Fashions Worst Offenders.

The fashion industry creates almost 100 million tons of textile waste annually, a statistic largely attributed to a handful of fast-fashion mega brands. See who made the list of worst offenders.

If the fashion industry's environmental offenders were placed in a police line-up, you could guess the worst of them. They're the ones adding hundreds if not thousands of new, ultra-cheap items each week. Their websites don't mention any meaningful efforts to incorporate recycled materials or pay their workers reliable wages. Others employ greenwashing techniques with no real sustainability measures to back them up. Information on their exact supply chains is murky at best. These brands just produce and produce without regard for the eventual lifecycle of their clothing. Over 100 billion new items of clothing are made each year, and the majority end up incinerated or in landfills within five years.

Fashion companies over-order by 30-40% every season.

Most fashion companies over-order by 30-40% every season. The manufacturing, of course, takes some time, even with the fast-paced deadlines. Sales are guessed in advance based on seasonal changes and predictions in consumer trends and demand. Very few suppliers are paid upfront for orders, and they bear the brunt of the cost until the brands pay - which sometimes takes several months even once the orders are delivered. There's a serious lack of transparency in the industry, an absence of data that experts believe is intentional to minimize public outcry. One study of 250 major clothing retailers around the world found that just 14% disclosed how many products they made annually, and less than a third demonstrated commitments to remove toxic chemicals from their production process or to decarbonize.

Here's the who's who of the fashion industry's worst polluters.

Inditex

While you may not be sporting items with an Inditex tag, you've likely worn one of their brands. Inditex is the largest clothing retailer in the world and the parent company of Zara, a Spanish retailer with over 2,000 physical stores. Inditex reports that its family of brands produces 500,000 tons of products annually. That's well over a billion articles of new clothing added each year. Last year, even with the pandemic, Inditex reported almost $25 billion in profits. Many credit Inditex with the overall shift in the industry towards fast fashion. Zara was one of the first brands to churn out hundreds of designs each week, encouraging a fast-paced, hyper-consumer mentality that shows no signs of slowing down.

H&M

H&M is the second-largest clothing retailer in the world, with over 5,000 physical locations and almost $23 billion in profits last year. The Swedish powerhouse promotes its in-store recycling programs, only 35% of items collected actually end up repurposed - most often as insulation or carpet padding. The company estimates it makes half a billion garments annually, and less than 1% is made from recycled fabrics. In recent years, Danish reporters accused H&M of secretly burning unsold clothes, though the company argued that more than 60 tons of garments were incinerated due to containing potentially dangerous chemicals (not sure if this defense is any less disconcerting).

Gap

Gap Inc., which owns popular brands like Old Navy and the Banana Republic, has tried to dodge its own dirty secrets over the past decade. The California-based company was once a powerhouse for 90s fashion, known for its comfortable jeans and brightly colored clothes. However, Gap Inc.'s multi-colored garments contributed to a major environmental disaster. In 2013, the brand was directly connected to a textile mill in Indonesia that was dumping untreated, highly toxic waste into a nearby river. Ironically, the pollution scandal came to light just two years after Gap's rollout of its Social Responsibility program.

Uniqlo

Japanese retailer Uniqlo reported the third-highest global sales at the end of the 2020 fiscal year. The brand has over 1,000 physical stores around the world and is frequently in the top ten list of most-visited fashion websites. While Uniqlo makes a big show of its sustainability efforts in its marketing campaigns and commitments, the majority of Uniqlo clothes are not made with sustainable materials, nor does it disclose its actual progress in reducing carbon emissions. In 2015, one of the Uniqlo-affiliated garment factories in Indonesia was under investigation for human rights abuses. Rather than participating in a solution, Uniqlo promptly exited its relationship with the factory, shutting down operations and causing thousands to lose their jobs. Meanwhile, Uniqlo's owner remains one of the wealthiest men in Japan. Rather than participating in a solution, Uniqlo promptly exited its relationship with the factory, shutting down operations and causing thousands to lose their jobs.

L Brands

L Brands owns a variety of your favorite shopping mall storefronts, most notably Victoria's Secret. The popular lingerie company received an onslaught of negative media attention in recent years due to allegations of misogyny and bullying towards its models, as well as its reluctance to hire plus-size women. Victoria's secret is also highly criticized for its wasteful practices, including throwing out undamaged products after a store closure. The brand makes no effort to improve the transparency of its environmental footprint. In 2011, Victoria's Secret pledged to eliminate the toxic chemicals used in its supply chain by 2020 — yet no performance data was ever published.

Shein

Shein is an online-only, ultra-cheap Chinese fast fashion brand. Its strategic use of social media platforms assisted in the company's massive popularity among younger generations. Shein adds 500 new products every day and is frequently caught up in public accusations, including copyright infringement, racist graphics, and misinformation about their labor standards. Shein demonstrates no commitment to reducing waste or greenhouse gas emissions, yet it's the most-popular clothing website in the world, topping Nike, H&M, and even Zara.

ASOS

Major online retailer ASOS boasts that 5,000 new items are released weekly to its website. The British behemoth enjoyed significant earnings during the pandemic, practically doubling its profits since 2018. Meanwhile, ASOS warehouse employees were overworked and had limited water and bathroom breaks to keep up with the demand for quick delivery — the brand strives for a 48-hour delivery window. Yet when employees spoke out about their mental health, the company quickly fired them. Beyond the alarming human rights concerns, ASOS admits that 35% of the materials used throughout its design process are tossed out. While the brand has shared some lofty carbon reduction goals, there is no actual plan to achieve them.

When employees spoke out about their mental health, the company quickly fired them.

Boohoo

Boohoo was launched in 2006, designed to capitalize on social media-based shopping trends and launch a new phenomenon of not just fast fashion, but ultra-fast fashion. Boohoo's profits soared throughout Covid19, preying on young shoppers through Instagram and Tiktok. However, it did nothing to keep workers safe at the height of the pandemic, paying less than minimum wage and not enforcing any social distancing. Boohoo often releases over 100 new items every single day and a turnaround of just two weeks from design to the actual sale of a garment. Cutting social and environmental corners is the only way this kind of pace is possible.

Conclusion

These companies rely on cheap labor and environmentally degrading practices to function, but they also recognize that their profits plummet when these conditions reach the public eye. Following the worker's rights scandal in 2020, Boohoo's market value dropped by almost 2 billion dollars. Young consumers care about these issues, so these retailers avoid transparency at all costs — a dodgy habit made even easier for online-only brands. While almost half of the biggest fast fashion brands publish sustainability and social justice goals, only a small fraction actually follows through with any real progress on these commitments. Only 6% share how many items are incinerated or sent to the landfill, a practice used for unsold garments or designed to maintain an item's exclusivity. These policies are pervasive throughout the fast fashion industry and are not isolated to the offenders above — though these perpetrators certainly set the misguided standards.