🌍 While millions browse for deals on Shein’s glossy app, a darker truth hovers silently in the atmosphere—8.52 million metric tons of CO₂e. That’s the staggering transport-related emissions the Chinese fast-fashion giant reported for 2024, marking a 13.7% increase over the previous year.
Let that sink in: just transporting Shein’s clothes—not manufacturing them, just moving them—spewed out more carbon than most nations’ entire annual emissions from aviation.
✈️ Flying Fashion, Dying Planet
The majority of this pollution came from air freight, the fastest and most polluting method of transport. Why air? Because ultra-fast fashion thrives on urgency. Shein’s model is built on pushing out thousands of new styles weekly. Waiting for ships is too slow—so the planet foots the bill for your ₹399 top with free express delivery.
For comparison, Shein’s emissions are more than triple those of Inditex (Zara’s parent company). And Zara isn’t exactly a poster child for sustainability either.
🌊 Now They Say, “We’ll Take the Ship!”
Caught in the headlights of growing scrutiny, Shein now claims it’s changing course—literally. The brand plans to:
- Shift more freight to sea routes (which, while slower, are less carbon-intensive),
- Establish regional shipping hubs, and
- Diversify suppliers in countries like Brazil and Turkey.
It has also pledged to reduce its Scope 3 emissions by 25% by 2030.
Sound noble? Maybe. But the emissions we’re seeing now are a direct result of a system they engineered—not one they inherited.
🧵 What Fast Fashion Won’t Tell You
Shein isn’t just a brand—it’s a global feedback loop of overconsumption. By flooding markets with hyper-trendy, low-cost clothes, it encourages disposability, fuels microplastic pollution, and undermines centuries-old traditions of sustainable craftsmanship.
Brands like Shein thrive on planned obsolescence, where garments are designed to be worn a few times and tossed away. Meanwhile, the handloom sector, built on durability, biodegradability, and ethical labor, struggles for survival.
“And let’s not forget: While Shein operates primarily online with very few physical stores, the vast majority of its orders are shipped individually from centralized warehouses—resulting in millions of packages flying solo across the planet.”
🧶 Slow Fashion is the Future—But Needs a Fair Fight
At Save Handloom Foundation, we ask: Why should the Earth burn so that fast fashion can sell a ₹300 synthetic crop top?
The answer isn’t to greenwash the problem with shipping adjustments. The answer is rethinking how we consume and what we value.
- Choose clothing made of natural fibers—cotton, linen, hemp, silk—not fossil-fuel derived synthetics.
- Choose handcrafted, not mass-produced.
- Choose local and ethical, not overseas and exploitative.
Because every time you choose handloom over fast fashion, you’re not just buying clothes. You’re buying cleaner air, dignity for artisans, and a chance for future generations to live on a planet that isn’t choked by runway speed logistics.
✊ Final Thread
If a single brand can emit this much carbon just from shipping, imagine what the whole fast fashion industry is doing to our climate.
And more importantly—imagine what we could do if we stopped feeding it.
#SlowDownFashion | #SaveHandloom | #CarbonFootprintCrisis | #SheinTruth | #SustainabilityNow | #HandloomIsTheFuture