FAST FASHION: advantages/disadvantages and solutions, Sintesi del corso di Cultura Inglese I

Scarica FAST FASHION: advantages/disadvantages and solutions e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity! FAST FASHION Fast fashion is a term used to describe cheap clothing And it’s also a marketing strategy adopted by multinational companies in order to produce a massive amount of low-quality clothes per week, just to stay in trend and make the consumers buy more and more. The customers take advantage from this situation because they can afford more clothes for lesser money, but the problem is that fast fashion has a lot of negative sides. 1) First: people usually throw these cheap clothes away when they have barely worn them once. Even companies do that, choosing to incinerate all the left-out merchandise instead of donating it because in their opinion it could “ruin their image” All these clothes become garbage and contribute to pollute our planet 2) Second: companies exploit sweatshops (which are factories where workers perceive low salaries in poor conditions) In fact, multinationals don’t usually own factories, they just contract them (usually in 3rd- world countries) so that they are not responsible for their workers. And if for example: a company wants to pay out $4 for a t-shirt, factories must include in that:  The salaries, which are usually too low compared to the lifestyle of that country  Eventually the material, which must be the cheapest possible (polyester)  The machinery and all the repairs needed (which most of the times are not done) And because it is impossible to contain all these expenses with a budget so low, the employees are forced to extenuating shift works (14/16h) and in dangerous buildings. Eg. Bangladesh: a factory collapsed. 1k people died 2k people injured 3) Moreover, workers are exposed to harmful chemicals used to dye the fabric These chemicals are absorbed by the skin and can led to the formation of cancers Plus, most of the time these chemicals are dunked in rivers and public waters and also emit more greenhouse gas than international shipping and aviation combined. But there are some ways to cope with fast fashion and reduce its impact. 1) Buying less and better: By local companies Go vintage Organic clothing 2) Reading the label: choosing cotton products instead of polyester (which is essentially coal + petrol oil) 3) Donating or selling instead of throwing away