You might consider it to be an art form, you might detest it or maybe you just don’t care. Regardless of your stance on the importance of clothing, it is imperative that you understand the impacts of what you wear on our planet and humankind.

Fashion is a $3.1 trillion global industry. It is also the second most polluting industry on earth, and the second largest consumer of water. Americans alone dump 10.5 million tons of textile waste into their trash cans each year, leaving the non-biodegradable materials to rot away in landfills. This practice seems to defy all logic — why purchase something just to toss it away?

Unfortunately, it seems that Americans, along with the rest of the Western world, have fallen victim to a trap set by big businesses: senseless consumerism. It’s in the economic interest of big brands, such as H&M or Topshop, to quickly and consistently spit out new clothing. With low prices and ever-changing styles, shoppers feel like there is always an abundance of clothing available, and consequently buy more. This business model is known as “fast fashion,” and it has devastating repercussions for the third world countries that do the manufacturing.

To captivate the attention and attract the cash of customers, fast fashion brands rely on extraordinarily cheap products. While shopping, it’s easy to look at a $5 price tag and think that you’ve stumbled upon a steal. But it’s critical to recognize that the price is low for a reason. Somewhere along the supply chain, sacrifices are made to keep the cost low for consumers. Fast fashion enterprises cannot maintain their low price points without outsourcing manufacturing to third world countries where workers do not have safe working conditions, fair minimum wage or the ability to unionize. Since the economies of these countries are so fragile, the risk of losing business from the western brands bullies factories into accepting lower and lower payment for their work.

As if all this were not enough, areas with a high concentration of factories suffer from life-threatening pollutants. In the city of Kanpur, India, 50 million liters of toxic waste floods into the city’s water supply daily. The pollution causes high rates of liver cancer, jaundice and various skin infections among the city’s inhabitants.

The damaging effects of fast fashion on the environment are not limited to capitals of manufacturing. Between production and distribution, the global impact of the fashion industry is astounding. For a single t-shirt to travel from a factory in China to your local department store, two pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted. What’s on the inside matters, too. The cotton in one t-shirt requires 700 gallons of water to grow and get processed. Since two-thirds of all clothing is made from cotton, you can only imagine the amount of water consumed by the entire industry.

But just because the ethics of fashion seem grim doesn’t mean one should stop buying clothes altogether. Many members of the industry have recognized the problem and are making strides to fix it. You don’t need to look any further than Town and Country, home to prAna, a clothing company dedicated to selling quality products without sacrificing the environment to do so.

“Our brand is an opportunity to enlighten customers so that they’re educated and informed,” Anna Santana, manager of prAna’s Palo Alto location, said. “We want them to have a better understanding of the effects of fashion.” prAna uses sustainable materials, such as hemp, organic cotton, and recycled wool and polyester to manufacture their clothing. In addition, prAna is certified by a number of organizations that substantiate the ethics of their products, including Responsible Down, bluesign, Fair Trade USA and the Fair Labor Association.

In contrast, how can a $10 shirt account for the cost of its entire trajectory through the supply chain? It can’t. But our desire for “more” comes into play, and suddenly a $10 shirt becomes quite appealing. Expensive clothing doesn’t align well with the consumerist mindset, and companies like prAna are aware of that. “Yes, we can be stimulated by fast fashion because we’ve become a materialistic society,” Santana said. “But in comparison to being a little bit more conscious, doing your homework on what you’re buying and wearing and how that’s going to impact the world, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

Although it may seem as if we are slaves to consumerism, destined to shove as many items into our closet as we possibly can, we must remember the significance of the role we all play. You are able to invest in whatever product you choose to. You are able to educate yourself on the topics of cheap labor and the severe environmental impact that goes hand in hand with outsourcing the production of inexpensive clothing. Fast fashion brands depend on you buying into their model of more is more. So don’t buy into it.