PHOTO: Prudence Earl on Unsplash
Many people are aware that we have enough clothes on the planet to clothe the next six generations. More alarmingly, approximately 30% of clothes produced are never sold and a truckload of textile garbage is sent to landfill or incinerated every second. While much action has been taken to address poor labour rights, carbon emissions and water usage in the fashion industry — the global community has yet to take firm action to address overproduction and overconsumption within our supply chains.
Fashion blogs such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle tell their readership that the answer to ending fast fashion lies upon the consumer. Telling us to: mend our clothes, choose clothes that promote longevity, shop from small, sustainable businesses, adopt a ‘less is more’ approach and to shop second-hand. All of which tell our consumers that today’s overconsumption problem can be solved by us — not businesses.
Thrifting is often celebrated as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion. Purchasing clothes that otherwise would have ended up in landfill, thereby promoting a circular economy. But without challenging the core principles of consumption, the aspirations of thrifting being sustainable begin to lose their weight. In her book, ‘A Brief History of Thrift’, Alison Hulme describes thrifting as “capitalism’s handmaiden”, arguing that thrifting has turned from a necessity to a societal trend that feeds into, and exacerbates, our current overconsumption habits—titling it “consumptive thrift”.
This is supported by the rebound effect, which proposes that when commodities are cheaper, individuals will consume the product at a higher rate, thereby counteracting the expected benefit of the cheaper product. Thus, the cheap price tags of second-hand items enable individuals to consume more for the same price as one new item, thereby exacerbating global overconsumption and fitting neatly within neoliberal economies’ continual need for economic growth.
While there is no denying that thrifting is beneficial for the environment, without challenging the consumption narrative and placing corporate responsibility on fast fashion brands, thrifting alone will never solve our overconsumption and overproduction problems. These issues are the root causes of our triple planetary crisis and fast fashion is ‘one of the world’s most polluting sectors’– causing 10% of global CO2 emissions and consuming 79 billion m³ of water per year.
International Frameworks
While United Nations frameworks exist to promote labour rights and limit the environmental impact of the fashion industry, such as the UNFCCC’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, there are no concrete regulations that combat textile overproduction and overconsumption. Understandably, consumption drives the global economy, therefore there has been a reluctance from the international community to combat these issues.
One of the main international frameworks that address global overconsumption is the United Nations Environmental Programme’s (UNEP) Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook 2023, written for fashion communicators, such as brand managers, marketers and influencers. The Playbook is designed to provide guiding principles on fashion communication, including; promoting transparency, countering greenwashing, reducing messages that perpetuate overconsumption, promoting a circular economy, promoting alternative versions of success and empowering consumers to take action against businesses.
“Storytellers, imagemakers and role models need to help portray alternative models of status and success, decoupling identity from newness and recalibrating what is deemed aspirational so as to social proof a sustainable future.”
– Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook 2023
In publishing the Communication Playbook, there is a limited number of restrictions placed on businesses. Most of these guidelines fall upon consumers which aim to ‘[motivate] the public to advocate for what is needed of the system.’ With this framework being the only framework at a global level addressing overconsumption — yet failing to place any concrete actions on corporations within their supply chains, the issue is still placed largely on consumers.
In addition, the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, composed of UN agencies and allied organisations, aims to provide a forum for collaboration between its members in advocating for sustainable fashion with a focus on knowledge sharing. The Alliance is a step in the right direction, however with its main role being coordination, as opposed to regulation, there is a greater need for the international community to enhance regulation of the fashion industry.
France as a Global leader?
France has proposed a new bill, No. 1557, in June 2025 that proposes placing restrictions on fashion companies in an attempt to stem overproduction and overconsumption. The Bill proposes a tax of up to €10 (AU$16.59) per fast fashion item, with a proportion of the tax to be used by eco-organisation to channelled into fashion recycling infrastructure. The Bill suggests the ban of the word ‘free’ in advertising, such as ‘free shipping’ and ‘free returns.’ It also includes a ban on advertising from fast fashion brands, including a ban on influencers promoting ultra fast fashion on social media.
While these are yet to come into effect — they seem like a promising step in the right direction. However, there are still issues with France’s legislation as it aims to target ‘ultra fast fashion’ brands such as Chinese owned Shein and Temu, while not applying to ‘regular’ fast fashion brands like European owned Zara and H&M. What is considered an ‘ultra fast fashion’ brand is a brand that produces clothes designed for a short lifespan inferred from the number of new products the company produces and a lack of messaging about item repairs. Thus, the purpose of the legislation arguably mixes environmental concerns with an underlying willingness to promote protectionism, thereby undermining the pursuit of sustainable consumption.
The European Union has also taken steps to increase corporate responsibility for fast fashion brands, including a ban on greenwashing and destroying unsold clothing as well as placing the burden of collecting and recycling textile waste on producers with the aim of encouraging companies to use sustainable textiles instead.
Steps Forward
The willingness of states to prioritise economic growth over the environment and sustainable consumption means that the issue of overconsumption will never be easy to tackle. But there are some actions that the international community should promote and legislative actions that the state should take to ensure the recommendations in the UNEP’s Playbook are more than just aspirations.
Increasing Transparency
The Or Foundation’s campaign #StopWasteColonialism began the ‘I Can Count, Why Can’t You?’ movement which advocates for brands to be transparent with the number of garments they produce each year. The campaign reported that Adidas produced 328 million garments in 2023, Kmart produced 231 million garments and Lululemon produced 141 million pieces in 2022. By simply having companies release the amount of garments they produce it allows consumers to put into perspective the size of our consumption issue, allowing them to make the necessary changes to their spending habits. Furthermore, with 30% of clothes produced never sold, going that extra step further and publishing the percentage of garments never sold would allow individuals to scrutinise businesses on their overproduction problems. State legislation requiring brands to publish this information would bring the transparency outlined in The Playbook from an aspiration to a regulation.
Similarly, much like laundry care symbols on the labels of clothing, symbols detailing an item’s level of sustainability could be used to increase transparency on clothing labels. This could be modelled on the EU’s Ecolabel which is a voluntary environmental sustainability labelling system managed by the European Commission.
Taxing Fast Fashion Items
Much like France’s proposition to place taxes on ultra fast fashion items — states legislating to place tax on all fast fashion brands as opposed to just ‘ultra fast fashion’ brands would disincentivise shoppers from purchasing fast fashion, thereby curbing the demand for fast fashion, with the hope of seeing a reduction in production.
Advertising Limits
The global community should also work to bring stronger regulations to fashion communication in line with the aspirations of the Playbook. This could include small changes like France banning the use of the word ‘free’, which would aid in greatly reducing impulse purchases, thereby reducing overconsumption. It could also include mandatory disclosure of content being an Ad or a Gift from a brand, as done in New Zealand and Canada, with a potential push for limits placed on advertising ‘ultra fast fashion’ in the future, as in France.
Ban the export of textile waste
Kantamanto Market in Ghana is the largest second-hand market in the world, and sees 15 million garments arrive per week — all shipped as waste from the Global North. The Global South bears the brunt of the Global North’s overconsumption problem through “waste colonialism.” The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal imposes limits on states in the transportation of ‘hazardous wastes’. However, as used textiles are often categorised as ‘second-hand goods’, the Basel Convention does not protect the Global South from the transportation of textile waste.
There has been a push for textile waste to be included within the Basel Convention and it is set to be considered in the Open-ended Working Group for 2026-2027. If textile waste was to be included in the Basel Convention then there would be a requirement for informed consent in order for textile waste exports to be permissible.
PHOTO: Clothing Waste in Cambodia, Francois Le Nguyen on Unsplash
Mandating Extended Producer Responsibility
States should follow the European Union’s Extended Producer Responsibility scheme which requires corporations to manage the waste they produce in order to reduce overproduction issues. By placing the responsibility of end-of-life management on producers, it places a greater incentive for businesses to redesign their products sustainably and greatly increases re-use.
To date, solutions to overproduction and overconsumption have largely relied upon individuals to make smart, sustainable purchases rather than challenging the systems in place that enable individuals to overconsume. On home soil, Australia’s new Seamless Clothing Stewardship Project, is a new voluntary initiative aimed at achieving clothing circularity by 2030. It further highlights the recurring need for robust initiatives that are compulsory and provide tangible consequences for those who do not follow. Tackling overconsumption, without imposing concrete regulations and limits on corporations is ineffective and more decisive action needs to be taken.
For now, thrifting at the Camberwell Market, Fitzroy Market and Hunter Market does support a circular economy, but without tackling and interrogating our consumerist and materialistic tendencies, thrifting may just be an extension to our overconsumption problem — rather than a sustainable solution.
Novica Pearsall
Novica is a fourth year Law and Global Studies student, majoring in International Relations, at Monash University. She is passionate about human rights issues in the Global South including modern slavery, feminist issues and children’s issues. She is particularly interested in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Outside of her studies, Novica is the President of the Monash International Affairs Society and enjoys salsa dancing and travelling.