Fast fashion brands flood the market with cheap, trendy clothing at an unsustainable rate, creating enormous environmental and social harm. Despite their attempts at greenwashing (especially those involving the use of sustainability labels covering environmental or social aspects), their business model is fundamentally incompatible with true sustainability.
Here are four key reasons why fast fashion will never be green.
1. Overproduction & waste: a never-ending cycle
Fast fashion thrives on overproduction. Brands like Shein, Temu, Zara, and H&M release hundreds of new designs weekly, fuelling a culture of overconsumption. But what happens to the clothes once the trends fade? Millions of garments end up in landfills or are incinerated each year, with devastating environmental consequences.
Greenpeace has extensively documented the waste crisis caused by fast fashion. A recent investigation in Ghana highlighted the dire consequences of this overproduction. According to Greenpeace Africa, Accra’s largest second-hand market is now a dumping ground for unwearable clothing, much of it imported from Europe and North America. With low-quality materials making resale impossible, vast quantities of garments are discarded, forming towering waste mountains or being burned in public washhouses, releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere.
Even brands that claim to use “recycled” materials cannot escape the sheer volume of waste they produce. The paradox of fast fashion is that even supposedly sustainable garments are produced at such a scale that their environmental benefits are nullified. Circularity alone cannot solve fast fashion’s waste problem; a systemic shift toward slow fashion is the only real solution.
The scale of fast fashion waste is so extreme that it is visible from space. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, vast mountains of discarded clothing – including unsold and second-hand garments from the US, Europe, and Asia – continue to pile up. Aerial and satellite images reveal an environmental disaster where fast fashion’s waste accumulates in what should be one of the world’s most pristine ecosystems. Despite local efforts to repurpose some of the waste, the sheer volume remains overwhelming, showcasing the industry’s relentless overproduction and inability to deal with its own refuse.
2. Resource-intensive supply chains: a hidden environmental cost
Fast fashion’s reliance on resource-heavy materials makes it inherently unsustainable. Cotton farming consumes vast amounts of water and pesticides, while polyester – derived from fossil fuels – contributes to microplastic pollution in oceans and rivers. Even so-called “sustainable” fabrics require energy-intensive processes and chemical treatments that damage ecosystems.
The industry is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide, with textile production consuming vast quantities of this precious resource. For instance, producing a single pair of jeans requires approximately 7,000 liters of water, while a typical T-shirt takes about 2,700 liters – the amount an average person drinks over 900 days.
Beyond consumption, the fashion industry is a significant polluter of water resources. Textile processing contributes to 20% of global water pollution, making it the second-largest polluter of freshwater resources on the planet. The dyeing process alone utilises 1.7 million tonnes of various chemicals, many of which are hazardous and leave a lasting impact on the environment.
A Greenpeace Spain investigation tracked the journey of second-hand clothing deposited in collection bins. Shockingly, many items were exported thousands of miles rather than being properly recycled, adding to the industry’s already enormous carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, toxic chemicals used in textile production pollute rivers and drinking water supplies worldwide. Greenpeace Africa’s report Fast Fashion, Slow Poison exposes how discarded textiles leach hazardous substances into Ghanaian soil and waterways, posing long-term health risks to local communities.
3. Exploitative labour practices: the human cost of cheap clothing
True sustainability extends beyond environmental impact – it must also account for social justice. Fast fashion brands rely on low-wage labour in countries with weak environmental and labour protections. Factories in Bangladesh, Vietnam, China and many other countries are notorious for unsafe working conditions, poverty wages, and pollution that devastates local communities.
The 2023 Fashion Transparency Index reveals that nearly half (45%) of 250 major fashion brands lack transparency, with many failing to disclose the facilities where their clothes are made. The pay gap between fashion CEOs and garment workers continues to widen. Evidence is mounting that major fashion brands engage in violative and abusive practices towards their suppliers, and few disclose evidence of working with them under fair terms.
On April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed, resulting in the tragic loss of at least 1,134 lives and injuring over 2,500 individuals. This catastrophe starkly highlighted the devastating human cost of the fast fashion industry’s relentless pursuit of low-cost, high-speed production, often at the expense of worker safety and environmental considerations.
In the years following the disaster, while some progress has been made in raising awareness and implementing safety measures, the global fashion industry continues to produce over 100 billion garments annually, predominantly from petroleum-based polyester, perpetuating environmental degradation and maintaining hazardous working conditions.
4. Encouraging disposable consumption: the greenwashing trap
Fast fashion survives by convincing consumers to buy more than they need. Shein epitomises this disposable culture, producing tens of thousands of new styles weekly. While brands attempt to improve their image with “eco-friendly” collections, their fundamental business model remains unchanged.
Greenpeace International has called out this greenwashing, arguing that brands push so-called sustainable fashion lines while continuing to churn out billions of garments annually. True sustainability demands a shift away from excessive production and consumption, yet fast fashion brands refuse to adopt this model because it threatens their profits.
Shein has become the face of hyper-fast fashion, but rather than changing its exploitative practices, the brand invests heavily in lobbying to secure favourable policies. In the European Union, Shein has enlisted former European Commissioner for Budget and Digital Economy, German politician Günther Oettinger, to influence regulations in its favour. Oettinger has been working behind the scenes to shield the company’s business model from stricter EU policies, raising concerns over corporate influence on policymaking.
Similarly, in France, former minister of Emmanuel Macron’s government, Christophe Castaner, has recently been hired as a lobbyist for Shein, facing heavy criticism for defending the brand despite its widely documented environmental and social abuses. These cases illustrate how Shein strategically recruits former high-ranking officials to shape regulations in ways that prioritise corporate interests over sustainability.
The path forward: rejecting fast fashion and embracing second-hand and repairing
Despite the challenges, activists and grassroots movements continue to fight back. Environmentalists and campaigners are leading efforts to hold fast fashion accountable for its environmental destruction. Drag artists have also joined the movement, using creative activism to challenge fashion’s role in plastic pollution.
Ultimately, fast fashion will never be truly green. Its model is built on exploitation – of resources, workers, and consumers. Rather than falling for greenwashing tactics, we must push for systemic change, embracing slow fashion and rejecting overconsumption. Before we buy something we don’t need, let’s ask ourselves if we really need it. Sharing, repairing and second-hand must become the new normal.
The future of fashion must be one that prioritises people and the planet over profit.
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Mehdi Leman www.greenpeace.org
