The High Cost of Our Cheap Fashion | Maxine Bédat | TEDx

Environment

cheap clothing has huge consequences for the environment and people making our clothing
fast fashion is fuelled by polyester
H&M opens in new york correlates when cotton no longer king
polyester is a polluting plastic made from fossil fuels
now in over half of our clothing
it's non biodegradable - every piece ever produced is still on the planet today
150 billion new pieces of clothing added onto the planet every year - lot of plastic not going away
when washed the micro plastics shed going into the water systems and oceans - fish eat then we eat fish
California study found 1 in 4 of the fish sold at markets contain micro plastics
polyester is non breathable unlike natural fibres - heat is trapped and you sweat more
extremely energy intensive to make
tripled the amount of clothing we buy, this clothing is no longer made from natural materials but incredibly energy intensive polyester
more than 40% of america's clothing is coming from china
3/4 of energy supply in china comes from coal - clothing is coming from the dirtiest energy
apparel industry responsible for 10 % of all carbon output for entire world
5x more carbon output than all airline travel combined

Social

1 in 6 people around the world work in some part of the apparel industry
80% are women and 98% are not receiving a living wage - locked in poverty
nobody in the supply chain is winning apart from a few CEOs of fast fashion companies
the citizen consumer - interested in tidying up - tires up the population - struggles with what to wear everyday - mental stress -
ethical and sustainable clothing - unregulated words so companies can say what they want
no transparency - name factories working with for research / exposure
shadow factories - when a brand meets with a 5* factory, but outsource that production to another factory to meet the speed and pricing the brand is requiring - really where the production is taking place with lower labour and living standards
material sustainability - organic cotton 4th largest pesticide consuming crop - lessening the nutrition of our soil
dyes not handled appropriately - industry is the 2nd greatest polluter of fresh water globally - dye houses directly release their waste into fresh water supplies
no organic standards in the apparel industry
90% of brands don't know where their supply comes from

Context of Practice