The Global Effect
In the UK, 11 million tonnes of waste is being
buried underneath us (Marshall, 2014.) Fashion has adapted thoroughly on a worldwide
scale, with Fast Fashion becoming a key aspect
to consumers. According to a Cambridge University study, it was founded that since 2002
consumers have increased their buying habits
by a third, by 2006. Fast Fashion first emerged
in the late 1990’s when retailers began to adapt
their business plans to increase their planned
profit margin on a yearly basis (Ethical Fashion
Forum, 2013.) With Fast Fashion comes an
increase in clothing waste, leading onto plastic
and cardboard levels increasing drastically due
to a consumer habit adaption. This becomes
a repetitive circle, one that will not break
until consumers, leading fashion industries
or government legalise change. Alternatively
could this alteration need to be completed by
a law enforcement act through the actions of
the government, and followed through by local
councils. Does an encouraging force need to be
established to create a trend across the UK.
From the Government Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs 2015, it
indicated that the recycling rate in 2012 for
packaging waste had reached a figure of 61.4%.
Supermarket procedures have been recognised
as also increasing the wastage figure. Without
retailers setting a standard, consumers will
therefore not follow. With 11 million tonnes
of waste being sent to land fill per annum it
is clear that these figures are a shocking fact,
but somehow not surprising. With recycling
becoming a bigger issue in the UK, the spending habits of consumers consequently effects
the landfill sites less than it used to, but the
government created a legislation putting into
action recycling collections from both households and businesses.
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