• Shein: what is good and bad about the brand that everyone is talking about?

  • Vestiaire Collective says no to fast fashion

  • Is vintage really sustainable?

It's no secret that

Shein

has become a mass phenomenon when it comes to fast (or ultra-fast, in this case) fashion.

The figures are dizzying: in 2013 there were 50 employees and in 2016, there were already 10,000;

its market share went from 7 to 30% in just six months and it has achieved

a valuation that exceeds H&M and Zara together

.

The

consequences

of the aggressive model are also known;

the most outstanding, the overproduction of garments, with all that this entails.

However, what had not yet been commented on too much was the way in which these garments were made, no longer on a social level (who made them), but on their own composition.

For this reason,

the Greenpeace Germany report

is starting to cause a stir: they have found

dangerous chemicals in 15% of the garments tested.

The organization has turned to

the independent laboratory Bremen Environmental Institute

to carry out a study of

47 random garments

, also covering

men, women, children and babies.

For this, the NGO has bought through

the web in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

And the result is devastating:

15% of these pieces exceed the limits of toxic chemicals allowed by the European Union according to the REACH standard

.

This regulation is the one that establishes the concentration limits for a range of dangerous substances (whether present as additives or as contaminants) in textile garments, accessories and footwear.

And that same regulation is the one that Shein breaks without any problem.

Those non-compliant products were made, according to Greenpeace Germany, with

"synthetic materials based on fossil fuels"

.

The most repeated category?

Shoes

and

boots.

The highest level, in fact, is in black snow boots bought in Switzerland, with a 680% concentration of DEHP, a

substance that is applied to plastics to make them more flexible

.

In addition, in a children's tutu, the laboratory detected

"high levels of carcinogenic formaldehyde":

130 mg/kg, which (by far) exceeds the 30 mg/kg limit.

"The results make it clear that

Shein does not have an overview of chemical management in its own supplier factories

," argues Viola Wohlgemuth, Greenpeace resource protection and circular economy expert.

"To make a profit,

the company endangers the health of consumers,

but the main burden of chemical dependence on cheap production is paid by the workers of the production factories and suppliers. If the substances get into the environment through sewage and air, also pollute rivers and endanger the population of producing countries in the global south".

Although these are the most alarming percentages, the rest of the garments are not spared either

: 32% of the articles contain a level of dangerous chemicals that are "worrying",

that is, they are on the limit of what is allowed.

Greenpeace Germany also points out that

"Shein's products are mainly made of plastic"

.

"Almost 60% of women's clothing is made of polyester and other petroleum-derived materials such as nylon, acrylic, polyurethane, or elastane."

Wow, that "the fashion industry already consumes as much oil every year as all of Spain".

In addition,

"every second, a truckload of clothes is incinerated or ends up in landfill",

without forgetting that "

more than 80% of the harmful environmental impacts of textiles occur along the supply chains in the countries of the Southeast Asia

, where the vast majority of garments in the global market are produced."

The effects will end up being seen sooner rather than later.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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