Fast fashion, inexpensive and widely available of-the-moment garments, has changed the way in which people buy and dump clothing. By selling large quantities of clothing at cheap prices, fast fashion has emerged as a dominant enterprize model, causing garment consumption to skyrocket.

While this transition might be heralded while the “democratization” of fashion where the newest styles are available to all or any classes of consumers, the human and environmental health threats connected with inexpensive clothing are hidden through the lifecycle of every garment. From the growth of water-intensive cotton, to the release of untreated dyes into local water sources, to worker's low wages and poor working conditions; the environmental and social costs associated with textile manufacturing are widespread.

In this paper, we posit that negative externalities at each step of the fast fashion supply chain have created a global environmental justice dilemma. While fast fashion offers consumers a chance to buy more clothes for less, those that work in or live near textile manufacturing facilities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental health hazards. Furthermore, increased consumption patterns have created an incredible number of a lot of textile waste in landfills and unregulated settings.

This is very applicable to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) the maximum amount of of the waste ultimately ends up in second-hand clothing markets. These LMICs often lack the supports and resources necessary to produce and enforce environmental and occupational safeguards to guard human health. We discuss the role of industry, policymakers, consumers, and scientists in promoting sustainable production and ethical consumption in a equitable manner.

Fast fashion is just a term used to spell it out the easily obtainable, inexpensively made fashion of today. The phrase “fast” describes how fast retailers can move designs from the catwalk to stores, keeping pace with constant demand for more and different styles. With the rise of globalization and growth of an international economy, supply chains have grown to be international, shifting the growth of fibers, the manufacturing of textiles, and the construction of garments to areas with cheaper labor. Increased consumption drives the production of inexpensive clothing, and costs are kept down by outsourcing production to low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The global health costs associated with the production of cheap clothing are substantial. While industrial disasters such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire have generated improved occupational protections and work standards in the United States, the exact same can't be said for LMICs. The hazardous working conditions that attracted regulatory attention in the United States and European Union have not been eliminated, but merely shifted overseas. The social costs associated with the global textile and garment industry are significant as well.

Defined as “all direct and indirect losses sustained by third persons or the general public as a result of unrestrained economic activities,” the social costs involved in the production of fast fashion include damages to the environment, human health, and human rights at each step over the production chain.

Environmental justice is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, because the “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of people regardless of race, color national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies”

.In the United States, this concept has primarily been found in the scientific literature and used to explain the disproportionate keeping superfund sites (hazardous waste sites) in or near communities of color. However, environmental justice, because it has been defined, is not limited by the United States and need not be constrained by geopolitical boundaries. The textile and garment industries, for instance, shift the environmental and occupational burdens associated with mass production and disposal from high income countries to the under-resourced (e.g. low income, low-wage workers, women) communities in LMICs.

Extending environmentally friendly justice framework to encompass the disproportionate impact experienced by those who produce and dump our clothing is vital to understanding the magnitude of global injustice perpetuated through the consumption of cheap clothing. In the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 which requires sustainable consumption and production included in national and sectoral plans, sustainable business practices, consumer behavior, and the reduction and elimination of fast fashion should all be considered a target of global environmental justice advocates.