With global warming and pollution plaguing the earth more than ever, being environmentally conscious is crucial to not only our health, but also our planet as a whole. One of the biggest issues facing our planet can be addressed on a personal level: rejecting microtrends.
Junior Orrin Bossert feels that these trends are a manifestation of our world’s growing consumerism, and have many adverse effects.
“Not only does it damage the environment and global labor rights, but [it] also promotes unsustainable beauty standards that many spend money on to obtain, only for them not to be fashionable in just a few weeks time,” Bossert said. “Ultimately, microtrends are destructive to fashion subcultures, our planet, and working conditions around the world.”
Microtrends are defined as influential crazes over a product which then quickly lose popularity. A prime example of this was the Hydro Flask, a popular water bottle brand which gained fame in 2019 following the VSCO girl phenomenon. While extremely popular for quite some time, as soon as the next “big thing” came out, Hydro Flasks suddenly became a thing of the past.
But what is so inherently dangerous about these cute fads? Their disposal. Freshman Addison Reigle worries over the amount of waste generated by such transient frenzies.
“I try not to buy into microtrends just due to the fact that they go away so fast, but I do still have clothes from around 2020 that I no longer wear,” Reigle said. “I remember buying them from fast fashion sources like Shein and only wearing them once.”
When certain objects go out of fashion—which can range anywhere from clothing to everyday household appliances—they are either neglected or thrown out. This is a huge issue, because if microtrends gain a ton of attention, there will be even more objects polluting landfills when they are no longer trending. While this would be less of an issue if said trend was environmentally friendly or compostable, this is nearly never the case.
According to WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production), in 2019 alone, nearly one-hundred million kilograms of waste was created from single use outfits. The stigma created on social media by influencers has convinced much of the younger generation that there is a taboo in repeating outfits. This directly influences the severely short lifetime of clothes from warehouses to trash.
At the end of this terrible cycle, we have the fast fashion industry, which feeds off of these microtrends. Have you ever seen a shirt you loved, but when you looked on its website, it was way out of your price range? Fast fashion uses that to their advantage, by making exact replicas and selling them for way cheaper prices. Not only does this harm the original company, but it also produces an immense amount of carbon emissions. According to Earth.org, the fast fashion industry makes up 10% of all carbon emissions.
While wanting to keep up with what’s popular may be fun, it is also incredibly important to remain conscious of the negative impact the purchase could have later on. Some say a consumer’s happiness is top priority, but we only have one Earth. Next time you make a purchase, think to yourself: do I really want it, or do I want to fit in?
