FASHION – THE FAST & FURIOUS DEMON? |#LetsSpreadHumanity
India boasts of some of its own kind of peculiarities. Belonging to an Indian middle-class family one can learn a lot from the first-hand experience of a sustainable lifestyle.
Indian middle-class adopts many ideas to reuse and recycle products in daily life. Not much long ago, around the 80s and 90s, disposing of old clothes and apparel was not such a task as it seems in this era of fast-changing fashion. In the sleepy afternoons, you could hear the shrill voices of local vendors who would ask for old clothes in exchange for brand new utensils.
Womenfolk, especially mothers would wait for them for months collecting and holding prized possession of old and used clothes. The trousers and sarees being the hottest property, the bargain would begin with smaller clothes. The bigger the utensil, the longer the bargain dragged. The vendors would keep on asking for more and more clothes and sometimes the womenfolk would end up offering not so old clothes just to grab the deal.
It was a win-win situation for all. The vendor would get old clothes which would be sold again in the used clothes market at a good price. Women folks gleamed at the successful barter deal which helped them to get rid of the old and useless clothes. And this saved the environment in the long run as the clothes wouldn’t get heaped at the dump yard and landfills anytime soon.
Fast forward to the 21st century.
One of the biggest issues which we are facing today is the clearance of used, old fabrics and clothes. The rate of manufacturing and buying of new clothes is surpassing the rate of consumption at a dangerous pace. It is a monster we have created which shall eventually gobble up us if not controlled now.
The urban middle class’s shopping is no more need-based now. It has now converted into impulse-based, sale-based and online-fast fashion-based.
Though this is a Universal problem, I am specifically bringing up some point in context with the Indian society.
Earlier, in an Indian middle-class household, buying new clothes used to be a family affair. The head of the family would allow a fixed budget and a set number of clothes would be purchased on festivals and birthdays or marriage ceremonies. This meant lesser and sustainable consumption and also systematic disposal of the worn-out dresses.
However, with liberalization, an open economy, and a flourishing job market, the paying capacity of the middle class increased manifolds. Add to it the online shopping revolution and the emergence of the Fast Fashion Industry.
The Fast Fashion industry is a dragon that is splitting out clothes in excess at a large speed and lower cost. Since the manufacturing cost of fast fashion is low, they are sold at a comparatively lower price. This comes as a delightful offer to the urban middle class. Classy and stylish clothes can be bought at a cheaper rate with the convenience of the internet at your fingertips. Wearing new and stylish clothes gives a sense of validity to people. And hence, gradually it becomes a vicious psychological cycle of buying new clothes to satisfy this need for validity and pleasure. Hence it is now no more need-based shopping but desire-based shopping.
People counter this with an argument if we have the money we can buy anything we want. However, they are somewhere forgetting their moral and basic responsibility towards this planet; the very planet they inhabit.
A few pointers on how the Fast Fashion industry is affecting the environment:
- It is one of the biggest causes of the depletion of non-renewable sources, emission of greenhouse gases and the use of massive amounts of water and energy. The amount of water required by the fashion industry is the largest amongst the industries. The gravity of the situation could be easily understood by the fact that around 700 gallons required to produce one cotton shirt and 2000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans.
The process of textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water. The leftover water from the dyeing process is dumped into ditches, streams or rivers. In a country like India, where the problem of clean and safe drinking water is one of the most serious issues, such polluted water inevitably reaches the poor households in the vicinity for consumption. This in turn is causing serious health hazards to those economically deprived people who cannot afford costly water purifiers and filtration mechanisms.
- Similarly, the production of leather apparels and nylon apparels require a lot of chemical processing which causes a lot of damage to the environment.
According to the documentary released in 2015, The True Cost, the world consumes around 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year. This is 400% more than the consumption twenty years ago. Most of the pieces are non-biodegradable thereby causing serious damage to the soil.
- To increase production and profit, most of the Fast Fashion industries manipulate the labourlaws, exploit the underpaid young female population who are a major chunk of their labour force. They are least bothered with the process the fashion Waste is to handle. Even though having money and resources, they are least concerned about producing sustainable fashion.
- Numerous and tempting clearance-sale and online shopping-offers instigate people to buy more clothes even when they don’t need them. This is creating a false demand and supply chain hampering the whole ecological balance of the planet.
In India, the middle class and higher economic classes don’t believe in buying used clothes. When it comes to fashion, they don’t practice sustainable shopping. It is deemed as a mark of inferior status if they use pre-owned apparels. This contributes to fashion waste every time a person buys an item of clothing. This Faishon waste ends up in landfills which on a larger scale hampers the environment.
How To Bring About A Change?
- To deal with this enormous and dangerous problem of Fast Fashion, the thought process of people need to be changed. They should understand the difference between need-based and want based purchasing. There should be a holistic and spiritual approach when it comes to buying new stuff. ‘Less is more’ should be the Mantra.
- Governments and Local authorities should put a check on the production limit of the Industries. There should be a time limit and schedule for the clearance sale. This will control the instigation of buying clothes.
- The Government should support the handloom industries. The process of manufacturing in the handloom industries is eco-friendly. The clothes are sustainable and bio-degradable too. These kinds of clothes should be made available in the market at a subsidized rate so that people can purchase them at a pocket-friendly rate.
We as an inhabitant of this planet should not forget our responsibility towards it. Our irresponsible behaviour is damaging the whole ecosystem and making life for other species too. If not checked now, this will come back to get us and haunt our future generations for centuries to come.
By Piya Gajbe