Is there an alternative solution to fast fashion?

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At the moment, the RMG industry on Bangladesh employs around four million people, a large most them women with dependent families. Through the coronavirus pandemic we've witnessed, first-hand, the devastating effect on these personnel if we take away orders from factories. Experts from the US-established Worker Rights Consortium recently carried out a report which found garment employees are going hungry in apparel supply chains. The WRC surveyed almost 400 personnel across 158 garment factories in 9 countries. The survey respondents reported they happen to be increasingly unable to get adequate food for his or her families-and most personnel said they anticipated the crisis to develop worse in the months ahead.

One only needs to follow the neighborhood news found in Bangladesh to see that days gone by nine months have already been incredibly problematic for garment workers. And we also understand that, as a garment development hub, Bangladesh is far more exposed than its opponents as about 84 percent of our exports happen to be from the garment sector.

Who knows how many jobs will be shed as a result of this pandemic and who recognizes how things might play out in 2021? What we can say for certain is that recent months have provided us an insight into what might happen if the global fashion sector decided to switch direction and approach away from fast fashion. And it makes for a frightening looking at.

As everybody knows, there is talk in the global fashion industry of becoming more sustainable by generating clothing which lasts longer, and which is stronger. Addititionally there is talk of recycling and the circular overall economy in the apparel sector.

But if the quickly fashion tap is switched off that spells seriously bad news for Bangladesh. Fast fashion is probably not great for the surroundings, but it is usually brilliant for job creation. It has given consistent, reliable job for millions of girls in Bangladesh. Remove fast fashion and proceed to slow fashion and you shift from a business which is normally employing four million personnel to one which is employing, declare, one million. Maybe even less. That is the stark reality we are considering.

The pertinent question is where will the three million of the four million personnel used in the industry go? Their work in the country's apparel industry provides uplifted them from the abyss of poverty and empowered women in a patriarchal society. These personnel are usually unskilled and uneducated-for whom there is no other viable sector in the united states to be employed.

Then exactly what will these workers do for money? Let's certainly not pretend that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) or other aid agencies should come with their rescue. Bangladesh has to stand alone two feet. Eliminate fast fashion, in fact it is in serious trouble. Possess we, as a business, thought these exact things through? It is people and planet, remember.

This is why most of us need to be thinking about what the near future might hold and how we can move towards a business which is sustainable as well as which supports jobs for workers. The closest thing I have seen to the is definitely recycling and the circular economy, and the only brand I have seen presenting this any serious attention may be the Swedish giant, H&M.

H&M is normally criticised for growing the quickly fashion model however the company is a true friend to Bangladesh. Moreover, it is the just major retailer which is definitely considering seriously about how precisely our sector might look a decade down the collection. The business has invested more than any other organisation in supporting the shift towards circular supply chains. For instance, it recently reached a multi-year agreement with the innovative Swedish textile recycling organization Renewcell to supply it with a large number of tonnes of its virgin top quality Circulose fibres which are made from unusable textile waste. H&M has now invested more than USD 100 million into textile recycling exploration. This suggests that it is serious-the company is not just undertaking this as a PR workout.

Where does Bangladesh fit into all of this? First and foremost, Bangladesh needs to be at the forefront of the recycling revolution. If we maneuver away from fast fashion, we are in need of replacement jobs, which is where they will come from.

That is why I am encouraged by the recent launch of the Circular Fashion Partnership, a cross-sectoral project aimed at supporting the development of the recycling industry in Bangladesh by converting post-production fashion waste into new fashion products and seeking solutions for Covid-19-related build-up of deadstock.

But this is just a one-year partnership, and we must be thinking long-term here. We are looking for more initiatives such as this and we have to believe closely about how we are able to support H&M in its journey towards a circular overall economy.

The fashion industry generally is under huge pressure to be more sustainable, and customers are travelling that. It really is our job as a significant production hub to aid them along that highway, by investing in people, technology and operations.

Fast fashion may disappear one day. Let's certainly not allow millions of careers in Bangladesh to vanish with it. Let's support our customers as they changeover towards recycled products which are better for the surroundings while featuring meaningful, financially rewarding do the job for our garment workers.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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