Fast Fashion – Sustainability and Climate Change. Comparative Study in Croatia and Portugal

Abstract

The fast fashion model is one where the fashion industry produces pieces of clothing in keeping with the latest trends, with low storage and high turnover, making the marketing of the products quick and giving consumers new clothes at affordable prices while increasing the amount of possible produced textile residues from being reused. This article examines the concept of fast fashion and its impact on climate change through an observational analytic comparative study of Portugal and Croatia. Using this type of study, the investigator samples a source population cross-sectionally and then retrospectively assesses the histories of exposures and outcomes of the subjects over a specified time period. The target populations of this study are that of Portugal and Croatia. A questionnaire was conducted, and additional data were collected from the analysis of waste reports and from Eurostat. The results were evaluated using the IBM SPSS Statistics program through descriptive statistics and the Chi-Square independence test. Results show that Portugal has a larger volume of clothing purchases as compared to Croatia, while at the same time Portugal produces more textile waste so the impact on the environment is higher. One of the main reasons associated with the higher production of textile waste is related to the increase of fast fashion. It is therefore important to encourage a circular economy, to stress the importance of stimulating the recycling of textile materials and emphasise the need for increasing the collection of clothing, as well as to invest in recycling technologies.