기사 메일전송
A Fast-Changing Trend, A Fast-Dying Planet
  • 이수빈 기자
  • 등록 2023-03-03 16:48:44
기사수정

 "Fast fashion" refers to clothing that can be created and sold quickly and at a relatively low price like fast food, which is designed to immediately reflect the latest trends. Reflecting the rapidly changing trend due to various SNS and media influences, amount of clothing created is increasing. As clothing consumption increases, the amount of clothing discarded is also increasing. In the process of disposing of clothes, you can find a secondhand collection box in each recycling section. Although people naturally assume that the clothes in the collection box would be recycled, only 12% of the clothes actually get recycled. Where on earth will the other discarded clothes go?


 Most of the discarded clothes are headed to Accra, the capital of Ghana, Africa. Accra's Kpone Garment Waste Landfill, established in 2013, takes in 15 million bags of clothing waste each week. However, the capability of the Kpone is quite old. Cows living in Kpone mainly eat trash instead of grass. Some try to reduce waste by selling used clothes to the market, but about 30 million Ghanaians are not enough people to consume such a huge amount of clothing. Ghana has now become a garbage island carrying clothing waste made by North America, Europe, Britain, and Australia.

   


 Korea, a leader in the fashion industry, is not free from the issue of waste clothing. According to the Ministry of Environment, South Korea ranks fifth in clothing waste emissions as of 2020, with 80,000 tons of waste being discharged as household waste annually. This figure shows that the amount of waste thrown away by ordinary households is not even counted, and the amount of waste clothing is expected to increase to 370,000 tons a year, including waste textiles thrown away at fashion companies. Fast fashion industries cause many problems, such as greenhouse gases and toxic wastewater generated during textile production, environmental pollution caused by incineration of stock clothing and clothing waste, and microfiber and plastic fiber released when washing textiles.



   

  To solve these environmental problems, the European Union has decided to make laws to regulate fast fashion by 2030. Experts advise consumers to wear one dress for a long time, aiming for slow fashion, in response to the environmental pollution problem of fast fashion. However, if the basic problem is not solved, there will be a limit to how consumers can implement it. Factories must stop mass production and make efforts to develop eco-friendly products. Companies should make efforts to improve the environment by strengthening upcycling, which utilizes waste clothing and repurposes it into completely different products. It is necessary to consider whether the culture of wearing and throwing away clothes over and over again was developed by consumer demand or if it is the result of the manufactures and sellers.



78th Reporter • LEE SU BINded333@kyonggi.ac.kr

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