The Fast Fashion Industry: Your clothes were made in sweatshops

sweatshop: “a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions.” 

The fast fashion industry has many ethical and environmental issues. Many people don't realize clothing goes through multiple different steps before reaching a department store, passing through the hands of people being paid below living wage or not paid at all. These ethical issues are closely tied to the environmental impact textile factories have, such as polluting communities around them and harming their workers. It's time for the fashion industry to address their mistakes and revolutionize this corrupt system. 

Fast Fashion and Sweatshops

According to the 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor published by the United States Department of Labor, there are 25 countries with known child labor, forced labor and/or forced child labor within the supply chain of the fashion industry. These children and adults are producing various clothing items including textiles, garments, footwear, accessories, and cotton.

Although it is illegal in the U.S. to import goods manufactured using forced labor, it can be very hard to trace supply chains back through the different stages of clothing production (making it easy to overlook). For example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security points out that in the fashion industry, collected cotton would be sent to the textile mills, which are then sent for final assembly before reaching multiple different brands for disbursement in stores. As you can imagine, tracing this supply chain can become very complex. 

Many large corporations might choose not to pursue investigating their supply chain at all and keep what appears to be an “ignorance is bliss” mindset. Examining their own supply chain could cost more money than it’s worth if illegal activity is found.

While the U.S. does confiscate any merchandise produced knowingly by forced labor or child labor, if companies choose not to investigate their own supply chains, it’s up to whistleblowers and lawsuits to call out these actions. All in all, to see these companies being held accountable, the government has to make the punishment for unethical supply chains strong enough to incentivize change. Thankfully, this has begun to take effect under the Biden administration, as no imports are allowed from Xinjiang, China, and are assumed to be manufactured under forced labor.

Even so, although under U.S. law forced labor is forbidden, work done voluntarily is not. This means brands do not need to ensure employees in their supply chain are paid minimum wage and offered safe working conditions. Unfortunately, this is taken advantage of by larger corporations. Only 1% of companies disclose if their workers make a living wage, and research shows that of the fashion companies producing clothing right now, 93% do not pay their workers a living wage.

On top of the non-ethical financial situation these garment workers go through, they are also working in terrible conditions. Looking at the issue from a health and safety perspective, one of the more known tragedies happened in In Dhaka, Bangladesh, where over 1,000 workers died in the Rana Plaza. This sweatshop collapsed due to safety regulations being ignored. As stated in Raymond Robertson’s report, these workers also suffered from physical and verbal abuse prior to the tragedy. 

Dangerous chemical exposure is also a problem in the fashion industry. The chemicals used to produce clothing during different production stages can be absorbed into the human body (through fumes, wastewater, or the fabric itself) causing cancer, allergies, and harm to fetuses.

Fast Fashion and the Environment

Around 92 million tons of textile waste is created every year worldwide. In 2018, the EPA states that 11.3 million tons of textile waste went to America’s landfills. Though a majority of our textile waste that year did go to the landfill, millions of tons were combusted as well as recycled. Individually, Americans produce about 82 pounds of textile waste per person annually.

The fast fashion industry is also known for their fast output of clothing to keep up with trends. This means as trends overturn, about 30% of all clothing is left unbought. These leftover pieces have been burned by stores like H&M in 2017, $36 million dollars worth of merchandise ruined by Burberry in 2018, and there is one instance of Coach admitting to slashing bags to prevent re-selling. 

This is an enormous problem, with brands producing 40% more clothing than needed, driven by the 52 micro-seasons fashion experts cater to during the year.

Making things worse, about 15 million used garments are delivered to Ghana’s capital every year, supplied from the discards of charity shops and thrift stores. This mismanagement of waste has sent the country into a waste crisis. Linton Besser writes an excellent article on the issue, covering everything from fires starting in the textile landfills made from our own clothing to the monsoons carrying the “dead white man’s” clothes out to sea.

As of 2023 it’s also been revealed that H&M’s textile recycling program has sent clothes to Ghana as well, covertly going against their pledge to recycle them.

Fast Fashion and the Consumer (You)

There are many things we can do to combat the previous issues mentioned, though they may seem out of our control. For example, when finished with an item of clothing, only drop it off at a thrift store if it is in good shape. This means ensuring there are no stains and only holes small enough to repair. A better option is to sell on Facebook Marketplace or an app like ThredUp. You can also have clothing exchange parties with friends and family. For older, more threadbare clothing, you can mend and/or upcycle. I have a friend who made a quilt out of old shirts she no longer wanted to wear (insta: @_stitcheroo_), and still others who cut up old t-shirts to use as dog toys or cleaning rags. Get as much use out of the fabric as possible!

But what should you do when you need new clothing? Though buying less, avoiding trends, and changing our consumerist mindset is the ideal, it’s very hard to completely boycott the fashion industry. “Fair trade” certified brands are typically on the more expensive side, and it might not be in your budget to support them. You might even not want to give up your lululemon leggings, Nike shoes, or H&M sweaters. My suggestion is to buy these brands secondhand. This way, you are saving clothes from the landfill and not directly supporting unethical supply chains.

Otherwise, if you’re looking to invest in ethically-minded businesses that are fully transparent about every step in their supply chain, a good place to start is Good on You. This company investigates major brands on their ethical and environmental impacts, giving detailed reports. They also give great brand recommendations from businesses they’ve vetted. 

If you’re looking for ethical brands on your own, a good example of a company fully transparent about their supply chain is Christy Dawn. This clothing brand has their supply chain published for certain clothing lines so that their customers can see exactly where their items are from, as well as what kind of wages the workers in their supply chain are making. As a general rule, if you can’t find supply chain information, the brand is not considered ethical fashion.

Environmentally speaking, look for ethical brands that make clothing out of 100% natural fibers. This way you can avoid polluting waterways with microplastics found in synthetic, non-biodegradable fibers like polyester and nylon. 

We hope that moving forward with this information you can confidently say you no longer directly support sweatshops!

References:

2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor. Department of Labor: United States of America. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ilab/child_labor_reports/tda2023/2024-tvpra-list-of-goods.pdf

 What Is Forced Labor? U.S. Department of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/forced-labor

Z, Ania. What on Earth Is a Clothing Supply Chain? Good on You. https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-a-clothing-supply-chain/

C, Drew. The Costs and Benefits of Supply Chain Transparency. Graduate School of Stanford Business. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/costs-benefits-supply-chain-transparency

Withhold Release Orders and Findings List. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. https://www.cbp.gov/trade/forced-labor/withhold-release-orders-and-findings

Implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. U.S. Department of State. https://www.state.gov/implementation-of-the-uyghur-forced-labor-prevention-act/

Forced Labor. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. https://www.cbp.gov/trade/forced-labor

Beneath the Seams: The Human Toll of Fast Fashion. Earthday.org. https://www.earthday.org/beneath-the-seams-the-human-toll-of-fast-fashion/

K, Maria. Why fast fashion industry is a problem. Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/749488/Karvonen_Maria.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

H, Samira. Made in Bangladesh: The Unethical Treatment of Sweatshop Workers. Emerging Writers: Vol. 3, Article 3. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=emergingwriters

R, Raymond. Working conditions and factory survival: Evidence from better factories Cambodia. Review of Development Economics. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rode.12719

B, Damian. A Nozickian Case for Compulsory Employment Injury Insurance: The Example of Sweatshops. Journal of Business Ethics. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-020-04535-z#Sec2

P, Antonella. Eco-Sustainability of the Textile Production: Waste Recovery and Current Recycling in the Composites World. Polymers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796070/

R, Solene. Everything You Need to Know About Waste in the Fashion Industry. Good on You. https://goodonyou.eco/waste-luxury-fashion/

Textiles: Material-Specific Data. United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://goodonyou.eco/waste-luxury-fashion/

10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics. Earth.org. https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/

R, Solene. Why Do Some Fashion Brands Destroy and Burn Unsold Clothes. Good on You. https://goodonyou.eco/fashion-brands-burn-unsold-clothes/

H, Megan. Luxury brands Coach will stop destroying unwanted goods following TikTok outrage. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/coach-bags-destroyed-tiktok/index.html

B, Linton. Dead white man's clothes. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-12/fast-fashion-turning-parts-ghana-into-toxic-landfill/100358702

T, Josephine. H&M and Waste Colonialism: Polluting the World with "Dead White Men's Clothes." Medium. https://medium.com/@jdalytempelaar/h-m-and-waste-colonialism-polluting-the-world-with-dead-white-mens-clothes-d59f0d1432df#

The H&M recycling program is a scam: what to do instead. Polly Barks. https://pollybarks.com/blog/handm-recycling-scam

Farm-to-Closet. Christy Dawn. https://christydawn.com/pages/farm-to-closet-collection

C, Claire. Choosing the most sustainable fabric. Ethical Consumer. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/choosing-most-sustainable-fabric

Environmental Impact. The True Cost. https://truecostmovie.com/learn-more/environmental-impact/