“Sweatshops or Sustainability?”: The Hidden Cost of Fast Fashion in Tourist Markets

(Leman)

As you walk around the bustling tourist markets in Bangkok, sweating in your new elephant pants, you see millions of colorful dresses, bracelets, and handbags which are unbelievably sold at a low price. For us tourists, buying these items is a great way to spend all your money on cheap and cute souvenirs. However, behind these bargains is an uncomfortable truth: the hidden costs of fast fashion production that includes sweatshops, and environmental harm.

What is Fast-Fashion?

Fast fashion is a production model in the clothing industry where clothes are produced rapidly, in large quantities, and sold at a low cost. Although this convinces consumers to buy trendy clothes at a cheap price, it leads to clothes with short life spans and significant environmental consequences, including water pollution, and high carbon emissions. Furthermore studies show that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world (ECOALF).

The Environmental Toll

Fast fashion production has severe environmental consequences. Many garments sold in tourist markets are made from synthetic fabrics. 

Synthetic fabric comes from microplastic and every time a clothing is washed, it sheds micro plastic fibres called microfibres, which is a type of microplastic. Many of these end up in the ocean and washing one polyester shirt every two weeks can release around 52,000 microplastic fibres annually (United Nations).

 A type of synthetic fabric is polyester. Polyester is short for polyethylene terephthalate, which is a type of plastic and is derived from petroleum. It is heavily correlated to fossil fuel consumption and environmental degradation (Houghton). 

These kinds of plastic contribute to more than that: greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, resource consumption in production, and in disposal, heavy reliance on landfill and incineration, which again leads to carbon emissions (Houghton). 

This process causes significant issues regarding climate change as one polyester shirt releases more than double the amount of CO2 compared to a cotton shirt (Houghton).

In recent years, more and more tourists are encouraged to be mindful of shopping as they buy fewer, higher-quality items, support local artisans and avoid fast fashion clothing that will end up in the landfill (Helbig).

In fact some tour brands offer “ethical luxurious shopping tours,” such as Marrakech Tailor Made Tour, emphasizing and highlighting locally made clothing and its culture behind it (Marrakech Tailor Made Tour). 

Next time you're in Bangkok drinking mango smoothie with the elephants, it’s important to ask yourself “is this supporting sustainability, or sweatshops?”

Works Cited

“Ethical Luxury Shopping Tours in Marrakech | Artisan-Led Medina Experience.” Marrakech Tailor Made Tour, https://marrakechtailormadetours.com/pages/marrakesh-shopping-experience#:~:text=Enjoy%20post%2Dshopping%20services%2C%20including,story%20and%20supports%20local%20communities. Accessed 16 July 2025.

“From petroleum to pollution: the cost of polyester.” unric, 17 December 2024, https://unric.org/en/from-petroleum-to-pollution-the-cost-of-polyester/. Accessed 16 July 2025.

Helbig, Koren. “Shop less, mend more: making more sustainable fashion choices.” The Gaurdian, 9 Feburary 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/10/shop-less-mend-more-making-more-sustainable-fashion-choices? Accessed 16 July 2025.

Houghton, Laura. “Net-Zero Materials Transition: Polyester.” Segura, 23 August 2024, https://www.segura.co.uk/resources/press/net-zero-materials-transition-polyester. Accessed 16 July 2025.

Leman, Mehdi. “4 reasons why fast fashion will never be green.” Greenpeace, 17 March 2025, https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/73504/4-reasons-why-fast-fashion-will-never-be-green/. Accessed 16 July 2025.