Ethical Clothing Report: Challenges, Issues, and Solutions Analysis

This report provides an overview of the challenges and issues associated with ethical clothing in the fashion industry. It highlights concerns such as low wages, health and safety risks, environmental degradation, animal cruelty, and child labor, emphasizing their impact both locally and globally. T...Read More

Ethical Clothing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Challenges or Issues related to Ethical Clothing.........................................................................1
Ways to address issues of Ethical clothing.................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Ethical and sustainable fashion is an approach towards manufacturing and designing
clothes which provides maximum benefits to the society and industry at a large and generally
minimises the impact on the environment (Gardetti and Torres, 2017). With the increasing
globalisation customer are demanding fashionable clothes, in regards to this there is a high
concern for sustainable production. Country like Australia and many more are addressing the
issue of sustainable production. The project will throw lights on the challenges or the issue
affecting locally and globally and evaluates various ways to address those challenges of ethical
clothing.
Challenges or Issues related to Ethical Clothing
Issues mainly related to ethical clothing deals with sustainable manufacturing process. It
entitles that production process greatly affects the society and community at a large as well as
degrades the environment at a larger extent. In order to maximise its profitability fashion
industries are exploiting the human resources in a negative aspect. These are the major issues
under ethical clothing which are affecting both in a local and a global manner. It is very essential
for the companies to address these issues in a proper manner. There are principles of Catholic
Social Teaching (CST) which address the contemporary issues and contains rights of human
dignity, solidarity, economic justice and many more. This principles states that every human has
an equal right to access resources of the society as well as respect and dignity for each other.
Issues under ethical clothing which affects locally and globally are described as follows-
 Low Wages- As the fashion industry generates employment opportunities but it doesn't
sustain the lives of its workers. Workers are paid below the minimum wages which
doesn't even cover their basic needs. It exploits the human dignity of the individuals
which is against the principles of Catholic Social Teaching (Jegethesan, Sneddonand
Soutar, 2012).
 Health and safety Risks- This is the major issue in ethical clothing within the fashion
industry as individuals are made allowed to work for long hours with minimum wages.
Therefore long time exposure with pesticides. Lead based dyes and various chemicals
used in the production causes employees respiratory diseases, extreme depression various
other diseases. This all affects the lives of the individual and violates the principle of life
and dignity of humans under Catholic Social Teaching.
1

 Environmental Degradation- Manufacturing under the fashion industry uses various
types of toxic pesticides, colours and dyes along with the poison gases that are blowing
out from the chimneys degrades the environment at a larger extent. Fashion industry also
produces carbon footprints because of the excessive pollution which increases the risk for
global warming. This greatly impacts the environment and the natural principles. This
will be against the principle of Care for Creation under CST which states that every
employee should engage with the environment and take responsibility to make it
sustainable (McCarthy, 2016).
 Animal Cruelty- Animals within the fashion industry are tortured directly for getting
their furs and skin so as to manufacture clothes and many animals are bred in captivity so
as to extract their skin for raw materials of items like shoes, handbags and many more
items. This is against the principle of Care for God's Creation where individuals should
take responsibilities to protect other individuals, animals and planet with respect for
God's Creation (Lewis and Potter, 2013).
 Child Labour- In order to reduce the cost of manufacturing and production , fashion
companies mainly hires children which are employed at a lower cost. Due to poverty and
unawareness families of these children makes them to work at lower rate. This is against
the CST principle of Human Dignity and also violates the fundamental right to education
for small children's. Therefore it is an unethical practice of involving children's in
manufacturing fashionable clothes.
These are the issues addressed under clothing within the fashion industries which needs to be
analysed carefully foe effective working.
Ways to address issues of Ethical clothing
There are various issues under ethical clothing in Australia which needs to be addressed
properly and necessary action should be taken towards its awareness. As many of the fashion
Retailer in Australia are not aware about the issues faced by the country in context to ethical
clothing. Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA) is an accreditation body which is working with the
local textile and clothing companies which ensures that Local Australian manufacturers and
supply chain are transparent and will legally follow all the laws. This accreditation body ensures
workers are not exploited to work for long hours and would be paid minimum wages as fixed by
the government of Australia. This would work under the CST principle and works with the
2

respect for human dignity. This would be the best way to address the ethical issues and allows
companies to engage in sustainable production.
According to Australia Fashion report it is analysed that 61% of the companies are not
aware about where their clothes are made and 76% didn't know where there fabric is wove,
knitted and dyed (Ethical Clothing. 2019.). Government should also ensure that companies
should be provided information in context to the fabric used in the production process which
would not affect the life of the workers manufacturing and the individuals which are purchasing
it (Lundbladand Davies, 2016).
As there are workers which are exploited against the wages, extra working hours and
unsafe working conditions. This led to the rise of Oxfam labour rights in which consumer
concern has rise and led them work towards in right direction.
Moreover Austrian Government has increased flawed audits in order to protect workers
rights and responsibilities and have devised their own processes for work place inspections and
have resulted towards corporate social responsibilities programs. This auditing allows many
fashion companies to improve their transparency in working legally by following all the laws and
working along with CST Principles.
 In addition to this fashion industries should use the sustainable fabrics in their whole
garment as well as involves blending with natural and synthetic fabrics such as cotton and
polyster to create a long lasting product posing less impact on the environment.
 Company should also reduce wastage in their products and make use of more recycling
products to become environment friendly in nature and reduce issues to ethical clothing.
 By adopting a systematic approach towards employee engagement which involves
employees in taking decisions towards resolving the challenges of ethical clothing.
These all the practices and measure adopted by the Government will definitely allow the fashion
companies to work in a sustainable manner and resolve all the issues addressed under ethical
clothing. It assist the fashion companies to manufacture products in a sustainable manner and
aids in providing products effectively.
CONCLUSION
3

From the above project it can be analysed that due to individuals becoming fashion freak
it has forced many fashion industries to start mass production. This has led to the exploitation of
workers on a larger scale and effecting their lives. Customers have started focusing on cheap
branded products which led companies to import raw materials at a lower rate and degrades the
quality of the product. This has led to many issues under ethical clothing practices. Government
should analyse these issues and take necessary actions in order to resolve those challenges and
provides dignity and respect for every individuals.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gardetti, M. A., & Torres, A. L. (2017). Sustainability in fashion and textiles: values, design,
production and consumption. Routledge.
Jegethesan, K., Sneddon, J. N., & Soutar, G. N. (2012). Young Australian consumers’
preferences for fashion apparel attributes. Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management: An International Journal. 16(3). 275-289.
Lewis, T., & Potter, E. (2013). Ethical consumption: A critical introduction. Routledge.
Lundblad, L., & Davies, I. A. (2016). The values and motivations behind sustainable fashion
consumption. Journal of Consumer Behaviour. 15(2). 149-162.
McCarthy, B. (2016). Blessed earth–engaging customers. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business
Cases Originals.
Online
Ethical Clothing. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/everyday-shopping/clothing/articles/ethical-
clothing>.
5