What is fast fashion doing to the planet?

Fast fashion depends on rapid production and frequent replacement, increasing material use, manufacturing impacts, shipping, and textile waste.

Rapid production and short clothing lifecycles increase material use, manufacturing pollution, shipping, and textile waste; synthetic fabrics can also shed microfibers. Buying fewer pieces, wearing them longer, repairing, and shopping secondhand are practical counters.

Why cheap clothes cost more than the price tag

Fast fashion looks like a bargain because most of its real costs are paid somewhere else: in water used to grow and dye fabric, in factory pollution, in shipping, and in landfills when a garment is worn a handful of times and thrown away. The faster trends cycle, the more clothing is made to be replaced rather than kept. Synthetic fabrics add another quiet cost, shedding tiny plastic fibres in every wash. The price tag is real — it is just incomplete.

What to do, step by step

1. Slow the cycle: before buying, ask whether you will still want this piece after the trend passes.
2. Check the label for durable fabrics and solid construction, and favour clothes you can repair.
3. Wear what you own longer — washing less often, in cold water, and air-drying extends a garment's life.
4. Shop secondhand first for basics and one-off pieces; it cuts demand for new production entirely.
5. When something truly wears out, use textile recycling or donation routes instead of the household bin.