We as students of Avon High School want your support to bring attention to the environmental damages linked to fast fashion companies including SHEIN. The startling effects have greatly influenced environmental destruction from hazardous chemicals and materials, excess land waste, water pollution, poor working conditions, and child labor.

According to studies performed by Good On You, SHEIN received the lowest score as SHEIN is not “taking any meaningful action to reduce its sustainable impact on the environment”. Specifically, from hazardous chemicals to carbon emissions to microplastics, SHEIN is making zero to no effort to improve. To add, numerous fast fashion brands are dropping tremendous amounts of new products promoting over-consumption. As a result, tons of textile are thrown away creating a lot of waste. Polyester is one of the most popular fabrics deprived of fossil fuels and is non-biodegradable, so it can stay in landfills for more than 200 years. Since these fabrics take years to degrade, the chemicals end up in water streams and pollute the water decreasing aquatic biodiversity. Furthermore, SHEIN and other companies utilize sweatshops where people work hard labor under poor working conditions, inadequate hours, and severe health. Overall, SHEIN and other companies in the fast fashion industry need to become aware of the dangerous environmental cost of fast fashion and lack of ethical human conditions.

Therefore, to combat this issue, SHEIN will have to implement immense steps to improve the work conditions of employees and decrease the environmental dangers. First, SHEIN will need to switch to natural fabrics that are more sustainable than man-made fabrics such as polyester and nylon. This will decrease the number of fabrics that take years to degrade in landfills and hazardous chemicals that are produced in landfills, which later pollutes the environment. Moreover, SHEIN must decrease the amount of clothing they produce, as overconsumption is extremely prevalent in fast fashion. This will decrease the amount of waste in landfills and air pollution. Lastly, SHEIN will have to become more transparent about their employees' work conditions, environmental footprint, and future projects to improve their environmental damages.

With your support, we will be able to gain the attention of Jane Lee Fosburg, the Director of Communications and bring change to the fast fashion industry. Thank you.