and what is FAST FASHION?
Fast fashion is a term to describe clothes that were produced by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trend and sell them cheaply.
So, how does this affect the environment 🤨 ?
Fast fashion leads to major water pollution in 3rd world countries. Most of the clothes produced by mass retailers are either made in Bangladesh India or China. The dye that was used to make clothes with different colours, the pesticide used to harvest cotton from cotton farms, and the textile waste that was produced by fast fashion leads to more waste and pollution that is harmful to the river, soil, and our landfill 😱 .
Furthermore, in 2013, the garment factory that collapsed in Bangladesh sparked a movement with a #WhoMadeMyClothes. This is to address and highlight that worker safety must be prioritized and also employee benefits have to be given to the people who made our clothes. In China, workers who produced our clothes are often not legally protected from harmful working conditions.
This is because the speed needed to produce fast fashion clothes comes with a tight deadline. The workers as well are often placed in crowded dorms and they don't have any access to healthcare benefits. This is sad and other findings based on similarity for 3rd world countries who produced our clothes are often underpaid. That's because most big brands manufacturer wants to keep their cost of production cheap. Hence, in order to do that, they have to be underpaid.
Source: Lucas Schifres, Getty Image
The result of the movement and also the constant highlights by consumers have led some of the fast fashion brands to pledge and promise to look into the environmental disaster that was caused by fast fashion.
Hence, that is why H&M introduced the H&M conscious to commit to fighting against fast fashion by accepting old wearable clothes to be turned into something new under their new brand line H&M conscious.
BY KARA HACKETT
Besides that, in India, water pollution is one of the major environmental impacts that people face daily. Why? That's because of the cotton farm and the dye they have to produce in order to get textile for manufacturers to produce clothes for us to wear. The seeds used by the farmers in India were genetically modified and it requires pesticides to grow with them so insects won't bother to come near them. Also, the dye that was used to colour the clothes is often discharged out into the river without any filtration to separate the harmful particles. This poses a dangerous threat for those who harvest water daily for their daily use from the river that has been contaminated from the discharge by the garment factory. If someone dies, who will be held responsible?
pics by : Muratart/Shutterstock
pics by : https://smartwatermagazine.com/
Moreover, shirts take about 200 years to break down in the landfill. So every, shirt that your discard away does take up space in the landfill and this is bad. Why? That's because if the landfill is full, where are we going to throw our rubbish? 😅
The picture credits to : https://pebblemag.com/
Therefore, we hoped that with the Penang Earth Day Clothes Swap event, people will be more aware of fast fashion and learn to exchange clothes with other like-minded green people to avoid buying new clothes when it is not necessary to do so. The lesser there is a demand from consumers to support fast fashion, the better it is for both the environment and the people. Let's give your clothes a 2nd chance to be worn by others so it does look fresh on someone else.
What are the benefits of clothes swap?
To change 'new' style/clothes for oneself
To extend the lifespan of clothes
To engage and grow the green community in Penang
To support Penang2030 Vision toward a family-focused, green and smart state.
To contribute toward both the environmental and social causes.
To reduce dependency on fast fashion
To reduce textile waste ended up in landfills
𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝗯𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
1 pax : RM 29 (discounted RM 9.00) 2 pax/couple: RM 50 (discounted RM 26.00) 5 pax group : RM 100 (discounted RM 90.00)
- What you will get together with the entrance ticket (worth more than RM 50): a) Access to the 1 time slot of the Clothes Swap event b) Contribution to Women for Change (WCC) NGO (part of the ticket fee) c) 10 pcs (1packet) of 22cm x 32cm of Glean Pokey Biodegradable bag that are extra thick and leakproof d) Green Hero apps discount code: 1 x RM 5 discount code with min purchase of RM 25 f) Green Hero Shopee discount code: 2 x 7% off with min purchase of RM 20
To register for the event, click this link : bit.ly/ClothesSwapRegistration
For more info, you may contact
Aimpactz team: 011-5993 8300 (WhatsApp) ( https://wa.me/601159938300)
Together, with you, let's raise awareness of fast fashion and participate in this charity clothes swap. The profits collected will be donated to the Women Centre of Change ( WCC) 👍
