IELTS Writing Task 2 — Fast Fashion: a Band 9 sample answer

Clothing has quietly become disposable. Where previous generations bought garments to last a decade, many shoppers now treat a shirt like a coffee cup — used a handful of times and discarded. This throwaway model creates grave environmental problems, but they are not beyond solving.

The damage begins with production. Textile manufacturing consumes staggering quantities of water and relies heavily on synthetic fibres made from oil, which shed microplastics into rivers with every wash. The problems continue at the end of a garment's short life: most discarded clothing is neither recycled nor biodegradable, so mountains of fabric accumulate in landfill, some of it exported to poorer countries that become dumping grounds for the rich world's wardrobes. There is also a human cost, since rock-bottom prices are only possible where garment workers are paid poverty wages.

Solutions exist at every level. Governments could tax virgin synthetic fabric and require brands to fund recycling schemes, making the true cost of a two-pound T-shirt visible in its price. Brands could design for durability and repair rather than novelty. Consumers, for their part, hold more power than they realise: buying fewer, better items, choosing second-hand, and simply wearing what they already own are decisions that, multiplied by millions, reshape the market.

In conclusion, fast fashion's damage flows from treating clothing as disposable, and the remedy is to make durability valuable again — through smarter pricing, better design and changed habits. A wardrobe built to last costs the earth far less than one built to trend.