Fast Fashion refers to cheaply produced and priced garments that copy the latest catwalk styles and get pumped quickly through stores in order to maximize on current trends. The United States has fostered a culture of consumerism, a culture that supports a type of frenzied and wasteful consumption of clothing.
An increasingly dangerous aspect that lies within the negative impacts of fast fashion is its ability to be overlooked. To further elaborate, the impacts of fast fashion are widely unseen by the communities that most largely produce textile waste, as a vast majority is transported to countries thousands of miles away, such as India and Bangladesh.
While it is important to acknowledge that fast fashion confers some benefits, in that its cheap and readily accessible for a vast amount of the population, I believe that its negative environmental impact and use of exploitative labor direly outweigh its perceived benefits.
The impacts of fast fashion on the environment are fairly well understood. Fast fashion produces 92 million tons of textile waste annually on a global scale, much of which ends up in landfill or is burnt. Niinimaki et al., (The environmental price of fast fashion, Nature, Volume 1, 189-200 (2020)).
Furthermore, according to a recent article published on Earth.org, “The fast fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions – more than all international and maritime shipping combined.” Morrison, Throwaway Culture is Drowning Us in Waste, Earth.org, December 19, 2024,
Knowledge of these environmental impacts on the earth has not, however, inspired systemic change or materially impacted consumer purchasing behavior. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the global fast fashion market was valued at $103.2 billion in 2022, and is further estimated to reach $291.1 billion by 2032. (Allied Market Research 2023).
Motivation for change seems to require more than just knowledge of our impact on the earth. An investigation into the impact of fast fashion on human health – particularly with respect to the microplastics shed from synthetic fast fashion textiles – could potentially inspire a mind shift around the consumption of disposable clothing.
Fast fashion is not only detrimental to the environment and the people involved in physically producing it, but also pose threats to our own health.
Further research to investigate whether sustained exposure to microplastics from synthetic fast fashion textiles results in disruptions to normal endocrine function over time could be hallmark in shifting public opinions away from fast fashion.
While more evidence is required as of now, there is research supporting the idea that microplastics from plastic consumer goods (for example, plastic bottles) impact endocrine activity. (Ullah et al., A review of the endocrine disrupting effects of micro and nano plastic and their associated chemicals in mammals, Front. Endocrinol. 13:1084236 (2023))
To provide further context about this potential harm it is necessary to understand what the endocrine system is. The endocrine system is a network of glands and organs that produce and release hormones directly into the bloodstream to regulate essential bodily functions, including metabolism, growth, reproduction, and sleep.
Fast fashion promotes a different type of exposure and leaching of microplastics. Synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, and acrylic—commonly used in fast fashion—shed microplastics during wear and washing.
These particles enter our food chain and water supply. Given their presence in the environment and potential to carry chemical additives, investigating their bioaccumulation and specific endocrine-disrupting effects would start to fill a knowledge gap about the potential long-term health consequences of chronic exposure to microplastics – from fast fashion.
Fast fashion is undeniably harming our planet and its people. As a society and an individual we must take preventative actions to fight against these negative impacts and break the cycle of waste and harm that has been put into place.