Opinion: Choose ethically-sourced, sustainable clothing

Have you ever wondered where your clothing comes from?

Maybe you’ve glanced at the tag on your favorite T-shirt and thought about how the shirt is probably more well-travelled than you. By plane, train, boat or car, the T-shirt has crossed oceans and maybe continents to cover your body.

Even if that thought never occurred to you, you probably at least noticed what country your shirt was made in. If it was anywhere other than China, you probably enjoyed a moment of pleasant surprise.

Have you ever wondered where your clothing goes after you are done with it?

Perhaps it goes to a landfill to decompose slowly, or maybe it goes to a donation center and ends up covering someone else.

Ultimately, everything from our shirts to our socks were grown, sewn, shipped and sold by other people. Too often they end up left to rot at a dump after they are no longer useful to us. 

These are the two facets of unethical fashion: mistreatment of the people who make it and lack of care for sustainability.

Although it seems like a simple act, buying an article of clothing has at least an indirect effect on all the people who were involved in its creation and the people who will be involved in its destruction. Many times, buying an article of clothing perpetuates a cycle of oppression and waste.

According to Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, “firms in developed countries outsource to developing countries, while those in developing countries move production within and between countries to find the cheapest labor.”

This is part of Fast Fashion, which, according to Merriam-Webster, is a fashion principle where companies design, make and market clothing as quickly and cheaply as possible. 

Although this might be convenient for consumers and profitable for clothing companies, it is unethical. 

The workers making clothing for Fast Fashion companies typically work under unregulated conditions with very little pay. According to WIEGO, manufacturers often outsource to people working from their homes, leaving them to carry the burden of production costs. A study WIEGO did says that outsourced workers earn less than $6 a day; most earn less than $2. 

In 2013 an 8-story clothing factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 employees and injuring over 2,000 more, according to BBC. 

According to the Atlantic, the workers at the factory produced clothing for a number of prominent brands, including Children’s Place, J.C. Penney and Walmart.

The collapse opened the world’s eyes to the unmonitored working environment and unethical treatment of the workers that produced some of their favorite apparel. 

Fast Fashion is also environmentally unsustainable. According to Inc.com, Fast Fashion produces more pollution than any other industry in the world and uses 5,000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Additionally, the average American throws away 82 pounds of textile waste per year. 

Fast Fashion — which most of us unknowingly participate in every time we buy clothes — reinforces inhumane treatment of workers and bad stewardship of the earth. 

Fortunately, there is a growing trend toward ethical fashion — fashion focused on paying and treating workers well and producing garments that last a long time to avoid waste. 

Many companies have embraced ethical fashion principles, leaving ethically-conscious consumers plenty of options.

However, it obviously costs more to produce clothing ethically, meaning that the products carry a higher price tag.

Although established, middle-class people might be able to afford ethically produced clothing through minimalist fashion and budgeting, the average college student or person with a low income cannot.

In that case, thrift store shopping is an ethical option. The profits from most chain and local thrift stores generally go to help the others in the community, meaning consumers are not endorsing harsh working conditions and little pay for workers overseas. 

Donating clothing to and purchasing it from thrift stores is essentially recycling, keeping used clothing from going to waste. 

Next time you buy an article of clothing, think about where it has been and where it is going. Will buying it help perpetuate or annihilate injustice and unsustainability?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *