When you write to these companies about labor issues, they'll send you a code of conduct, which says that they take responsibility for the conditions under which their products are made. But when a bill was submitted to Congress called "The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act", the same companies said that it would be an impediment to free trade. Companies have gotten laws to protect themselves, but what about the workers?
The ecosystem and the fashion industry
Pesticides are also widely used in the garment industry, especially when it comes to cotton. The Punjab region is the largest user of pesticides in India. Dr. Pritpal Singh says there are negative effects on human health, and a dramatic rise of birth defects, cancers, and mental illness in the region. The big companies are ignoring the after-effects of pesticides and fertilizers and do not really give it a second thought.
Our purchasing habits
The documentary touches a little bit on advertising and how it heavily influences buying habits. These ads tie the consumption of their product to happiness and satisfaction, causing people to consume more.
Today, we purchase over 80 billion new pieces of clothing each year, which is 400% more than the amount we bought two decades ago. The number of clothes and textiles that are being thrown away has increased steadily over the last 10 years.
Fashion should not be seen as a disposable product. The average American throws away 82 pounds of textile waste every year, and most of that is nonbiodegradable and just sits in the landfills for at least 200 years releasing harmful gases into the air.
Only about 10% of the clothes we donate actually get sold in local thrift stores and the clothing is then dumped in developing countries like Haiti.
Fashion designer Stella McCartney says the fashion industry needs to stop and think about how it's been working and question and challenge it and that the fashion industry should work in a way that is not harmful to the planet.
Fashion is the second most polluting industry on earth. Not only is fashion using a huge amount of natural resources and creating staggering environmental effects, but this impact also is not even measured.
American economist Richard Wolff says the problem is ultimately within the system itself. Capitalism is the reason why the fashion industry looks like it does today. When operating in this system, all one cares about is profit.
When it comes to the environment, capital cannot have limits on its growth, but we all know that the natural world has limits. There are defined limits the world can sustain in terms of production, trade, transport, and distribution and we've already overstepped a lot of those limits.
Happy consumers, unhappy garment workers and the true cost of the industry
Towards the end of the film, there were shots of people buying clothes, having fun, and fashion shows combined with shots of the worker's conditions and how unhappy they look, showing how people are not thinking about what goes into the making of a garment.
The documentary ends with the people that were interviewed throughout the film, saying what they think will and should be done about "the true cost" of the garment industry:
- There will probably be a significant change in the industry over the next 10 years, whether it's in time or not is another question.
- We need to stop treating people in ways that are just about profit, but instead, treat people in a real and human way.
- We need to spread industry around the world and let the benefits be shared globally and do it in an orderly, reasonable, and careful way.
- We need to look at the land, not as a commodity, but as the very basis of our life, as mother earth.