Ever heard of fast fashion ? Fast fashion is a term used in our society today to describe cheap and rapid production of fashion trends. The main focus in the fast fashion industry is that companies produce clothes at expeditious rates while also producing them at very low costs. According to an online article by 7billionfor7seas, these facts are very intriguing. Below I have listed a few interesting facts the industry that you probably have never heard of or simply just didn’t know about it. 

Fact #1 The production of textiles uses approximately 3,500 different chemicals.

As you may learn, the clothing you wear comes in numerous colors and textures. In order to get the clothing to be this way, chemicals are used to dye, soften fabrics, and produce. Like any other chemical, these chemicals are very harmful to our environment and to us. Most chemical runoffs wind up in our oceans and waterways. 

Fact #2 About 97% of our clothing is made overseas. 

Having clothing produced overseas gives companies the option to invest in cheap labour in undeveloped countries worldwide. Workers don’t get to express their work rights and often work in poor conditions in the factories. 

Fact #3 Cotton is one of the most used crops in clothes and is a resource-intensive crop.

About 90% of clothing is made from cotton.  Cotton is grown, however, it requires massive amounts of water and pesticides to maintain its growth. Cotton only takes up approximately 2.4% of the world’s crops, but takes up about 24% in insecticides and 11% in pesticides on cotton crops. 

Fact #4 About 85% of our old clothes end up in a landfill.

In the united states 85% of our clothes end up in landfills, this equals to approximately 25 billion tons of waste each year. Textiles do not biodegrade, instead they break down very slowly into very small microfibre pieces. 

Fact#5 Constant continuation of new styles at popular fast fashion companies

Retailers rotate new styles and trends every couple of weeks. There used to only be four seasons that produced the new styles and trends for that particular season. In our society today, companies advertise to us the need for the new trends that are in style.