Everyone knows that buying a brand new pair of trousers for 10 euros is not a good idea for the environment. Yet many people continue to opt for the cheapest clothes and an enormous wardrobe. This is partly due to the fact that the true impact of fast fashion is not properly communicated to the general public. These figures make that impact clear.

80,000,000 garments

are produced annually, that is four times more than in 2000.

25 times

more a big fashion company pays for advertising than for the wages of the workers who make their collections.

Sixty per cent

of Western women have uttered the words 'I have nothing to wear'.

55 euros

is the monthly minimum wage of a textile worker in Bangladesh.

811 percent

more textiles are thrown away today than in 1960, which amounts to 16 million tonnes of clothes.

Times 2

This is how much the garment industry grew between 2000 and 2014.

8 percent

is the fashion industry's share of global greenhouse gas emissions.

7 times

This is the average number of times we wear a garment before saying goodbye to it.

93 trillion litres of

litres of water a year are consumed by the global clothing industry.

Less than 1 percent of

of clothing is recycled into new clothes. Sad, but did you know you can do it yourself? Read all about it in this article packed with tips on how to recycle your own worn or non-fitting clothes.

Above all, know that the above figures do not necessarily have to be so high or low to provide us with clothes, but rather to provide them at rock bottom prices. Something or someone is always paying the price to make a garment and allow the supplier to make a profit. If the consumer can buy something at a very low price, it means that savings have been made elsewhere: on workers' wages or on the environment. In a nutshell, this is how fast fashion works.

Sources: 'This is a good guide' by Marieke Eyskoot (2017), Fashion United, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Ellen MacArthur Foundation