It’s easy to do when you’re clothes shopping. You see the ideal outfit, you know it would suit you perfectly, and – bonus – it’s cheap as chips. But when you stop to think for a moment you realise if it’s ridiculously cheap for you to buy, the person making the garment must be getting paid peanuts. The excitement of the buy wears off when you put some thought into the ethics behind the clothes. We now know that fast fashion is one of the most destructive industries on earth, filling our landfills with masses of garments born of unethical working conditions. Here are some quick facts: Nearly 70 million barrels of oil are needed to make polyester fibre, a main component of fast fashion Polyester takes around 200 years to decompose Globally we are consuming 80 billion pieces of clothes a year, an increase of 400% compared to 20 years ago 20,000 litres of water are needed to make 1kg of cotton, equal to about a tshirt and jeans. Thankfully, as our knowledge...
