Impact of fast fashion and international law on workers and the environment
Abstract
Fast fashion culture is creating an unsustainable practice of churning out new styles every other week. This industry creates unsafe workplaces, a decline in domestic manufacturing, and a decline in quality. Cheap fashion comes at a cost to workers; they are underpaid, overworked, and put in unsafe conditions. There are currently no federal United States laws that regulate offshore outsourcing. Lowering labor standards can encourage low wages, low skills, and high employee turnover; these things will all prevent a country from developing high skilled employment in the long run. Fast Fashion uses an open loop production cycle that actively pollutes water and land. The relationship between the fast fashion industry and international law is actively harming workers and the environment. Retailers can move towards sustainable fashion by agreeing to pay workers a livable wage, enforcing safety standards in factories, slowing down production, switching to more sustainable fabrics, and advocating for international laws and regulations to be put in place.