Earth Month Is Bad And Fashion Should Feel Bad
The sun sets on another month of polyester and performative sustainability.
It's no secret that fashion isn't a harmless industry. Reports are rampant with all the phobias and the isms and we're more aware now than ever of fashion's detrimental impact on the environment.
You don't have to do much Googling to find some pretty damning stuff. Yet big corporations still feel the need to pretend like they're not adding to waste colonialism by dumping 15 million old garments in Ghana each week. Or they're contributing to 20% of global clean water pollution or 10% of global carbon emissions. April 22nd rolls around and they try and tell us that "Every day is Earth Day.” Sure, Jan.
Stella McCartney
This year, Earth Month felt especially grim. We’ve just come out of the hottest year on record. Fashion Revolution Week, which was founded in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster, marked its tenth anniversary of campaigning to end human and environmental exploitation in global fashion while social injustices continue in retail supply chains. Boohoo launched its Agenda for Change program in 2020 to rectify the fact that its Leicester factory staff earn less than minimum wage in unsafe working conditions. However, the BBC found last year the fast fashion giant continued to break its promise of ethical and fair production, constantly pressuring lower prices with suppliers and pushing overtime.
The fashion industry needs to halve emissions by the end of the decade to stay aligned with agreed targets to curb global warming and yet they still keep flooding the market with new, predominantly plastic products as fossil fuel-based fabrics account for nearly two-thirds of the textiles produced each year. We consumers lap it up to participate in the latest micro trend. This is a generalization; we don’t all shop hauls, of course. Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. Side note - in case you’re wondering, my favorite tone-deaf Earth Month product this year was Shein’s Powerpuff Girls collection (Special features: recycled components. Composition: 100% polyester). Surely, it's better not to release ANY merch at all?
Meanwhile, natural fabrics aren’t entirely blameless. A recent report linked the world’s largest sustainable cotton initiative, Better Cotton, which is used by more than 2,500 brands, with illegal deforestation, human rights abuses, and land grabbing, making it harder for consumers to trust brands’ already-murky sustainability claims. With all this going on, fashion and other industries continue to participate in this performative event to line their own pockets, contradicting the principles of sustainability, which prioritize people and the planet over profit. It would be more meaningful if brands didn’t get involved at all instead of using the event to continue to make and sell more shit we don’t need as everything burns around us.
Is there hope for change? For my industry, my eyes are on France’s proposed bill, which suggests taxing fast fashion like cigarettes (a habit I’ve picked up again recently during Earth Month because I’m terrible and stressed). Meanwhile, brands like Ganni and Patagonia have thrown their support behind the Fashion Act bill, which would legally require global enterprises worth $100mn and over operating in New York to set science-based targets for emissions reduction, improve working conditions, and disclose workers’ wages. The EU is working to crack down on greenwashing so brands can’t use generic environmental claims on products without proof, which, if enacted, should quash Shein’s ability to sell plastic Powerpuff Girl tote bags under the guise of sustainability.
Sustainability is a complex topic, intersecting with race, wealth, colonialism, and feminism. Fashion can’t rely on recycled polyester or once-off donations to solve the problem. And I can't really sum up the state sustainability in fashion in this one short Unhinged Op-ed, written out of pure frustration for another year of seeing profitable businesses pledge to grow trees or donate to organizations for a single month before going right back to pumping out emissions. So here are some experts and sites where this topic is written about better than here.
Oh, and some of my favorite apocalyptic novels. You know, just in case…
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman
The Wall, Marlen Haushofer
*Note the title is a Futurama reference. Joel hates it.
I neeed to read The Road! So here for apocalyptic content
The Road is so good but so sad