According to CX Dive, 90 percent of customers expect free returns as standard. However, consumers may be surprised to learn that returned clothing often gets trashed or burned.
The standard of free clothing returns is becoming a major contributor to textile waste, reports Fibre2Fashion, and high return rates are leading to pollution and excessive emissions.
What's happening?
Return rates for online fashion orders can reach 30-40%, according to Fibre2Fashion, and processing returned items is often costlier than sending them to landfills, especially when garments are damaged or outdated.
Fashion is already the third-most-polluting industry in the world, according to Earth.org. Fast fashion is designed to keep up with rapidly changing trends and is consumed at such a high rate that consumers' expectations for its durability have significantly diminished.
Annually, the fashion industry produces 92 million tons of textile waste, as Fibre2Fashion observed, and fast fashion brands are disproportionate contributors to this waste.
When considering other factors like transportation and the decomposition of fabrics from returns, fast fashion's impact becomes even more significant.
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Synthetic fabrics, which dominate fast fashion, can take centuries to decompose, and they release microplastics and toxic chemicals into soil and water as they break down, so more pollution from more returns inevitably harms the environment.
Why are fast fashion returns concerning?
This cycle of overproduction and overconsumption perpetuated by fast fashion drains natural resources and pollutes ecosystems.
Pollution from fast fashion litters waterways across the world, and according to the United Nations Environment Programme, fashion already contributes as much as 8% of global carbon emissions. More transportation and waste associated with returns will deepen fast fashion's impact on the environment.
Beyond environmental harm, this system exploits low-wage workers in garment factories, where fast turnarounds and low prices lead to dangerous, inhumane conditions.
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Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?
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Giving me money back 💰 Some brands also greenwash by promoting sustainability initiatives while continuing to operate unsustainably as they flood the market with low-quality apparel and trash their returns.
What's being done about fashion waste?
France is one country that has recognized the impacts of fast fashion and taken policy measures to regulate overproduction and deceptive marketing. Regulating fast fashion is key to changing the systems that hurt people and the planet in the name of convenience.
The fashion industry can curb waste by bringing back paid returns and improving garments' lifespans, but the only true way for fashion to become sustainable is for it to become slow. Slow fashion is "a movement that advocates for environmental and social justice in the fashion industry," according to Earth.org.
To combat fast fashion and save money, consumers can wear what they have, purchase fewer new items, and thrift items secondhand.
As the late fashion icon and esteemed designer Vivienne Westwood once said, "Buy less. Choose well. Make it last."
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