Not to Fast Fashion!

In this period we are hearing a lot of times Fast Fashion issue, but are we sure we really know what this term means?

Fast Fashion refers to a clothing sector that produces low quality clothes at reduced prices and which is characterized by a fast exchange of collections. The large multinationals that have productions located in poor areas of our planet, are an active part of this phenomenon.

Reselling low-cost clothing means producing it in countries where labor costs are low-cost, with the worker not only receiving low wages but often forced to work in workplaces that do not comply with the correct hygiene standards or much less security for those inside.

But people are not the only ones to lose. In fact, these products also have a huge impact on the environment, as the fabrics are of poor quality and often contain toxic substances and due to the huge volumes produced, the entire production process has a great impact on the environment.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, immediately after oil, responsible for 20% of global water waste and 10% of carbon dioxide emissions, in addition to producing more greenhouse gases than all air and sea travel around the world.

The toxic discharges of these activities, in the absence of adequate purifiers, consequently cause the pollution of rivers whose waters are used by neighboring populations for their daily needs.

Furthermore, when we talk about Fast Fashion, we always talk about waste. Yes, because this fast production is responsible for a large load of waste given both by the unsold goods, which are then burned, emitting harmful fumes, and by the unwanted goods or worn a few times and then thrown away.

We are the ones who make this kind of waste grow and now I will explain how.

Whenever we get tired of a suit and throw it away without it being worn out but only because it has tired us, every time we make compulsive purchases of things that maybe we will never even wear, just because they have a low cost and therefore superficially we put them there in the closet to wait for the right occasion and if it doesn’t come we throw them anyway.

Every time this happens we increase the waste rate.

According to the report “Italy of recycling 2010” by the Sustainable Development and Fise-Unite Foundation of Confindustria, 240,000 tons of textile products end up in landfills every year, mainly clothing.

So what can we do to reverse this course? How can we stop the fast fashion system that we ourselves feed?

With responsibility! The responsibility as consumers to start making informed choices, buying from companies that share our values, which use not only made in Italy raw materials, but which also produce in our territory through a guaranteed and certified production chain.

We must prefer more durable garments that will therefore last over time but above all we can also repair them compared to the “disposable” ones and thus give more value also to the work of those who made that product with sacrifices and passion.