It can feel impossible to stem the tide of fast fashion. Manufacturers have spent a long time honing their process to extract every drop of efficiency and profitability they can. They market and advertise and constantly pump out new styles and designs. And they’re dirt cheap.
It’s hard to compete with something that costs so much less. Even if most people wanted to buy something that’s high quality, if they can’t afford it, the cheap fast fashion option might make more sense from a number’s perspective. But this only perpetuates the problem of low-quality garments made using exploitative practices and harmful materials that damage the environment.
So, how do you stop fast fashion? You can try to educate people about the serious ethical and sustainable dilemmas of fast fashion, encourage people to thrift, fix old clothes and save up for an outfit that will last a lot longer, but that might only get you so far.
Or, as the French have done, you can implement laws that target and penalise the fast fashion companies specifically.
I got really excited when I heard about the new laws in France that recently got passed by their senate in an almost unanimous verdict. But will these laws really be effective at reducing the impact of fast fashion on the planet and the fashion industry itself? Would such laws even work here Down Under?
Let’s talk about it.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
How will France’s new fast fashion laws work?
The new French laws targeting fast fashion brands implement a rating system that scores companies across 16 different factors to measure their impact on a variety of factors like water consumption, recycling and re-wearability, carbon emissions, and the impact to biodiversity, among others.
Companies are then hit with a tax per product based on their score – the lower the score, the higher the tax per product – to a max of 50% of the price of the garment.
Advertising from fast fashion brands is also going to be banned across all marketing channels – social media posts, influencer sponsorships, online adverts, television – all of it! This is huge, and shouldn’t be undersold. Of course, the brands might divert money they would have spent on advertising to pay for these levies, and they might just divert attention to other markets, but at least the French are doing something to combat fast fashion in their country.
Additionally, these companies must tell customers about the environmental impact of their products – probably in a text box on their site that these companies will want to make as least visible as possible.
These laws do not apply to all fashion companies, but specifically goes after fast-fashion companies like Shein and Temu.
These laws are a world first and do the most to really highlight the environmental impacts of fast fashion. By adding a tax per product that’s based on these environmental scores, the laws incentivise these companies to lift their game while also trying to stem the tide of fast fashion by banning advertising.
What else is the EU doing to combat fast fashion?
The European Union for a while has been working on improving the environmental impact of fashion, and has developed a Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, with the focus being on the lifecycle of garments. The goal is to increase the amount of time garments spend in wardrobes before going in the bin, and then finding ways to recycle them so less gets sent to landfills.
It’s estimated that 33% of new clothes get thrown out within a year of being bought.
The strategy specifically calls for new design requirements to make clothes last longer, be easier to repair and easier to recycle, as well as better information for consumers and stricter rules on requirements and marketing so companies can’t ‘greenwash.’ That’s when they say they’re improving sustainability by using false or misleading claims.
It’s estimated 39% of these claims are untrue and deceptive.
These are all great – but there’s just one problem. The focus is on companies operating within EU member states. While a better informed populace may stop shopping at overseas fast fashion brands and buy less stuff from them online, it’s a little unclear how much of a difference it will make to the biggest and the worst offenders in the fashion industry.
That’s what makes the French laws so bold – they’re going straight for the source.
Could Australia implement similar laws to stop fast fashion?
I’d like to think the Australian government could take similar action, but it’s unlikely they would take such a big measure, at least not at first. The population of France is 69.1million, compared to Australia’s ~27 million, so by sheer weight of scale, the problem isn’t as bad here in terms of overall numbers.
The Government scheme Seamless targets the local fashion industry to reduce their carbon footprint – optional for brands to participate in, and they have to pay 4 cents per sale. A far cry from France’s $9 tax. Not to mention no prohibitions on advertising like the French have done, which is truly a massive crack of the whip.
But paying extra to compensate for environmental impacts does not mean the environmental impacts are any less, just that there is specific funding to help do something about it.
Considering that – Aus Fashion Council – 97% of clothes sold here are made overseas, it’s a drop in the ocean and little effective change really happens.
There is also a waste policy that focuses on a circular economy, but there is no set target for the textile industry, even though clothing and fashion makes up a huge chunk of waste here in Australia and across the globe.
It’s a start, but much of this is still in the early stages here in Australia, while in France they’ve been taking these steps for a while. We have a great emphasis on recycling and there is more awareness about fast fashion, but it still leaves a lot to the individual.
I’d love to see the Australian Government take a stronger stance and enact laws that combat fast fashion. The Aus Retail Association is calling for the government to force compliance with Australian standards. How many stories have you heard of people getting burnt wearing a flammable cheap garment from Temu?
Having higher standards for clothing could be one way the Government could do something. They already have standards, but need to enforce them, especially for imports from fast fashion brands.
Ultimately, I’d love to see a massive change across all levels of the country, where clothing becomes valued and looked after, and not seen as a ‘throw away’ item. Where clothing is made of good quality materials, produced and sourced and manufactured locally from all stages of development, where people are paid fairly for their work and consumers have a greater understanding of what goes into it. A landscape where the government supports slow fashion and small fashion brands and develops policy that helps reduce waste and encourage local sustainable production. It would mean clothing would cost more, but I’d rather that world, where people save up to buy an outfit or two that lasts and can be passed down and is treasured, rather than clothes thrown away after one or two wears.
It might seem like a tall order right now, one that might never come to pass, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on that ideal, or stop working towards it. Some brands are making changes now, like Patagonia’s repair and recycling program. And with France making a world first bold step towards change, maybe other countries can find a way to follow suit.
