
for clothing far outpaces other common
materials like cotton or wool this
presents a major problem especially
considering that polyester is a non
biodegradable substance polyester can
take anywhere from 20 to 200 years to
degrade depending on the conditions and
is one of the leading causes of micro
plastics in oceans because when wash
polyester clothing shed fibers that then
find their way into larger water
streamers in short polyester is really
cheap it makes the cost of manufacturing
thousands of pants much cheaper than
before and it's able to do this because
it offloads
all of its expenses on to the
environment but fast fashion has also
given rise to a host of post consumption
environmental problems namely waste the
average American sends 81 pounds of
textiles to landfill each year and this
is partly driven by a constant exposure
to marketing campaigns explaining out
with the old in with the new the
environmental harm caused by this new
profit centered industry is not at all
reflected in the price tag the fashion
industry is now the eighth most
polluting industry in the world in terms
of greenhouse gas emissions and is
responsible for 92 million tons or 4% of
the world's annual solid waste so the
real cost of my bathing suit is much
higher than $10 but unfortunately as
consumers we can only do so much to
influence the fashion industry's
practices considering this there are a
few better options than buying from fast
fashion companies for one there are
companies like Nashville based Elizabeth
Susan which works to create transparency
about the cost and production
they're high-quality seasonless clothing
but even better than buying something
new from a more ethical company is
buying secondhand or swapping clothes
with friends and family not only are you
diverting clothes from the landfill but
you also stop participating in a system
that treats its workers poorly and
destroys our environment thanks for
watching videos like this one take a lot
of time and effort to make ideally I
would love to support myself off this
channel but that can only really happen
with your help if you liked the video
consider subscribing and clicking the
little bell next to it or even better
tipping me financially on patreon
otherwise I will see you in two weeks