Fashion is a rapidly growing industry, but with that growth comes a hidden cost – waste. With fast fashion companies pumping out new collections every few weeks, millions of tons of clothing end up in landfills each year. This not only harms the environment but also contributes to exploitation and the depletion of resources.
At Mom Culture, we believe in slower fashion and doing our part to reduce waste in the industry. We focus on small batch manufacturing, preorders and using ethethically sourced blanks or working with our own manufacturers to produce quality garments locally. In this blog post, we'll dive into the issue of fashion waste and what you can do to make a difference.
The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is known for its low prices and trendy designs, but those low prices comes at a cost our planet. To keep up with the demands of the fashion industry, fast fashion companies use cheap and sometimes toxic materials, and rely a lot on sweatshop labor to produce their clothes. This results in clothes that are poorly made and fall apart quickly, leading to them being thrown away after only a few wears.
This waste has a major impact on the environment. Textile waste takes hundreds of years to decompose, and the chemicals used in the production of clothes also leach into the soil and water, contaminating them.
The Human Cost of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion also has a human cost. The exploitation of workers in sweatshops to produce cheap clothes is well documented, with many workers paid far below minimum wage (even in the US) and forced to work long hours in unsafe conditions.
What You Can Do to Reduce Fashion Waste
The good news is that there's a lot you can do to reduce fashion waste and support a more sustainable future for the industry.
Here are a few simple steps you can take:
- Shop Secondhand – buying used clothes is a great way to reduce waste and support a circular economy. Consider reselling your gently used Mom Culture pieces in our VIP group!
- Buy Quality Over Quantity – invest in well-made clothes that will last you for years, rather than cheap and poorly made items. Buy key pieces at higher quality to help build a capsule wardrobe.
- Support Slow Fashion Brands – companies like Mom Culture that prioritize quality over quantity and use environmentally-friendly materials and production methods.
At Mom Culture, we believe that every small change adds up to make a big impact. By choosing to shop with us, you're not only getting great clothes, but you're also supporting a more sustainable future for the fashion industry.
“15 million used clothes arrive in Ghana every week from Europe, America, and China and fast fashion items make up more and more of what is sent. 40% of the clothing shipped in Ghana never finds a second life and ends up in Ghana’s overflowing landfills which has created an environmental nightmare.” (BBC NEWS, 2021) & (Independent.com UK, 2022)
Join us in the slower fashion movement and make a conscious choice for the environment and the people who produce our clothes.
