Why Do We Condemn Fast Fashion, But Not Fast Gadgets?

Fast fashion and fast tech share the same business logic: the faster you replace a product, the more you sell. The only difference is that fashion has turned that logic into a visible, socially acceptable sin, while the same logic in electronics hides behind words like “innovation,” “upgrade,” and “new generation.”

The numbers confirm this on both sides. The textile industry produces around 92 million tons of waste every year, which, according to analyses, is the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothing being dumped in a landfill every second. Less than 12 percent of that textile waste is ever recycled, and less than 1 percent is turned back into new clothing.

Electronic waste is smaller by tonnage, but no less harmful. According to the Global E-Waste Monitor report, over 62 million tons of e-waste was generated in 2022, with a clear upward trend toward 82 million tons by 2030. Of that amount, only about 22 percent is officially collected and recycled — the rest usually ends up in landfills, where heavy metals and toxic substances slowly leach into the soil and groundwater.

“It Lasts 5-10 Years, We Replace It Every 2”

What truly connects fast fashion and fast gadgets is the gap between how long a product can last and how long it actually lasts. Smartphones are technically capable of running for five to ten years yet are replaced on average every two to three. With fast fashion clothing, the story is similar — low prices and deliberately lower quality mean a garment rarely survives more than a few wears before losing its shape or tearing.

With phones, that gap doesn’t happen by accident. A study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, conducted on the Italian market, describes concrete strategies manufacturers use to push customers toward replacing devices before they’ve truly become unusable — limiting software updates for older models, non-removable batteries, hard-to-repair components, and the constant release of “new” models with minor tweaks compared to the last. This is called planned obsolescence, and the French consumer advocacy group HOP has even sued Apple over the practice.

There’s good news too: the same Italian study shows that the average phone replacement cycle has lengthened from 2 to 4 years in 2013 to 3 to 7 years in 2022, which the authors interpret as growing consumer awareness and rising demand for more durable, repairable devices.

Manufacturing a single phone, according to estimates, accounts for 80 to 85 percent of its total carbon footprint — and that’s before it’s even turned on. Every device carries dozens of elements within it, including rare metals whose extraction depletes water resources and pollutes ecosystems far from our homes. When you throw that phone away after two years, all of that has been “spent” for just two years of use — when, with a slightly different design and approach from manufacturers, it could last five times as long.

Milena Maglovski