The rise of fast fashion has not only changed shopping habits but has led to the creation of more waste as people are discarding clothes at twice the rate as in 2000. In addition, people on an average have 60 per cent more clothing items than they did 19 years ago.

With that trend, the strain on environment is increasing because the fashion industry -- from garment production to disposal -- causes environmental damage. The garment industry is the world’s second largest source of pollution, after the petroleum sector. Modern clothing is made mostly from either cotton or polyester fibers. The latter is a byproduct of the petroleum industry, while cultivation of the former requires huge amounts of water, land and pesticides.

The garment industry impacts the environment because production of synthetic fibers indirectly increases carbon emissions, while the disposal of clothing produces greenhouse gases, whether they are burned or buried. With the rise of fast fashion -- inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends -- the volume of recycled clothes has increased but the quality has dropped, which reduces their life expectancy. These are the results of a Greenpeace survey published in June 2016.