The real cost of fast fashion
We propose the following challenge: open your closet in front and look from top to bottom and from left to right. Don't forget what's inside. Watch carefully everything you keep and (sincerely) answer the question: How many clothes have you not worn in a year?
According to the Ellen McArthur Foundation, the consumption of citizens has grown by 60% in the last fifteen years and 30% of what is in European cabinets has not been used in the last twelve months. Whether or not you are part of this percentage, this data shows that we consume beyond our needs, with exceptions, of course. Proof of this is that some clothing brands, usually cheap and of low quality, present 52 seasons or clothing collections annually (approximately one weekly).
The fast fashion industry is based on mass production of clothing, is inspired by the latest trends and has a limited duration, so it is absolutely unsustainable. On the one hand, because it is the second most polluting industry, behind fossil energies: According to the Clean Clothes campaign, the fashion industry annually generates 92 million tons of waste and 1.5 trillion liters of unusable water, which accounts for 20% of global sewage. On the other hand, it needs enormous means to produce clothing, but these resources on the planet are limited. As if it were not enough, it is unsustainable because it hides the 70-hour days (80% of workers in the sector are women), offensive salaries, the use of techniques and chemicals harmful to health and workshops away from compliance with health and safety conditions.
Watch carefully everything you keep and (sincerely) answer the question: How many clothes have you not worn in a year?
The Zero Poverty Platform of San Sebastian is composed of sixteen organizations and social movements of the city, and we believe that this reality should lead us to reflect on how we consume. Less, and if we consume more responsibly, sustainably and consciously, we will have positive effects on our environment and elsewhere far away. Consumption is a powerful weapon to transform the world.
However, we believe that public institutions should provide courageous, urgent, supportive and fair answers to be part of the solution. We propose that you work by binding laws to protect people and the environment and get businesses to respond to the negative impact of their activity. We demand that they promote quality local trade, and not large areas that grow exponentially in our cities, because they encourage this kind of excessive consumption. We call on them to strengthen development cooperation policies, which are part of the solution to the global crisis we are experiencing.
We are aware that the causes of this problem are multiple and different, and they are the result of political and economic decisions. We are therefore convinced that solutions must be global and work in many sectors. Faced with the challenges and threats our world has, we cannot be stuck. We therefore invite citizens to participate and mobilise in the initiatives we have organised on 17 October, International Day against Poverty and Exclusion. In particular, the intense demand we have made this Sunday 22. Starting at 12:00 from the Wind Comb to the Beautiful Look of San Sebastian, under the slogan The real cost of fast fashion.
Donostia Zero Poverty Platform
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
The Council of Euskalgintza is warning of the linguistic emergency we have been experiencing in recent weeks. Several years have passed since the beginning of describing the situation of the process of revitalization of the Basque country at the crossing, at the roundabout, at... [+]
On November 25, International Day against Male Violence, the Steilas Feminist Union Feminist Secretariat has published a poster: Our body is a battlefield, and all the schools in Hego Euskal Herria have received it. We wish to denounce the violence suffered by women and children... [+]
We live in a context in which anti-feminist and racist hate speech at the global level is on the rise. Far-right narratives are inserted throughout the world by
social networks and political agendas. Racism and anti-feminism have become two great discursive axes that adapt to... [+]
Many times, after looking at the brumas from my house, it has occurred to me not to catch umbrellas, even though I know I will just soak up. Why will it be? Maybe you don't want to catch the umbrella? Maybe in the hope that I don't get wet? Nevertheless, the conclusion has always... [+]
I remember when I was 16 years old, the Ertzaintza first identified me in a concentration in favor of the Basque Country before the Bergara courts. We believed that in Euskal Herria it was legitimate to cry for the Euskaldunization of the courts, but then there would also be a... [+]
The disaster caused by the cold drop in Valencia has left us dramatic images, both because of the immediate consequences it has had, and because the future awaiting us has brought us forward: that this type of extreme climate phenomena will be increasingly numerous and serious... [+]
The update of the Navarra Energy Plan goes unnoticed. The Government of Navarre made this public and, at the end of the period for the submission of claims, no government official has explained to us what their proposals are to the citizens.
The reading of the documentation... [+]
Since the disappearance of the Soviet Union, rusophobia has been growing. The concept of security of the UN Security Council of 2002 is very clear and indicates that the security and stability of the planet must depend on the states that do not intend to challenge the United... [+]
Andoni Urrestarazu Landazabal was born in the village of Araia on 16 July 1902 and died in Vitoria on 21 November 1993. It is now 31 years old and I think it is time to recognize his name and be, because the legacy he left is not well known. Umandi used the name of a mountain in... [+]
Autobiography writing is, they say, the most effective tool for personal development, the most liberating. Pulling things away from the past and remembering them, it seems that it helps unleash the knots of the present. Yes, it helps to understand the present and to draw a... [+]
I have done a review from the announcement of the pandemic to the tragedy in Valencia and have concluded that the disastrous institutional management that lies and forupe as firewalls is constant of the ruling class.
We do not have a valid substitute ruler as long as this... [+]
November 19 is World Bathing Day. Even today, in the twenty-first century, many workers here in the Basque Country do not have the right to use the toilet in their working days. Many transport workers are an example of this.
Toilets are the key to public health and play a... [+]
The housing problem is a structural problem that comes from far away. What should be a human right is nothing more than a subjective right. I say that it is a fraud because, although all the institutions and all the political parties say nice words, they do not grasp the... [+]
Why concerted teaching?
The new Education Act adopted by the CAV against most public school officials aims to ensure that concerted education is free of charge through the financing of public authorities. The Spanish State has also announced a significant increase in public... [+]
On November 15, we will celebrate in Errenteria-Orereta the three days organized by the different agents that make up Euskal Herria Digitala. This is a feminist digital self-defense workshop and a talk about democratic digitalisation.
The members of Movie Tech will offer the... [+]