Social media provides wide and inexpensive items for many, including college students, in fast fashion, an industry that aids in global waste via landfills and trash bins.
Seventy-two percent of college students in a survey said they had purchased fast fashion in the past year, according to a 2024 article from FashionUnited.
Fast fashion is the mass production of cheap, stylish clothing, rooting back to the 1970s with the rise of technology and utilization of massive factories and textiles, according to a 2024 article from Treehugger, a website that dedicates efforts towards sustainability.
In Columbia, however, the abundance of thrift stores and secondhand shops like Strange Times Vintage, Pannerpete Vintage and Clothes Mentor aid in the sustainability of clothing, making a clear distinction from fast fashion, Strange Times Vintage owner Cammy Thompson said.
"You can buy 30 items for $100 or whatever, and OK, you've got 30 items for $100, but will you have any of this by next year? Probably not, and that's the difference really," Thompson said.
Fast fashion is typically made of materials that are cheap and are easily damaged, lasting for a short time. The average American throws away about 70 pounds of clothing and textiles each year, according to Treehugger.
For college-aged consumers, the appeal for fast fashion is the fast delivery to people's doors, the inexpensiveness of the clothing and its availability all across the internet on sites like SHEIN and Temu, second-year environmental science student Jenna Rechsteiner said.
"Obviously, if you're scrolling and you want something to wear out or something, and you see that it's $2 on SHEIN, you might want to go ahead and purchase it," Rechsteiner said.
Rechsteiner is part of Sustainable Carolina. Sustainable Carolina's zero waste team raises awareness in all aspects of sustainability on campus and within fashion. The organization holds various informational seminars and even a sustainable fashion show but also discusses other subjects like sustainable living and eating habits.
"We chose to do some of the seminars because sometimes, it's just a matter of not having facts or knowing, or knowing where to even look," Rechsteiner said.
Supporting local thrift and consignment stores like Strange Times is one way to avoid fast fashion, Thompson said, as the store has already verified and purchased the clothing at least once.
Young audiences and college students often drift towards fast fashion for one-time events and its overall ease for a variety of occasions, according to FashionUnited.
"I have a friend who drives me crazy because they will throw a party, and say 'Everyone check out what Amazon has,'" Thompson said. "I'm like, 'Dude, you could really send people my way, I'm a local business.' Even if it's not me (and my store), you could just be like 'Hey, you could get this, here are the shops you could get this out of in Columbia.'"
Conservation Voters of South Carolina Land, Water and Ocean Policy Associate and USC alumna Tanya Trinh agree that secondhand clothing and thrifting is a longer-lasting method for keeping clothing in rotation.
The Conservation Voters of South Carolina aims to fight for South Carolina's clean water, air and land through South Carolina's political leaders according to their website. Additionally, Trinh provides new policy options and collaborates with business partners for each legislative period to make environmental changes for the community, she said.
The only way to solve the issue of environmental harm by way of wasting textiles is to provide more urgency towards the issue of environmental waste throughout the school system, as many tend to ignore it, Halston Mattingly, a USC alum and Dream About Vintage owner in Arizona said.
"It's out of sight, out of mind for the US consumers," Mattingly said. "Even if it (the problem) is right in front of us, sometimes it still won't really change our perception."
Having intention behind clothing purchases plays a big role. It can change how often you have to restock on specific items, such as buying cheaper or more expensive white T-shirts, Mattingly said.
"One is produced without any thought behind it and one is thoughtfully produced," Mattingly said. "The thoughtfully produced one could last you 10 times the amount of time, but only be five times the price, so there's your value. You're getting double the value, even though you're spending five times more, it's lasting 10 times as long."
To create the most amount of awareness towards fast fashion and its effects, people need to be educated about the process of what happens after their purchase, Thompson said.
"I think it's less about showing them how to spot something, and more just making them aware that the impacts after this purchase," Thompson said. "In the grand scheme of things, your one purchase one day doesn't matter, but when it compiles with everybody's one purchase, that's when it tips the scales and makes a difference."