Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Environmental Pollution by the Fast Fashion: Current Status and Prospects

This review examines the environmental footprint of fast fashion — mass clothing production that generates enormous textile waste, synthetic fiber shedding, and water pollution. It is relevant to microplastics because synthetic garment washing is one of the largest sources of microfiber pollution entering waterways, though the paper focuses on industry-level sustainability responses rather than quantifying microplastic release specifically.

2023 Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers 10 citations
Article Tier 2

The Impact of Fast Fashion on Marine Plastic Pollution

This paper reviews the fast fashion industry's contribution to waterway pollution, explaining that cheap synthetic clothing sheds microplastic fibers during production and washing, and that the industry's rapid growth — especially in Asia — is making this a significant global pollution source. The authors propose manufacturing regulations and consumer behavior change as solutions to reduce the volume of synthetic microfibers entering waterways.

2023 Current World Environment 6 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

The Environmental Impacts of Fast Fashion on Water Quality: A Systematic Review

This systematic review documents how fast fashion contributes to water pollution, including the release of synthetic microfibers — a major source of microplastic contamination. The fashion industry produces about 20% of global wastewater, and these microfibers can end up in drinking water and food sources.

2022 Water 202 citations
Article Tier 2

Transformation Toward Slow Fashion: A Literature Synthesis on the Ecological and Social Impacts of Fast Fashion

This review synthesized literature from 2014 to 2024 on the ecological and social impacts of fast fashion, finding that the industry contributes up to 10% of global carbon emissions, generates significant microplastic and textile waste, consumes large water volumes, and is linked to labor exploitation — while identifying slow fashion as a viable sustainable alternative.

2025 Jurnal Sains dan Aplikasi Keilmuan Teknik Industri (SAKTI)
Article Tier 2

Appalling or Advantageous? Exploring the Impacts of Fast Fashion From Environmental, Social, and Economic Perspectives

This study explored the environmental, social, and economic impacts of fast fashion, finding that while low-cost clothing provides consumer benefits, the industry generates substantial negative externalities including textile microplastic pollution, excessive water use, and exploitative labor conditions in developing countries.

2022 Journal for Global Business and Community 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainable Fashion

This review of sustainable fashion examines how the textile industry's shift to fast fashion has accelerated environmental damage, including the shedding of synthetic microfibres — a major source of microplastic pollution in waterways — and argues that circular production models and consumer behaviour change are needed to reduce the industry's footprint. The paper is relevant because textile microfibres are among the most commonly detected microplastics in marine and freshwater environments.

2026 International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology
Article Tier 2

Fast Fashion and Sustainability Challenges: A Critical Review with Insights from Cyprus

This review examined the environmental impacts of fast fashion, focusing on water and chemical pollution, carbon emissions, and microfiber release, with a case study perspective on Cyprus. The authors argued that fast fashion's business model is fundamentally incompatible with environmental sustainability goals.

2025 Global NEST International Conference on Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Evaluating the environmental impacts of textile and fashion industries

This review evaluated the environmental impacts of the global textile and fashion industries, finding that resource overconsumption, water pollution, synthetic fiber microplastic release, and vast waste generation make these sectors major drivers of ecosystem degradation.

2023 International Journal of Geography Geology and Environment
Article Tier 2

The current situation of fast fashion industry and how to reduce the waste

This paper reviews the environmental problems caused by the fast fashion industry and evaluates current and emerging solutions including circular economy design and advanced recycling technologies. The authors argue that traditional waste disposal is no longer adequate for the volume of textile waste generated. Transitioning to circular fashion models could reduce the textile fiber microplastics that wash off synthetic clothing into waterways.

2023 Advances in Economics Management and Political Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Secrets of Fast Fashion Finally Revealed

This paper examines the fast fashion phenomenon, exploring its origins in rapid, trend-driven clothing production and analyzing its environmental and social consequences alongside emerging ethical and sustainable alternatives.

2024 The American Journal of Interdisciplinary Innovations and Research
Article Tier 2

The Global Clothing Oversupply: An Emerging Environmental Crisis

This study examines how the global fast fashion industry drives environmental damage through massive overproduction and rapid disposal of clothing, which contributes to microfiber pollution and textile waste. Researchers surveyed consumers and found growing awareness of sustainability issues but a gap between awareness and purchasing behavior. The study advocates for greater traceability in clothing supply chains and a shift toward more sustainable business practices.

2024 Nature Environment and Pollution Technology 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Public Attitudes towards Fast Fashion

This paper discusses public attitudes toward fast fashion — the rapid production of cheap, disposable clothing — and its environmental impacts including chemical use and textile waste generation. Fast fashion is a major source of synthetic microfiber pollution in waterways through washing of polyester and nylon garments. The paper is focused on social attitudes rather than presenting primary pollution data.

2021 International Journal of Research and Review 4 citations
Article Tier 2

SUSTAINABLE FASHION INDUSTRY: Why do we need a switch towards conscious consumption?

This thesis examines the fashion industry's environmental and social harms, including its significant contribution to microplastic pollution through synthetic textile washing, and argues for a shift toward more conscious consumer behavior. Fast fashion is one of the largest sources of synthetic microfibers entering waterways globally.

2019 Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen)
Article Tier 2

Fast Fashion Issue in Vietnam: Legal Aspects and Environmental Protection

This review examines the fast fashion phenomenon in Vietnam from legal and environmental protection perspectives, analyzing how accelerating fashion consumption contributes to textile waste and microplastic pollution. The paper identifies gaps in Vietnamese environmental law and policy frameworks for regulating the fashion industry's environmental impacts.

2024 Pakistan Journal of Criminology 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Role of Textile Industries in Microfiber Pollution

This review examines the role of textile industries in generating microfiber pollution, tracing microfiber release during fabric production, consumer use, laundering, and end-of-life disposal as synthetic textile demand grows with fast fashion. The review documents pathways by which textile microfibers enter freshwater and marine environments and accumulate in aquatic biota, linking industry growth trends to escalating environmental microfiber loads.

2024
Article Tier 2

The Fast Fashion Industry: Formulating the Future of Environmental Change

This legal analysis examines the environmental harms of the fast fashion industry — including textile waste, microplastic pollution from synthetic fibres, and opaque supply chains — and evaluates existing and proposed domestic and international legislation, arguing that transparency, circularity, and consumer awareness are essential for meaningful reform.

2023 Pace Environmental Law Review 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Slow Fashion in a Fast Fashion World: Promoting Sustainability and Responsibility

This study examines the "slow fashion" movement as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion, analyzing how different business models, consumer behaviors, and policy frameworks can shift clothing production and consumption toward more responsible practices. Slow fashion is directly relevant to reducing textile microfiber pollution, since synthetic clothing is a major source of microplastics in wastewater.

2019 Laws 140 citations
Article Tier 2

Fast fashion revolution: Unveiling the path to sustainable style in the era of fast fashion

Researchers examined the relationship between fashion orientation and fast fashion purchasing behavior, including how attitudes toward sustainable clothing consumption moderate these choices. They found that fashion orientation strongly influences purchase intention and actual buying behavior, but that sustainable clothing awareness can temper fast fashion consumption. The study highlights the environmental costs of fast fashion, including microplastic-generating textile waste, and calls for greater consumer education.

2024 E3S Web of Conferences 12 citations
Article Tier 2

The Good, the Bad, and the Sustainable: How Technology Has Changed and Continues to Change the World of Fashion, from Cotton Gin to Digital Clothes

This review examines how technology has driven the rise of fast fashion — one of the most polluting industries globally — and explores how it can also drive more sustainable practices. Fast fashion production and disposal are major sources of synthetic textile microfibers that enter waterways during washing and waste processing.

2023 IntechOpen eBooks 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Environmental Impact of the Fashion Industry: The Necessity of Sustainability

This study examines the environmental impact of the fashion industry across six dimensions — carbon emissions, clothing waste and synthetic material pollution, chemical and dye water contamination, water resource consumption, microplastic fiber shedding, and land use — arguing for the necessity of systemic sustainability transitions in fashion production and consumption.

2024 SCIENTIFIC WORK
Article Tier 2

Analysis on the Sustainable Development Strategy of Fast Fashion Company

This study examines sustainable development strategies for global fast fashion companies, systematically analysing environmental and social challenges caused by the industry's resource-intensive and wasteful practices.

2025 Academic journal of management and social sciences
Article Tier 2

Fashion to Dysfunction: The Role of Plastic Pollution in Interconnected Systems of the Environment and Human Health

This review traces how the fast fashion industry contributes to microplastic pollution through the production, laundering, and disposal of synthetic textiles. Researchers found that microplastic fibers released from clothing bypass wastewater treatment and accumulate in human organs including the liver, lungs, and brain. The study highlights urgent gaps in understanding airborne textile microplastic emissions and calls for changes in textile design to reduce fiber release.

2025 Textiles 3 citations
Article Tier 2

How can we deal with the large amount of microplastics delivered to landfills and released into the environment by fast fashion? A practical valorization approach for mitigating textile fibrous microplastics before affecting the environment.

Researchers proposed a practical valorization approach for managing fibrous microplastics generated by fast fashion textile waste, addressing the challenge of large volumes of textile microplastics entering landfills and the environment through a circular economy framework to intercept fibers before environmental release.

2022 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Microfibre and nanofibre: pollution and environmental impacts

This review examines microfibres and nanofibres — shed from clothing and textiles during use and washing — as a significant but poorly quantified category of environmental pollutants. Up to 4.28 million metric tonnes of microfibres enter the environment each year, with synthetic garment laundering responsible for about 35% of that total, yet natural fibre shedding is largely ignored in sustainability assessments. The authors argue that both synthetic and natural microfibres need to be included in environmental impact frameworks, especially as fast fashion drives ever-increasing textile production.

2025 Procedia CIRP 1 citations