The Cost of Being Stylish Leela Stuepfert
Leela Stuepfert
companies,” Anika Bhatnagar, a senior at Carlmont, said. Fast fashion approaches clothing These materials will not decay, nor design, creation, and marketing with will the synthetic microfibers that end up the intent to get the newest trends in the sea, freshwater, and everywhere from catwalks to consumers as quickly else including the deepest parts of the and cheaply as possible. However, the sea and highest glacier peaks. cost of being stylish is far greater than Nevertheless, the impacts begin when the price tag of clothing anyone has had fibers for fabrics are grown and protheir eye on. duced in factories. Pollution builds as Many buyers are unaware that these clothes are fashioned from those fibers, tags do not include all of the environtaken to markets, and later laundered by mental costs — the depletion of nonreusers. Even the act of tossing out those newable sources, emission of greenhouse garments at the end of their useful lives gases and the use of massive amounts of leaves a devastating cost to the environwater and energy. ment. “I was not informed about what According to the United States Envisustainability actually meant up until a ronmental Protection Agency, a staggercouple of years ago,” Evynee Yee, a senior ing 85% of textile waste in the U.S. goes at Carlmont, said. to the dump each year. This is equivalent Companies such as Zara, H&M, and to one garbage truck of clothing burned Forever 21 play key roles in the fast or dumped in a landfill every second. fashion industry and are responsible The fashion industry is the secfor unethical environmental practices ond-largest polluter in the world responduring production. Although these sible for environmental damage, coming brands remain highly convenient for in close second after the oil industry. consumers, they are putting the future of According to the Ellen MacArthur our planet at risk. Foundation, it is predicted that the “As students, a lot of us do not have a fashion industry will be responsible for a huge budget. At the same time, we are on quarter of the world’s carbon budget by social media and we are being exposed 2050. to all these new trends. Usually, those Though consumers’ constant buytrends are bought from fast fashion ing habits add to the detriment of our 6 HIGHLANDER FEATURE
