(Source: https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/style/china-shein-lacks-disclosures-false-statements-factories/)
Ultra fast fashion, ultra fast pollution.
In my previous post, I highlighted that the rise of SHEIN is a cause for concern due to its extensive outreach. If consumers continue to over purchase and dispose, the impact on the environment can be exponential.
While I have spoken extensively about how the fashion industry is one of the world’s most polluting sectors, there isn’t much official research that fully summarizes the impacts of its perpetrators. Similarly, throughout my research on SHEIN, it is increasingly evident that there is a lack of studies and indicators to show the actual impact resulting from these businesses. Nevertheless, as I would demonstrate in the rest of this post, I hope we continue to remain critical of how and where we purchase from.
In SHEIN’s Defense?
In an interview regarding their environmental impact, SHEIN acknowledges to tabloid newspaper, The Sun, that ““we recognize the high carbon footprint of air cargo and will be working with industry peers to identify ways of reducing this impact. We are assessing the carbon footprint of our manufacturing base and will be working with our supply chain partners to set and achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals”. In which, earlier last year, SHEIN’s Carbon Report 2021 indeed showed that there is reduction in total operational emissions from 268,239 tonnes of CO2 down to 232,503.
To be honest, I thought this sounded quite promising. However, as we delve deeper into the production methods of SHEIN, it becomes rather explicit that their effort to remain environmentally friendly remains superficial.
For example, SHEIN utilizes large volumes of synthetic fabrics in manufacturing their collections, which is estimated at about 2800 new clothes each week. Inevitably, these fabrics contribute to the collective pollution caused by synthetic textiles, which production alone emits about 706 billion kilograms of greenhouse gasses as of 2015. Aside from releasing tonnes of air pollutants into our atmosphere, polyester fabrics are also responsible for distributing microplastics into our water streams (Cesa et al., 2017). This has resulted in the build up of toxic effects in our marine life, inhibiting their growth, reproductive capacities and immunities (Li et al., 2021).
It is also easy to hide actual environmental impacts through seemingly official certifications. SHEIN claims to be ‘ISO Certified’. However, ISO sets out the standards of quality, safety and environmental impacts of manufacturing. These standards range greatly from ISO 9001 to ISO 14001. Such certifications are not accredited by ISO per se, but require external sources of strict verifications. So while it sounds pleasing to the public that SHEIN is striving towards being green, deeper analysis only reveals that these efforts are not actually in practice.
In addition to these, practices like individually wrapping each clothing item in a plastic zip lock bag, just goes to show that large problems like plastic pollution and excessive waste is being ignored.
The Wider Implication: What SHEIN Teaches Us
Through these two posts, we have witnessed how the market of fast fashion is changing rapidly with new technologies and consumption motivators. However, instead of working towards better environmental ethics, it seems that many large corporations, like SHEIN, are hiding behind loopholes and loosely defined conditions of production. In addition, the rise of consumers that follow SHEIN’s effective marketing schemes also reveals the tendencies of consumers to purchase rather passively and non-critically.
McKinsey warns us that if consumers from developing countries choose to buy more clothes as their purchasing power increases, 80% of the population from these emergent countries will achieve the same clothing- consumption levels as Western markets by 2025.
It is therefore, all the more important that consumers scrutinize their own consumption habits, and to be increasingly aware of the damaging practices that different companies are propagating. My research on SHEIN has truly highlighted the need to stay vigilant in our choices. I hope that as consumers actively question the companies we support, then perhaps then, they would be more motivated to conduct better environmentally friendly methods of production.
COMING UP
Following the thought that online shopping is on the rise, I will be covering how our online shopping habits have resulted in the surge of plastic pollution!
Stay tuned, and stay concerned,
Hui Jie
References
Atkinson, J., & Chamberlai, G. (2021, Dec 18). SHEIN AIN'T GREEN Shein pumps out tonnes more pollution than its rivals to cash in on Britain’s cheap clothes obsession. Retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/17076799/fast-fashion-company-more-pollution-than-rivals/.
Cesa, F. S., Turra, A., & Baruque-Ramos, J. (2017). Synthetic fibers as microplastics in the marine environment: a review from textile perspective with a focus on domestic washings. Science of the total environment, 598, 1116-1129.
Koch, J., Frommeyer, B., & Schewe, G. (2020). Online shopping motives during the COVID-19 pandemic—lessons from the crisis. Sustainability, 12(24), 10247.
Li, Y., Sun, Y., Li, J., Tang, R., Miu, Y., & Ma, X. (2021). Research on the Influence of Microplastics on Marine Life. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 631, No. 1, p. 012006). IOP Publishing.
Nguyen, T. (2021, August 10). Shein is the future of fast fashion. Is that a good thing?. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22573682/shein-future-of-fast-fashion-explained.
Remy, N., Speelman, E., & Swartz, S. (2016, October 20). Style that’s sustainable: A new fast-fashion formula. McKinsey. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/style-thats-sustainable-a-new-fast-fashion-formula.
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