NAME______________________________________________________________COURSE:___________
READING UNIT 2
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How to cure the shopping addiction that is destroying our planet
A UK report has found that people today buy and discard clothes faster than ever, and it means we get rid
of more than one million tonnes of clothes a year, with £140 million-worth going to landfill every year.
The implications of this are so bad that there have been recent claims that the fashion industry can be listed
alongside the oil industry as one of the five most polluting industries in the world.
To try to change this, Members of Parliament have announced a number of recommendations, from tax
incentives for companies that offer repair services for clothes, to adding a tax of one penny on every
clothing item sold in the UK to help pay for better clothing collection and recycling. The problem is that
these measures aren’t enough. Raising taxes will not suddenly reduce the 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon
dioxide produced each year by the clothing industry, or the water shortage caused by the 10-20,000 litres
of water used in the production of a cotton shirt and a pair of jeans.
The government has suggested teaching kids to sew at school, but the issue isn’t that they don’t know how
to – it’s that they don’t want to. Their idea isn’t to buy an item of clothing for life; it’s to get another hit of
instant gratification by buying something. With social media, outfits are remembered forever, and tabloid
headlines make matters worse by judging women for re-wearing clothes.
High street brands are also to blame. While they just used to update stock each season, some chains now
release a new range of clothes every fortnight, or even every week; Zara, for example, restocks its stores
twice a week. When shoppers see a new range on display in their favourite shops, it creates a fear of
missing out and they are tempted to buy more. For many of us, this is an unconscious process which is
hard or impossible to break. Even though we have a wardrobe full of wearable clothes, we feel pressure to
come up with new outfits.
Consumer attitudes need to shift. But the change needs to be led by brands that are constantly producing
fast fashion and persuading shoppers to buy it. There needs to be more government pressure on fast
fashion brands, and rigorous checks, to ensure they have no choice but to slow down their production.
Only then consumption will gradually decrease, with sustainable alternatives quickly becoming the most
fashionable choice.
Fragment adapted from The Guardian, February 2019
1. Say whether the following sentences are TRUE or FALSE according to the text. COPY the
evidence from the text. No marks will be given without the evidence. (3 points)
a) Manufactures who offer to mend clothes should pay less taxes.
b) School children are interested in learning to sew.
c) Most of us could easily stop buying clothes so often if we just put our mind to it.
