Fast fashion, or the mass production of clothing that follows the trend cycles, is an industry that has both ethical and environmental issues. One environmental issue that fast fashion creates is the pollution of our rivers, and degradation of its water quality. In China alone, “70% of the rivers and lakes are contaminated by 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by the textile industry” (https://www.ecowatch.com/fast-fashion-riverblue-2318389169.html) and in countries like India and Bangladesh, this isn’t a shocking phenomena either. The pollution processes are usually caused by dying clothing, bleaching, washing and treatment of the clothing. However, despite only having about .3% of usable fresh water available for consumption globally, we continue to over consume and pollute the little water we have. This pollution has both health effects on humans, as well as species in the freshwater ecosystem. Now what you can do to avoid contributing to these effects of degradation of water quality is to avoid fast fashion when possible. Purchase second-hand clothing, the damage has already been done, by extending a garment’s life, it will have justified the extraction of materials and use of resources to create the item. To borrow what you need, if you create a small group where each of you trade clothes with one another, you’ll have a small community that are all avoiding fast fashion and its pollution. And finally if you want to buy new, try buying from companies with strong environmental regulations/practices. For example, buy from companies who emphasize the use of natural dyes for their clothing so you don’t participate in polluting waterways with artificial dyes.
