Why Your $3 Top is Hurting the Planet

Picture this: It's your first night out after the pandemic. You look into your closet and find nothing to wear. So you head to Shein.com and see a shining "Up to 85% Off!" You find a super cute black top for only $3! But then you realize they offer free shipping over $49, so you add a couple more items to your cart. You check out with a total of $127, but it's okay because you got the items for a good deal and now you have something to wear. Right?

Here's what actually happened: You DO have something to wear, but you only bought it because it was cheap, so you don't even like it all that much. "Up to 85% Off" is really their normal price but their advertising team knows that customers love a slashed price. That cute black top? You already own that in white and purple.

Why are people are so inclined to buy surplus amounts of cheap clothing?

Whether it's a "BOGO Free" or "70% EVERYTHING," everyone loves a reduced price. But often the reduced price is the real price, and the sticker price's purpose is to make you feel like you saved money.

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is associated with feelings of pleasure, is released when we experience something new and exciting, such as buying new clothes. An excess of dopamine can affect your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lead you to being more compulsive and making riskier decisions. In this situation, the risky decision is spending money, and the possibility of receiving new clothes triggers the release of dopamine, which causes you to click the "place order" button. Furthermore, high levels of dopamine are linked to addiction, which includes drug addiction, food addiction, and shopping addiction.

The Adverse Effects of Fast Fashion on the Planet

In 2018, polyester accounted for 51.5% of global fiber production. These microfibers DO NOT BIODEGRADE -- meaning it could take hundreds of years to decompose. 

Polyester is highly polluting. Facilities that produce polyester for clothing pollute water with toxic chemicals, which is detrimental to groundwater and marine life. Plastic pollution is also a problem. When polyester fibre goes into the washing machine, tiny microfibers come off, pass through the sewage, and pollute our oceans. This poses a threat not only to aquatic life, but us as well, since the plankton and fish that ingest the microplastics end up being ingested by us.

Not to mention, polyester is derived from petroleum -- a non-renewable resource. In 2017, an estimated 342 million barrels of oil were used in producing plastic-based fibers for textiles.

Non-renewable resources such as petroleum contribute to: 

• Air pollution - for example, coal produces mercury which can cause neurological defects in children.
• Water pollution - acid rain as a result of excess sulphur in the atmosphere can lead to corrosion, disruption to ecological environments, and damage to trees. The chemicals in textile-dye also contaminate water.
• Land pollution - the process of collecting these non-renewable resources can alter ecological niches which affects the fitness of species. This could lead to a drastic decrease in the population of a species, and therefore would affect the food chain.

Another effect of fast fashion is the emission of greenhouse gases, which accelerates climate change.

Image from climate.gov

In 2015, polyester that was produced for clothing emitted 282 billion kilograms of CO2. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means it absorbs and radiates heat. Carbon dioxide creates a greenhouse effect that keeps the average temperature on Earth about 60º F instead of below freezing. However, this excess carbon dioxide is trapping additional heat within our atmosphere. The increase in average temperature can cause an increase in droughts, more intense and volatile natural disasters, a rise in sea level (which will displace people living on coasts), the rapid change in environments which would cause the extinction of species, and more.

But the negative impact of fast fashion does not just stop at its production.

About 84% of all textiles in the US are thrown away each year. This surplus of textile waste is not only a waste of money and resources, but it takes hundreds of years for the textile to decompose, and simultaneously it emits greenhouse gases.

It's important to note the financial aspect. Some people cannot afford to purchase super high quality items. That's okay. But if a person can afford to have hundred-dollar shopping hauls filled with $3 shirts... it's the best interest of the planet for them to buy high quality, long-lasting garments. Alternatively, second-hand shopping is always a great option.

Do the right thing by the planet and other human beings -- stop shopping fast fashion.