The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world. Just after the oil industry, fast fashion has a disastrous impact on our planet. As the industry grows, environmental damages are increasing.
There are many things humans have ruined forever on Earth, but there are still solutions and alternatives for many problems. The first step is to build awareness and willingness to change. Here is what you need to know about the real cost of fast fashion.
What is the problem with fast fashion?
Fast fashion makes shopping for clothes more affordable for everyone. Mango, Zara, H&M, and other international apparel retailer chains usually copy luxury brands and designers who are too expensive for most people. Unfortunately, fast fashion comes at an environmental cost.
The fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply, it pollutes oceans with microplastics, and produces 10% of all humanity’s carbon emissions. As people around the world buy more clothes, the fast fashion markets are growing bigger, and so is the toll that it takes on the environment.
Here are a few disturbing facts about the real cost of fast fashion:
- Clothing production has doubled since 2000
- People bought 60% more clothes in 2014 than in 2000, but they kept the clothes for half as long
- European fashion companies went from an average offering of two collections per year in 2000 to five in 2011
- Today, Zara puts out 24 collections per year
A lot of these clothing ends up in dumpsters around the world. To be more precise, one garbage truck filled with clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second.
Toxic chemicals on our skin
After agriculture, textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water. All those vibrant prints and colors make fashion appealing to buyers, but many of these are achieved thanks to hazardous chemicals.
After testing many brand products and confirmed the presence of toxic chemicals, Greenpeace’s Detox campaign pressured many fashion brands to remove toxic chemicals from their supply chains. Many of these chemicals are banned or regulated in different countries because they are toxic, disruptive to hormones, and carcinogenic.
One of the most popular fabrics used in fast fashion is polyester. When polyester is washed in washing machines, it sheds microfibres that add to the already increasing levels of plastic in oceans. These microfibers can easily pass through sewage into waterways, and because they don’t biodegrade, they present a serious threat to aquatic life.
How hemp can save fashion and health
Using hemp as a material for our clothing could help the environment in many ways.
First of all, switching to hemp would require planting more hemp plants. Plants help the process of CO2 absorption from the atmosphere much faster than other trees. This could be especially beneficial for fighting climate change.
Compared to other natural materials such as cotton, hemp requires less water to grow. As mentioned, crops that provide clothing fabric require a lot of water, which is depleting our freshwater resources. That being said, switching from cotton to hemp would save a lot of water for our planet.
Hemp grows easily in most soil types, and it doesn’t deplete soil properties. Additionally, hemp restores vital nutrients back to the soil. Cultivating hemp doesn’t require chemical fertilizers or pesticides because it is naturally pest resistant.
But one of the biggest advantages of using hemp as a clothing material is that it is biodegradable. We all get rid of our clothing at some point, but not many of us think about the numerous landfills we leave behind. Thanks to hemp, what comes from the ground goes back to the soil naturally and safely.
Hemp is much stronger and durable than most natural textile fibers, which makes it perfect for bags, backpacks, wallets, and clothing. Hemp fabric is active against microbes in nature, which helps clothes stay clean longer and prevents odor-causing bacteria from developing. That’s why clothing made of hemp lasts much longer than garments made from other materials.
Finally, let’s debunk a few myths about hemp as a clothing material:
- The clothing made from hemp fabric is very comfortable and gets softer with every wash.
- Hemp fabric is incredibly stylish to wear and often very unique when compared to copy/paste fast fashion lines that make everyone look the same.
- Hemp clothes are woven tightly to protect skin from sun rays. Therefore, hemp material protects skin from the harmful UV rays that can cause skin cancer and many other skin problems.
If you choose one of our 100% hemp backpacks, you are choosing natural, biodegradable material that is incredibly soft and very breathable. Our backpacks are created without toxins and allow the skin to breathe as they don’t cling to the body.