As a household of six with growing littles, the laundry is an ongoing machine which knows no sleep. Each day seems to bring another new basket or two to be folded and carefully put (or jammed) away in drawers which already need weeding from the previous season. Despite the dry hanging and careful stain remover, clothing quickly comes and goes. In a climate with four seasons, we’re frequently on the search for pants with an extra inch, or a new winter coat. And it’s not just the kids, I’m guilty of envying some pieces from the latest trends or adding a new swimsuit to the collection during cottage-season.

Around a decade ago, I came across a documentary entitled “The True Cost,” a groundbreaking documentary exposing the detrimental effects of the fast-fashion industry on our globe. Fashion is no longer a “four-season” show but a “52-season” era, with brands like H&M and Forever 21 receiving garment shipments daily and Zara producing over 20,000 designs annually. (1). Few times do we often stop to consider how a production like this is even possible and what effects these have on both humans and the globe. While there are incredibly negative impacts on water, air, oceans, soil, biodiversity and more, what hit home was the human rights abuse and mistreatment of the very people making the clothes we wear. (2).

Today, the global apparel market is worth 1.84 trillion dollars, expecting to climb to 2 trillion by 2028, yet despite the vast amount of wealth produced, those producing the actual clothing are often sitting under the poverty line. (3). India’s sweatshop workers are paid upwards of 58 cents an hour, while Bangladesh workers are skimming 33 cents an hour - working 14-16 hours days/7 days a week - yet only making half to a fifth of a living wage required for a family to meet basic needs. (4). There’s no accountability from these Western clothing companies, as they outsource their production to supplier firms in developing countries, and these supplier firms subcontract the work to other unauthorized suppliers (operating without government oversight) that have no affiliation or link to the original fashion company. (5). So for companies like Roots, Lululemon, Zara, H&M, Forever 21 and Joe Fresh and more, there is no legal bind to ensure proper working regulations in the factories.

Exploitation of the Poor

Sweatshops often prey on people who are already in poverty, as the poor will do anything to secure even the most menial wage for their families. In hiring those in poverty, sweatshops can perpetuate the abuse of keeping wages below livable and force inhumane overtime to get their deadlines met, sometimes having workers stay until 2 or 3 am. (4,6). They know that for these people, they won’t refuse for fear of being fired and losing their only source of income. An Oxfam report discovered that 91% of Bangladeshi workers cannot afford to feed their families despite the industry contributing to almost 16% of the country’s GDP. (7). Moreover, 25% of these workers reported some form of abuse - whether gender-based violence, sex work, or physical violence.(2).

Child Labour

To make matters worse, not only men and women are working in the garment industry, but children are often exploited. Due to children tending to be more obedient and compliant, suppliers confess to deliberately seeking out child labour for 12-hour days of sewing and dyeing clothing to satisfy fast-fashion consumers around the globe. (8). These are stolen childhoods which should be given room for play and proper education.

Unsafe Working Conditions

In 2013, the Rana Plaza collapse turned global attention on the clothing industry, as the factory’s downfall killed over 11100 workers and injured 2,500+. (9). Employees had pointed out the cracks in the structure and were warning about its overcapacity, yet for the sake of keeping costs low, no action was taken. This devastation only highlighted the immense failure of oversight within the industry, and in response, the government gave compensation to the injured and the families of the deceased, as well as issued a reform for proper inspection of factories. A step, but not nearly enough.

Structural incompetence is only a fraction of the unsafe working conditions employees face. Many workers inhale hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals without the proper protective equipment, which can lead to both moderate and severe health effects like breathing abnormalities, cancer and physiological malfunctions. Another common risk is fires, as the factories often have “flammable chemicals, faulty electric wiring, overheated machinery, and improper ventilation… unclean workspaces, and blocked or locked fire exits”. (10). Conditions where clothing is manufactured in these countries do not have enough oversight to ensure the safety of the people making our clothing.

The Deception of Donations

But what if we balance the articles we buy with the articles we give? I know parents who encouraged “One item in. One item out.” We’ve all done it. We’ve gone through our closets, pulling out the misfits, stained, ripped or unloved pieces we have no use for anymore, and then somehow felt a little better dropping them off at the bin for “charity.” Somewhere, somebody needs clothes…right? With Americans donating around 81 pounds each per year, something good must be happening. (11).

A recent article in Teen Vogue (2025) What Really Happens to Your Clothing, follows the inconceivable mounds of discarded clothing to the coasts of Ghana, where a couple of female vendors sift through the ripped, stained and discarded for anything resell-able - competing with over 30,000 vendors in the same market. (12). With the influx of “haul culture” and fast-fashion, quality has only declined as production increases, a reported 50% more textile waste in only the last 8 years. (13). So what began as a thought of “charity” in the giver’s mind, only becomes a burden of waste in another’s country, leaving sellers like these two featured women, sifting through mounds of discards that have now become their coastline, polluting the air with plastics and the marine-life with chemicals. It’s simply too much - an insurmountable burden on other countries to handle our obsession for consumption.

What We Can Do

We know that clothing is essential to everyday life. We have everything from weddings and graduations to plan for, as well as pregnancies and post-partum periods. Nobody is expecting you to wear the same sweater you wore at Thanksgiving 50 years ago (although that would be pretty cool).

Think Twice before you Toss - In this day and age, clothing is so cheap that fixing a button, repairing a small tear, or trying a second time to remove a stain, just doesn’t seem worth it. And perhaps in time, it isn’t. But changing our thinking caps to the worth of someone else’s value and time, makes us consider the phenomenon twice. Somewhere…somebody is paying the price where we are not.

Try to use your clothes as longest you can, especially if it’s a piece or style that you know you’d keep wearing if it had that extra button or the stain removed. Demand drives supply, so savour the pieces you have.

Purchase second-hand - Goodwill, Salvation Army, Marketplace, Poshmark, your small-town thrift shop…there are endless options online and in-person. While all these venues might take a little more patience to search and sift through, giving another life to clothing keeps it out of an unwanted landfill and more importantly, slows demand to overseas suppliers. If you’re not shopping the racks for new clothes weekly or monthly, you’re one less statistic they’re worrying about in their fashion productions. The world doesn't need more textile waste.

Donate Responsibly - Over the last decades, more companies are stepping up to reclaim or repurpose their gently used clothing. Brands like Patagonia launched a program called Worn Wear, allowing you to trade in and buy used Patagonia apparel. Non-profits have also risen to the occasion, like Dress for Success, accepting used professional clothing, and in their mission, helping unemployed and underemployed women develop job-skill preparedness. Buy Nothing groups have sprouted on social media, encouraging the repurposing and recycling towards families or individuals with certain needs.

When it comes down to those ripped and stained clothing, avoid the temptation to toss them in with the rest of your gently used clothing. You don’t want someone having to sort through this in Ghana, only to discard it on their shoreline. Rather, find out which charities near you do textile repurposing and recycling - Goodwill and Renaissance being two committed non-profits to this cause.

The Small Choices Matter

As someone living in the Western world, we can often think there is so little we can do about the global poverty and suffering we see online. Yet, we each have a million small choices each day, and if one more person can say “yes” to sustainability and “no” to the endless demand for fast fashion and choking waste in developing countries, it will make a difference. From your home. From your closet. From your laundry room - you absolutely can make a difference…as you apply that stain-remover on your favourite cotton blouse. One. More. Time.

Research

1. Marketing Dive (September 21, 2017). Study: H&M, Topshop and Forever 21 dominate fast-fashion social engagement. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-hm-topshop-and-forever-21-dominate-fast-fashion-social-engagement/505402/

2. Earth Day. (2024). Fashion Legislation Report. https://www.earthday.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Fashion-Legislation-Report_FINAL.pdf?_gl=1*mcuw5f*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiA2cu9BhBhEiwAft6IxEmAjfs5H4_RDkZ6Zx8zOkL8Ueeqpqsjc447dkv2mx81VxP3DGGSKxoC1t8QAvD_BwE2020.

3. Uniform Market. (2024). Global Apparel Industry Statistics. https://www.uniformmarket.com/statistics/global-apparel-industry-statistics

4. The Borgen Project. (August. 5, 2020). The Link Between Fast-Fashion and Poverty. https://borgenproject.org/fast-fashion-and-poverty/

5. Green Business Network. (August. 8, 2018). Factory Exploitation and the Fast-Fashion Machine. https://www.greenamerica.org/blog/factory-exploitation-and-fast-fashion-machine

6. Clean Clothes Campaign. Working hours and overtime: 96-hour work week. https://cleanclothes.org/issues/working-hours

7. Oxfam Australia. (2019). Made in Poverty: The True Price of Fashion. https://www.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Made-in-Poverty-the-True-Price-of-Fashion-Oxfam-Australia.pdf

8. Humanium. (September 21, 2021). The detrimental effects of fast-fashion on children’s rights. https://www.humanium.org/en/the-detrimental-effects-of-fast-fashion-on-childrens-rights/

9. International Labour Organization. (2021). The Rana Plaza Disaster 10 Years on. https://webapps.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Country-Focus/rana-plaza#intro

10. Williams, E. (2022). Appalling or Advantageous? Exploring the Impacts of Fast Fashion From Environmental, Social, and Economic Perspectives. Journal for Global Business and Community, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.56020/001c.36873

11. The True Cost. (2015). Environmental Impact. https://truecostmovie.com/learn-more/environmental-impact/

12. Hardy, A. (2025, February 6). What Really Happens to Your Used Clothing. Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-really-happens-to-your-used-clothing.

13. Hardy, A (2024, December 16). The U.S. Just Released the First Federal Report on the Negative Impact of Fast Fashion. Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-first-federal-report-on-negative-impact-of-fast-fashion

Conscious Consumer: How our Clothing Choices Affect the Poor