Wearing Water Pollution: Water Waste in the Fashion Industry
Cheap fashion comes at a high price—a price not measured by dollar bills like a $12 Forever 21 shirt, but measured by the physical health and survivability of entire communities. In main cotton-producing countries like China and India that are already facing severe water pollution, the fashion industry’s growing textile production and consumers’ normalization of mass-consumption (especially of fast fashion) are glaring problems that all of us will eventually have to face the consequences of.
1.6 billion people are currently facing economic water shortage, and it takes about 5,000 gallons of water just to produce a pair of jeans and a shirt (largely due to cotton being a water-intensive crop). When we think about how often we actually wear each piece of clothing in our closet and how carefreely we update our closets with hauls of the latest trends, our consumer behaviors are truly long-term environmental and social damages in exchange for instant, temporary gratification.
Fast fashion pieces, known for their mediocre quality and cheap material, are especially not worth the 5,000 gallons of water in addition to other human and nonhuman resources they take to be produced and distributed. These clothes are more likely to fall apart after a few years, and consumers are more likely to donate or throw them away due to their original low cost.
Ded Mityay / Open Access Government
Not only is there a shortage of water, there is a growing pollution of large bodies of water that threaten wildlife and humans. The fashion industry is responsible for almost 20% of global waste water. Dangerous substances like dyes, flame retardants, and microplastics are leached into soil and water supplies like oceans and rivers through the manufacturing process and our washing of clothes.
What is distressing is the vicious cycle in which these cotton-producing countries and its people most affected by industrial water waste are also dependent on the cotton production to sustain their economies.
RiverBlue (2016)
Holding large fashion brands accountable for their regulations on harmful substances, payment of workers (especially garment workers), and material sourcing are responsibilities all consumers should uphold. A collective effort to buy less clothing—especially fast fashion—is one way we can pressure these companies to rethink their values and priorities. Let’s rethink our values and priorities. Rather than pointing sympathetic fingers at those struggling to secure clean water, let’s point back at ourselves and our consumerist culture. We are quite literally wearing water pollution.
Ashley Leung