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Common issues with traditional makeup include waste, product contamination, and harmful ingredients. Not only can these issues impact the planet, but they can also be detrimental to your well-being, causing everything from skin irritation to more serious health issues. For example, some cosmetic companies still use formaldehyde in their products, which is a widely-known carcinogen. You should also check the expiration dates of all of your cosmetics. Expired makeup can cause skin problems, and might even irritate your eyes – which can become dangerous, especially if you recently had something like laser eye (LASIK) surgery since the area is typically sensitive to certain chemicals and substances.

Things like excessive packaging, plastic pollution, and unsustainable resource consumption are huge problems within the cosmetic industry that have devastating impacts on the environment. Beauty packaging alone amounts to 120 billion units each year. These poor environmental practices can increase the risk of issues like climate change – and, as a result, more natural disasters and extreme weather events. However, they can also have a negative impact on your well-being. The more emissions we produce from waste, the more long-term health issues we will start to see. Some of the more serious conditions likely to occur include asthma, birth defects, infectious and cardiovascular diseases, and even cancer.

H&M, Zara and Uniqlo are among the companies that were caught greenwashing over the years. These fashion brands contribute to the massive amounts of textile waste caused by the clothing industry. According to the fashion nonprofit ReMake, 80% of discarded textiles globally are incinerated or landfill-bound, with just 20% being reused or recycled.

A good rule of thumb is to verify a brand’s level of transparency; if they are not openly releasing information, it is definitely a red flag. In May 2020, two reports from Global Labour Justice (GLJ) describe the mistreatment of Asian female garment workers in H&M and Gap supplier factories, including (but not limited to) physical abuse, sexual harassment, unfavourable working conditions, and mandatory overtime. The best way to learn more about a brand is to visit its website and read what it has to say. These days there are a number of websites such as Fashion Revolution which produce an annual Fashion Transparency Index reviewing 150 of the world’s biggest fashion brands. You can also use apps like GoodOnYou to search for specific brands that have been rated based on factors like how they treat their employees, the impact they have on the environment and animals, and more.

Fashion is ranked as the second most polluting business in the world by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), right behind the oil industry. It takes 93 billion cubic metres of water annually, which is equivalent to 7,500 litres needed to create just one pair of pants. The amount of plastic microfibre that is dumped into the oceans each year is close to 500,000 tonnes. The poisonous colours produced in factories and the chemicals used in cotton growing are other aspects that highly contribute to polluting the environment. Water that is chemically contaminated kills organisms that are in or close to streams, therefore reducing ecological biodiversity in these regions. The chemicals used in dyeing have also been linked to a number of malignancies, digestive problems, and skin irritation, all of which have a detrimental effect on human health. When crops are irrigated with dirty water, contaminated vegetables and fruit enter the food chain, representing a huge threat to human health.

Working conditions are poor, unhygienic and unsafe since a large number of sweatshops are located in poor nations with weak labour laws and little government control; as a result, if workers attempt to challenge their rights or work conditions, they risk losing their jobs. Workers in the garment industry are required to put in 14 to 16 hours per day, seven days a week, and endure verbal and sometimes even physical abuse from managers. Oftentimes, workers are exposed to harmful substances while working without enough ventilation. Accidents and injuries are also frequent. In 2013, over 1,000 garment employees in Bangladesh lost their lives while at work as a result of the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory. While these businesses rely on the poor, they particularly target underprivileged kids. According to a survey on mills in India, 60% of the employees were under the age of 18 when they started working. These kids are particularly vulnerable to being compelled to work in sweatshops because they are caught in the cycle of poverty.

Sweatshops are not a recent phenomenon and have been covered in the media for decades. The fast fashion industry has long been complicit in a system that pays workers below subsistence in order to maximise profits. This business model, which focuses on selling mountains of clothing at unsustainable costs, has yielded less and less profit to those who directly create them. In order to manufacture things quickly and inexpensively, sweatshop workers – often women and children – suffer grueling workdays and meager pay that does not cover basic expenses, while offering them cruel working and living circumstances. In several manufacturing nations, including Bangladesh, China, and India, the minimum wage only covers half to a fifth of what a family needs to make ends meet. In Bangladesh, workers are paid about 33 cents per hour, while the average wage in sweatshops in India is barely 58 cents.

In 2018, Starbucks released a “straw-less lid,” as part of its sustainability drive, however this lid contained more plastic than the old lid and straw combination. The company didn’t dispute this, but claimed that it is made from polypropylene, a commonly-accepted recyclable plastic that “can be captured in recycling infrastructure.” Critics were quick to point out that only 9% of the world’s plastic is recycled, so the company shouldn’t assume all the lids would be recycled. Further, the US exports about one-third of its recycling to developing countries, so it is simply passing its responsibility to poorer countries.