By: Megan Thompson and Kelly Conroy
Edited by: Maddie Miele
Introduction
The fast fashion industry’s excessive resource consumption, energy use, and unsustainable waste management practices significantly impact the environment.1 Every year, the fast fashion industry consumes 93 billion cubic meters of water and uses 70 million barrels of oil in its textile production.2 Additionally, this sector produces over 92 million tons of waste annually, which ends up in landfills in developing nations or incinerators that release greenhouse gases, further exacerbating environmental degradation.3 Despite the staggering amounts of waste produced, the fast fashion industry is increasingly profitable, generating nearly $1 trillion annually through its business model, prioritizing speed and affordability regardless of environmental consequences.4 The mass-produced, low-cost clothing business model encourages consumers to buy more clothing more frequently. This fuels a cycle of disposability, resource overuse, and textile waste.5
Current U.S. policies fail to adequately address the environmental consequences of the fast fashion business model and often leave regulatory gaps that allow these harmful practices to persist. This article explores existing policies and proposes recommendations to promote sustainable practices. By examining comprehensive strategies such as extended producer responsibility, waste management regulations, and ethical business models, it highlights different pathways to make the fast fashion industry more sustainable and accountable.
What is the Problem?
The primary cause of the fast fashion industry’s unsustainable practices is the lack of effective legislative oversight. Without regulations, the fast fashion industry has been free to prioritize rapid textile production and low costs at the expense of the environment. This regulatory gap allows harmful practices to thrive, increasing the industry’s impact on the environment.6
One of the most pressing issues caused by the lack of legislation is the absence of waste management policies. The fast fashion industry produces millions of tons of textile waste every year, discarded in developing countries because there is no legislation mandating lifecycle responsibility for fast fashion producers.7 Without legal consequences, fast fashion companies will continue to overproduce and generate more waste that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities and their environment.
The absence of government regulation also enables greenwashing or false claims about a product’s environmental impact. Many fast fashion companies deploy greenwashing marketing tactics by claiming their products or operations are sustainable without supporting these claims.8 Without legislation requiring verification of sustainability claims or providing clear standards for sustainable practices, companies can mislead consumers while continuing unsustainable operations. The lack of transparency and accountability among fashion companies makes it difficult for consumers to distinguish between sustainable brands and greenwashing brands, limiting their ability to consume ethically.
In addition to an absence of sustainability standards for the fast fashion industry, there are also no comprehensive accountability standards for these companies to reduce their carbon footprint, disclose their resource consumption, or adopt ethical practices. Without any legal mandates, companies can continue to prioritize profits while perpetuating environmentally costly practices.
Why Legislate?
The fast fashion industry is a complex and important sector that requires thoughtful legislation to address key areas that the industry impacts. Environmental concerns like carbon emissions and water pollution can be lessened through policies that promote sustainability. The environmental footprint of the fast fashion industry “is the second largest contributor to pollution of all industries, after petroleum.”9 Overall, 20 percent of wastewater in the world is directly linked to the fast fashion industry.10 This industry will only worsen its environmental impact if no legislation is taken, including a 50 percent increase of the sector’s global emissions by 2023.11 The environmental statistics within the fast fashion industry provide an area for legislation implementation.
By implementing legislation in the fast fashion industry, companies can be held accountable for their decisions. This can ensure that companies understand how their decisions impact their workers and communities. Furthermore, companies need to be held to the same standards when it comes to ethical marketing practices.12 Legislation would lead to consumer protection and increased transparency.13 Consumers deserve the right to know what kind of products and companies they are supporting. With no policies in place, companies are able to bend their messaging and marketing to appeal to consumers while not actually meeting the regulations they are advertising.14 Lastly, policies on fast fashion would ensure worker protection, including fair wages and workplace safety.15 Due to the lack of proper legislation, garment workers are forced to work in unsafe conditions to meet the intense needs of the fast fashion industry.16 Also, they are forced to be paid through per-piece wages, leading to overworking, thus creating dangerous workplace conditions.17
To move towards a more sustainable fashion industry and company accountability, legislation is required. In the fast fashion industry, legislation will help create slower, circular business practices, all of which will lead to more sustainable and equitable practices within the industry.18 Currently, the fast fashion industry is unsustainable environmentally, socially, and economically. By legislating this industry, it can become more environmentally friendly while also ensuring safe working conditions and less economic dependency on poor business practices.19 The idea of “slow fashion” is one potential answer that could lead to improving the unsustainability of the industry overall. It will allow for improved supply chains, recyclable materials, and cost-efficiency. This model understands the idea that the current trends of the fashion industry will not continue to be functional.20 This movement is another reason why legislation is required to further push towards a more sustainable circular economy.
Current Bills
Looking at current bills, The Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change Act, also known as the “FABRIC Act,” (S. 2817) was reintroduced in September of 2023 in the 118th Congress.21 The latest action was the bill being referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. This bill was sponsored by Senator Gillibrand of New York, with five co-sponsors, to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.22 This amendment would add key points, including creating a nationwide garment industry registry, holding employers accountable for workplace violations, and establishing an hourly pay rate in the garment industry.23 Overall, this bill was created as a way to protect workers in the industry and help the United States become more competitive in the global market. This bill is also important as it is the first federal bill relating to the industry to ever be introduced in Congress.24
Introduced in the New York State (NYS) Senate and Assembly, the Fashion Environmental Accountability Act is currently in Committee for the 2023-2024 session.25 Assembly Bill A4333C was introduced by New York State Representative Anna Kelles, and is currently in the Assembly Rules Committee after passing the Ways and Means Committee in June 2024.26 The NYS Senate version of this bill is Senate Bill S04746, sponsored by NYS Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal. Currently, the Senate bill is pending in the Senate Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee.27 The overall goal of the act is to ensure that fashion businesses are held accountable to environmental standards and establish a fashion remediation fund.28 With approval, it will ensure that fashion companies, on every level from manufacturers to retailers, are playing their part in achieving the set environmental regulations.29 This would include disclosing environmental and social impacts along with sharing their supply chain maps. It also will allow the distribution of funds collected through fines and penalties to communities that have been affected by the poor business actions through the remediation fund.30
Now, jumping abroad, the European Union (EU) has promulgated a “2030 vision for textiles.” This strategy was designed with the goal of creating a green textile sector, by addressing key areas like production and consumption.31 The EU created a strategy that looked at not only sections of the industry, but the entire process. Broken up into three main pieces: Objectives, Actions, and Implementation, these steps will ensure that the EU is in line with commitments made to the European Green Deal and the European industrial strategy.32 The vision was put forth to ensure that textiles are recyclable and durable when they are placed on the EU market. Further, this strategy ensures that repair services are available, the sector is competitive, and responsibility is taken at every stage.33 These goals will ultimately lead to the end goal of ensuring that “fast fashion is out of fashion.”34 While this strategy has multiple moving pieces, it shows how the European Union is moving towards change regarding fast fashion, and the textile industry as a whole.
Figure 1: Types of Fast Fashion Legislation
|
Category |
United States |
European Union |
|
Legislation |
FABRIC Act (S. 2817), NYS Fashion Environmental Accountability Act |
2030 Vision for Textiles |
|
Primary Focus |
Worker protections, pay standards (FABRIC Act); Environmental accountability (NYS Act) |
Sustainability and lifecycle management of textiles |
|
Key Goals |
FABRIC Act: -Establish a nationwide registry to track garment manufacturers and contractors. – Mandate an hourly pay rate for garment workers to ensure fair wages. – Hold employers accountable for labor law violations through stricter enforcement mechanisms. NYS Fashion Environmental Accountability Act: – Require fashion companies to disclose the environmental and social impacts of their operations publicly. – Mandate comprehensive mapping of supply chains to identify and address environmental and labor risks. – Create a fund financed by fines and penalties to support communities harmed by harmful business practices. |
– Ensure that all textiles placed on the EU market are designed to be durable, recyclable, and environmentally friendly. – Promote the availability of repair services to extend the life cycle of textile products. – Implement sustainability measures at every stage of the textile lifecycle, from production to end-of-life management. – Strengthen the competitiveness of the EU textile sector by fostering innovation and sustainable practices. – Reduce and eventually eliminate unsustainable fast fashion practices by promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns. – Integrate the textile sector into broader EU commitments, such as the European Green Deal, to ensure consistency with environmental and industrial strategies. |
Recommendations
To move forward in ending the unsustainability of the fast fashion industry, policies must be formulated to ensure a greener and safer industry. The European Union’s 2030 strategy is one that touches upon each step in the industry.35 By implementing a similar strategy in the United States, the country can move towards stronger legislation that can make a meaningful impact.
Looking at federal legislation in the United States, leaders need to ensure that the proposed bills are not too broad that no change is made.36 Proposed bills need to clearly explain what agency will oversee them, create clear and measurable benchmarks as well as consequences for companies that do not comply. Past attempts at legislation have not been successful for several reasons, including a lack of public awareness, lack of collaboration, and failure to hold companies accountable.37 Which is why we recommend that these past issues are addressed to lead to more successful and stronger legislation.
While the bills in place are steps in the right direction, there is still room for improvement. For example, the FABRIC Act focuses on workers’ rights which is necessary but not the only area that needs to be addressed in the industry.38 A significant gap in current legislation lies in the fragmented approach, with policies often only looking at singular issues like labor rights, environmental concerns, or corporate accountability. But these challenges are extremely interconnected, which calls for legislation that has multiple approaches to tackle these challenges holistically. By creating bills that coordinate, more can be accomplished throughout the industry.
One key area that needs to be discussed is public awareness on proposed legislation. When it comes to passing legislation, public support is a consequential factor in legislators’ decisions to support or oppose a bill. Despite significant issues in industries like fast fashion, many consumers remain unaware of the policies that are introduced or the impact they have.39 Without public engagement, meaningful change cannot occur. By educating consumers, with informative campaigns and transparent communication, lawmakers can help create meaningful change for their constituents.
A major challenge in proposing strong legislation is the potential pushback from the industry. Companies may resist these regulations due to concerns about increased operational costs, supply chain disruptions, and potential impacts on profits.40 For example, stricter labor protections may require companies to invest in sustainability, worker wages, and supply chain improvements. To address these concerns, recommendations should incorporate measures that would lessen industry concerns. These could include timelines for phased implementations, financial incentives, and small business support. Ensuring that legislation includes a clear framework that has both accountability and industry support will strengthen proposed legislation.
By learning from past failures and drawing inspiration from current steps, the United States can adopt robust policies to limit the environmental, social, and economic effects of fast fashion––creating strong legislative foundations that address the gaps and include a focus on public awareness to ensure bills are impactful and long-lasting. This will require collaboration from government officials, industry workers, and consumers to create a more sustainable textile industry.
Conclusion
While this paper emphasizes legislative action to address the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the fast fashion industry, these measures alone will not be enough to produce real change in business practices. Impactful and lasting change in this industry will require a large-scale shift in consumer behavior. The current culture of excessive consumption fuels the cycle of overproduction and waste. Psychological factors such as the desire for affordability and social validation produce this culture and perpetuate fast fashion’s business model, undermining efforts to create a more sustainable industry.
Although implementing stronger policies and regulations can help hold companies accountable and mitigate harmful practices, consumers must alter their relationship with clothing and adopt more conscious consumption habits. Addressing this cultural and psychological dimension is crucial for fostering a sustainable fashion industry. The next part of this series will explore psychological factors leading to the consumption of fast fashion and examine strategies to encourage a shift towards cautious consumption that will complement legislative efforts for systemic change.
Works Cited
1. Owusu-Wiredu, Prince. 2024. Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Finance: Rethinking the Shameful Trade Flows of Used Textiles and the Need to Slow Fast Fashion. PhD diss., Brunel University London, Brunel Law School. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/29926
2. HHC Earth, “The Environmental Impact of the Textile Sector,” HHC Earth. https://www.hhc.earth/knowledge-base/articles/the-environmental-impact-of-the-textile-sector
3. Ibid.
4. Owusu-Wiredu, Prince. 2024. Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Finance.
5. Ibid.
6. Boushee, E. M. 2023. “Finding a Common Thread: Enacting Federal Legislation to Curb Greenwashing in the Fashion Industry and Protect American Consumers.” New York University Law Review 98 (411): 411–437. https://nyulawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/98-NYU-L-Rev-Online-411.pdf
7. Owusu-Wiredu, Prince. 2024. Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Finance.
8. Boushee, E. M. 2023. “Finding a Common Thread.”
9. Dymek, Haley, and Noelle Puvak. 2024. “The Rise and Environmental Fall of the Fast Fashion Industry.” Cornell Policy Review. https://www.cornellpolicyreview.com/the-rise-and-environmental-fall-of-the-fast-fashion-industry/#_edn27
10. Bailey, Kerrice, Aman Basu, and Sapna Sharma. 2022. “The Environmental Impacts of Fast Fashion on Water Quality: A Systematic Review.” Water 14 (1073): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14071073
11. Igini, Martina. 2023. “10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics.” Earth.org, August 21. https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/
12. McCann, Abigail. 2024. “Social Media: One of Fast Fashion’s Biggest Influencers—Why Legal Intervention Is Essential to Reduce Social Media’s Promotion of Fast Fashion, an Industry Founded on Unsustainable Business Practices.” Student Journal of Information Privacy Law 2. https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/sjipl/vol2/iss1/6
13. Centobelli, Piera, Stefano Abbate, Simon Peter Nadeem, and Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes. 2022. “Slowing the Fast Fashion Industry: An All-Round Perspective.” Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry 38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2022.100684
14. McCann. 2024. “Social Media: One of Fast Fashion’s Biggest Influencers.”
15. Ibid.
16. McCosker, Jaclyn. 2023. “The Impact of Fast Fashion on Garment Workers.” Good On You. https://goodonyou.eco/impact-fast-fashion-garment-workers/
17. The Fabric Act. 2024. https://thefabricact.org/
18. Centobelli et al. 2022. “Slowing the Fast Fashion Industry: An All-Round Perspective.”
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Congress.gov. 2023. “Text – S.2817 – 118th Congress (2023-2024): FABRIC Act.” September 14. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/2817/text
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. The Fabric Act. 2024.
25. Smarch, Lauren. 2022. “Fast Fashion: Why Governments Need to Take Action.” Earth Day. https://www.earthday.org/fast-fashion-why-governments-need-to-take-action/
26. LegiScan.com. 2023. “New York Assembly Bill 4333.” https://legiscan.com/NY/bill/A04333/2023
27. LegiScan.com. 2023. “New York Senate Bill 4746.” https://legiscan.com/NY/bill/S04746/2023
28. Ibid.
29. Smarch. 2022. “Fast Fashion: Why Governments Need to Take Action.”
30. LegiScan.com. 2023. “New York Assembly Bill 4333.”
31. European Union. n.d. “The vision for 2030.” https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/circular-economy/reset-trend/how-eu-making-fashion-sustainable_en
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment. 2023. “Sustainable and Circular Textiles by 2030.” Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2779/96659
35. Ibid.
36. Young, Ashley. 2023. “New York’s Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act: Generating Controversy While Holding the Fashion Industry Accountable.” Columbia University, Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development. https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/consilience/blog/view/477#
37. Ibid.
38. The Fabric Act. 2024.
39. McCann. 2024. “Social Media: One of Fast Fashion’s Biggest Influencers.”
40. Yang, Stephanie. 2024. “Can Anything Slow Fast Fashion Down? Lawmakers Are Giving It a Go.” LA Times. https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-09-12/can-anything-slow-fast-fashion-down-lawmakers-are-giving-it-a-go
Author Bios
Megan Thompson is a 4th year undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, pursuing a dual degree in Government and Sociology. She is interested in policy research in energy, environment, and sustainable business and has pursued research opportunities in these areas. Upon graduation, Thompson aspires to pursue a career in public policy.
Kelly Conroy is a senior at Fairfield University, majoring in Politics and International Studies with a minor in Marketing. Her research interests focus on the election process, government systems, and global policy issues. She has explored these topics through her coursework in areas such as border politics and election campaigns, as well as through studying abroad.