Fast fashion and its impact on the environment

If you're looking for that tacky Christmas jumper to provide a dose of light relief from 2020, you've come to the wrong place. Besides the pandemic, we still have a planet to save. The problem is cheap clothes with a short shelf life. It's called fast fashion. Since World War II, what we wear has grown cheaper and cheaper while coming from further and further away. We ask about the scale of the carbon footprint and social cost, and how TikTok and Instagram have further fed that buying frenzy. The world's favourite sport is not football. It is shopping.

Cape Verdean inventor and environmentalist Carlos Silva wants to help protect the environment by producing cosmetic products free of perfumes and artificial preservatives.

Singaporean Sue-Anne Chng used to wear a different outfit on all 15 days of the Lunar New Year, when it is customary to don new clothes to symbolise a fresh start. But this year she will wear second-hand items exchanged for her old clothes at a store catering to people concerned about the impact of fast fashion on the environment. Several swapping initiatives, from permanent shops to pop-up events, have appeared in the affluent city-state in a bid to encourage consumers to make the most of what is already in their closets.

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Fast fashion has made buying clothes cheaper and easier. It's terrible for the environment because a lot of garments end up in the trash. But businesses are looking for ways to move towards a circular model in fashion.

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Fashion giants H&M and Zara are producing eco-collections that claim to reduce the negative aspects of fast fashion. Their brands, they say, are becoming more sustainable. But is it true? Or is it just greenwashing?

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The textile industry is the backbone of Pakistan's economy, accounting for 8.5 percent of its GDP. But it's also a source of major pollution, with untreated waste flowing into the groundwater and factories relying heavily on coal. Our correspondents report on the industry's impact in Faisalabad, Pakistan's main textile hub, where clothes are produced for the biggest fast fashion brands.