Need or Want? The Environmental Benefits of Being a Smart Consumer

Charlie Sender
2 days ago
3 min read

By Charlie Sender, OGT Climate & Democracy Leadership Intensive participant, high school senior ('25-'26), and founder of Teens Against Fast Fashion.

“Fast fashion is like fast food. After the sugar rush, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.” Livia Giuggioli Firth

Like the caramel frappe advertised on the drive-through window, the appeal of fast fashion is undeniable. Low prices, trendy styles, and the ability to upgrade your wardrobe at a fraction of the price of traditional stores. However, behind the glamorous revolving pieces advertised on the websites of Zara, Shein, and H&M, we often ignore the dark truth: fast fashion is a market that thrives on exploitation, environmental damage, and a lack of consumer knowledge.

The rise of social media in the last decade has changed the way consumers approach fashion. Like the ten second videos on Tik Tok showcasing stylish influencers wearing the latest microtrend, trend cycles in the fashion industry come into style just as fast as they go out. The result? Brands developing new styles weekly, and clothes that use fabric so cheap that they fall apart on one wash.

Social media constantly pushes overconsumption on its users. Ads are embedded into every platform, advertising the latest fashionable water-bottle or demonstrating the latest collaboration between your favorite influencer and the Tik Tok shop. Fast fashion brands perform excellently in these communities because they take advantage of the culture of overconsumption pushed by brands like Instagram and Tik Tok. Changing habits as consumers is one of the most important first steps. Consumers are used to clicking and buying without putting much thought into the process that goes behind how a product is made.

A bit of research into the supply chain of fast fashion companies like Shein reveals how they profit off exploitation of their workers through low hourly wages and long working hours. Just last year, Shein reported finding two cases of child labour in their factories according to a BBC article. Additionally, the fast fashion market contributes to millions of tons of textile waste. By creating massive amounts of trendy clothing that goes unsold, many of the fast fashion industry’s pieces often end up in landfills with synthetic fabrics that take thousands of years to break down. These industries also lack proper methods of disposing or recycling unused fabrics. According to a 2024 federal report by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program, about 60% of fast fashion textiles contain microplastics which have a chance of leaching into the soil or water if not properly disposed of.

With all that being said, knowledge is power. By becoming more educated on supply chains and the clothing manufacturing process, consumers will not fall for the marketing tactics pushed by fast fashion brands. Choosing to shop more sustainably and look for high quality items will save consumers money in the long run. Pieces that are timeless and elegant, but also high quality, will last longer in a closet than most of the pieces that fast fashion items sell on their websites. Additionally, supporting small, sustainable brands can lead to reduced environmental waste from low-quality clothing and consumers can invest their hard-earned money into products that are truly worth every penny.

But why do our actions matter if everyone is buying these products? What is one person’s change going to do for children facing labor exploitation in Bangladesh? What is opting for more sustainable clothing going to do for the environment?

It is important that as consumers, we are aware of the effects of consumerism and the influence that it has on our environment and our well-being. This is especially important when those products can be bad for our world and to the lives of those across the world. Our consumer choices can have a huge effect on large companies. When people stop buying unsustainable products, companies will have no choice but to stop producing them.

Like fast food, fast fashion is cheap, accessible and absolutely everywhere. However, by changing our mindsets, we can take the first steps and stop feeding the problem in order to make choices that benefit our environments and our health.

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