What is the effect of ALL that fast-fashion shipping?

We have seen a rapid rise of the fast-fashion giants such as Shein and Temu in the past few years. All that postage has been paying a toll on the global air cargo industry! Shein and Temu send roughly 600,000 packages from China just to the US every day (U.S Congress report 2023). This is leading to an increase in air-freight costs and making off-peak season almost completely disappear.

"The biggest trend impacting air freight right now is not the Red Sea, it's Chinese e-commerce companies like Shein or Temu," said Basile Ricard, director of Greater China operations at freight forwarder Bollore Logistics

Shein sends roughly 5,000 tonnes, Temu 4,000 tonnes, Alibaba.com 1,000 tones and TikTok 800 tonnes a day. Equating to 108 Boeing 777 freighters a day of fast-fashion items.Shein alone accounts for one-fifth of the global fast-fashion market, measured by sales, and has fuelled growth of China's e-commerce industry (Coresight Research). Fast fashion now accounts for half of China's total cross-border e-commerce shipments and takes up about one-third of global long-distance cargo aircraft (Baixiao.com, cross-border transportation media firm).

Air-freight carriers have responded to the increased e-commerce demand by providing additional charter capacity, "which is already heavily booked for the long term," (spokesperson for German logistics firm Schenker). Emissions from flights stay in the atmosphere and will warm it for several centuries. Because aircraft emissions are released high in the atmosphere, they have a potent climate impact, triggering chemical reactions and atmospheric effects that heat the planet (David Suzuki Foundation).

As a collective, we need to reduce our consumption. We cannot allow the solution to this to be more and more air carriers flown across the sea, damaging our precious planet. Take a look at our affiliate makers and creatives to find sustainable pieces made in the UK.