ENVIRONMENTAL DISRUPTION
The fast fashion and thrifting trends on social media have led to negative environmental and ethical issues Story by Makenna Koblis © Photography by Misael Cruz
The peak of social media is now upon us. With apps like TikTok and Instagram, there are now hundreds of thousands of people telling you what the latest trends are. Two of the many trends are shopping from fast fashion websites and thrifting. These seem to be at odds ‒ but the two trends are more connected than we might think. Thrifting is being praised everywhere on the internet, but is this a good thing? You might think, now I can shop affordably and ethically in peace, but that is not the case. Donating to thrift stores may be more detrimental than we think. With the rise of thrifting alongside the rise of fast fashion, Americans buy five times more clothing now than they did in 1980, according to The Atlantic. British charity Barnardos surveyed 1500 women and found that the majority of fashion purchases are only worn seven times. This is where thrift stores come into play. Once you’ve donated your no longer useful clothing, where does it go? Less than 20% of clothing donations sent to charities are actually resold at said establishments, according to Nylon. About two-thirds of thrift store discards don’t make it to textile recycling and inevitably end up in the landfill. According to the United States environmental protection agency, landfills received 11.3 million tons of municipal solid waste textiles in 2018. When it comes to fast fashion brands, it gives you that satisfaction of being trendy but for how long? Fast fashion can be defined as when a company takes a piece of clothing and mass produces it at incredible speed, manufacturing hundreds of new clothing items every day. The ideal goal for these companies is to get the pieces out as soon as possible to let shoppers buy them at the peak of popularity. Since it is made so quickly, the quality of the clothing decreases, leading to buyers discarding the items after a few wears. This plays a key part
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FALL 2021
Fullerton local, Lizbeth Lopez, shops at her local thrift store that is full of donated and unwanted clothing. Donations are sorted through daily and displayed on clothing racks for customers to look through. Popular brands like Urban Outfitters are casually discarded and donated to thrift stores.
