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This is going to hurt, but it needs to be said: fashion is a disaster in terms of its environmental impacts. And as a nation, our fast fashion addiction is getting worse – thanks to surges in online shopping due to Covid-19.

The expression ‘mad as a hatter’ was in use 30 years before Lewis Carroll popularised it with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Mercury poisoning was an occupational hazard for hat makers in the 18th and 19th Centuries: the chemical was used in the production of felt, and prolonged exposure led to what was termed the ‘mad hatter disease’. Symptoms included tremors and pathological shyness and irritability – leading to doubts that Carroll’s eccentric milliner was a sufferer, with an article in the British Medical Journal suggesting “it could scarcely be said that the Mad Hatter suffered to any great extent from the desire to go unnoticed”. When it comes to the environmental impacts of the industry, fast fashion is often blamed. But high-end brands originate trends and generate demand for new styles, which are then mass produced by fast fashion companies for a fraction of the cost. And they’re often made in similar factories with similar conditions–and even similar materials.The numbers are stark: only 10–30% of clothes you donate to the charity shops will be sold by them and charity shops are so overwhelmed with clothing that’s basically waste. So where does all this clothing go? Traders and tailors in Accra’s Kantamanto market work hard to repurpose and sell the clothing that arrives on their shores. A recent report even found fashion companies, such as New Look and Next, are inadvertently funding Russia’s war on Ukraine by using polyester made from Russian oil. the mandatory return of containers that turn out to be filled with low-value textiles by exporters, coupled with fines; and,

Brands have to be committed to say: I'm going to eliminate this raw material polyester, for example, from my supply chain in five to 10 years' time, forcing people to find alternative ways, which are more sustainable. It is the brands' CEOs' responsibility to do that," Lee said. The EU strategy for sustainable textiles is expected to be published at the end of this month. It is as yet not certain whether it will put an end to this disgraceful trade. FAST FASHION = A DISASTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT And this isn’t just a fashion thing – it affects most consumer products from food to furniture, electronics, cars, cosmetics and cleaning products. Producing cheaply and selling for a vast profit is what these companies do. Circular solutions include using fabrics made from recycled ocean plastics, or reusing offcuts of older materials to make new pieces. These solutions limit the need for new fabrics like virgin polyester, or even biodegradable fabrics like cotton, which consumes a lot of water. So because of this very interdependent pyramid structure, this house of cards, that you’re talking about, what does reform of this system or radical change look like? Who could lead that?

Dangerous, low-paid work for ‘disposable’ clothes

Despite their skill, it takes an entire lifetime of toil for a garment worker to earn what a fashion CEO makes in four days. What we do know is that the unnecessary overproduction of clothing is a leading cause of climate change and plastic pollution. The demand for oil to make polyester is even fuelling Russia’s war, according to the Changing Markets Foundation.

Or it might be by joining up with communities that sell, swap, rent, mend or upcycle – like Sustainable Fashion Week. It could also be through making: learn to sew, crochet or knit to see just how much work goes into making one simple garment. The sheer numbers are dizzying. All this oil, just for clothes? All this labour and energy expended – to end up as waste in a pile, to be buried or burned? A recent episode of the Dutch television programme ‘ De prijsknaller’ (the best deal) showed what happens to the contents of the containers. The clothing is first sorted. The bulk, not suitable for resale as second-hand clothing in the Netherlands, is sold on to Eastern Europe. The clothes are again sorted there. What is not suitable for the local market is sold on to Africa. There too the clothes are again sorted. What is again not suitable for trade ends up on a huge mountain of waste. With so many links in the export chain, nobody takes responsibility for the environmental damage that is wreaked. THE SITUATION IN ACCRA, GHANASo the use of synthetic fabrics is a huge part of fashion’s role in climate change. Clothing is a source of microplastics