Fast fashion flights: why your clothes are fueling the climate crisis

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Clothes and shoes produced in low-wage countries were once transported around the world by cargo ships. It doesn’t necessarily have to be environmentally friendly.

However, the “fast fashion” phenomenon has significantly worsened the ecological balance of the textile industry. This refers to collections that respond quickly to current trends, are produced cheaply and are sold almost as cheaply.

The leaders here are the Spanish company Zara and global online retailers such as Shein. The clothes are mostly produced in Asia. According to the Swiss non-governmental organization Public Eye, the EU imported and exported more than 700,000 tonnes of this “flight fashion” as air transport in 2022. This works out to 7,000 cargo planes a day, or about 20 cargo flights full of fashion items.

Zara and Shein in the spotlight

Public Eye wanted to know more and analyzed a small number of company information and detailed customs data.

The result: Inditex, the parent company of brands such as Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti, has by far the highest air freight volume. Regardless of where they are produced, almost all products arrive at major distribution centers around Zaragoza airport in northeastern Spain. Here, products are checked and assembled to be shipped to stores around the world.

The result: 32 cargo flights containing approximately 100 tons of clothing fly around the world every week. Over 1,600 flight departures per year. This also applies to Europe, where air transport offers only a small time advantage.

The data status of fashion, which is sent directly to consumers in individual packages, is less transparent. Shein, for example, ships large quantities by air from China to private homes around the world. To this end, the Chinese fashion group entered into a strategic partnership with China Southern Airlines in July 2022. This airline’s cargo aircraft travel between Guangzhou (China) and Los Angeles (USA) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) exclusively to Shein.

Public Eye analyzed the “flyer fashion” phenomenon and petitioned companies to abandon this scandalous practice.

A call to stop fast fashion

The nonprofit estimates that in-flight fashion is approximately fourteen times more harmful to the climate than clothing transported by sea. Through a petition, he is calling on Zara to “take its own sustainability goals seriously.” For example, Zara announced that it will produce collections from recycled carbon emissions in 2021. Zara is also a member of an initiative for clean shipping.

But the question remains: Why is fast fashion necessary when the clothes themselves do not depend on fast delivery?

Source :Blick