Fast fashion, inexpensive clothes produced at rapid speeds in response to fashion trends, has shoppers in a chokehold with its designs and prints that seem to match every rising trend. Fashion retailers sell mass quantities of a variety of products that are inexpensive to make, which allows them to profit off of rising trends. However, a dark side of fast fashion lingers behind each production line and purchase: fast fashion is damaging the environment.

In a 2020 report from the European Parliament, they estimated that textile production, the process that makes fast fashion pieces, is responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution. Additionally, according to a report for the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American throws out around 81.5 pounds of clothes each year, most of which comes from fast fashion products. Despite these jarring facts, how much do average teenage shoppers take these factors into consideration when buying clothes?

To junior Michaella Ryu, fast fashion’s environmental impact is not the most pressing factor on her mind while shopping. “When I go shopping, I don’t usually pay attention to the negative effects that fast fashion has on the environment before making a purchase. This is because it’s not one of my top priorities and values, and I think that I care more about the clothes when I go shopping,” Ryu said.

While some shoppers, such as Ryu, may not focus on fast fashion’s environmental impacts when shopping, other teenage consumers such as junior Zara-Mia Wiley have taken notice of how their purchases impact the world around them.

“I’ve started paying more attention to fast fashion’s impact because on social media I’ve seen how the crisis has progressed. I’ve seen videos and pictures of beaches with piles of waste from fast fashion, and the piles keep growing.” Wiley said.  “So now I try to buy clothing that I know I can wear for a while even if it is fast fashion, like basic essentials that I can reuse over and over again. I’ll wear those pieces for as long as I can, and if I do get bored of them, I donate my clothes so that they get reused.”

To avoid fast fashion, many brands including Aerie and American Eagle have started to make products that are sustainably sourced. At Aerie, any goods that are marked with the “Real Good” label were made with sustainable raw materials and recycled fabrics to help minimize the effect that the clothes have on the environment. But while these measures are a step in the right direction, many consumers are not likely to notice if a piece is good for the environment or not.

“I don’t think that something being eco-friendly is likely to determine my purchase because it’s not something I really focus on. So, if it’s eco-friendly I’ll see it as an added bonus for the product, but it doesn’t necessarily determine my purchase habits,” Ryu said.

Wiley, regardless of paying more attention to fast fashion, shared similar views as Ryu when mentioning her shopping habits towards eco-friendly products.

“I’m probably more likely to purchase clothes that say they’re eco-friendly, but I don’t really look at tags that much, so I don’t typically notice if a product is advertised as eco-friendly. I actually didn’t know that a lot of brands make eco-friendly clothes and advertise them until recently,” Wiley said.

As for potential solutions to avoiding fast fashion, Wiley believes that a shift in brands’ values and standards needs to happen to change the fashion industry as a whole. Instead of relying on sporadic trends to launch new pieces, Wiley suggests a different approach to the industry, and a change in consumer mindset when it comes to buying new articles of clothing.

“I think that brands should uphold the standards and names of their brands. For example, if they’re known for being expensive then they should invest in quality materials that justify an expensive price,” Wiley said.  “I also think people should invest in items that they know they can wear for longer and keep in their closets for a while, not just follow random trends that they know will fade out in a few months. This is necessary to help protect the environment and remedy the destruction that fast fashion has created recently.”