The growth of the fast fashion industry has accelerated over the last 5 decades, leading to serious environmental repercussions, including immense production of wastewater and greenhouse gases, in addition to landfill contributions. The fashion industry has been credited with generating 20% of global wastewater and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In this systematic review, we explore the research gaps in the top garment-producing countries, specifically China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey, India, and Indonesia. We aim to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the predominant environmental impacts and research areas in each of the top garment-producing countries as a result of the fast fashion industry?; 2) What are the knowledge gaps hindering improved environmental practices?; and 3) What are the primary barriers to implementing sustainable garment production in the top garment-producing countries?. First, we identified 2318 studies related to the environment and fast fashion in the top 6 garment-producing countries published between March 2008 and October 2023 using Web of Science and Scopus. Next, the titles and abstracts were screened using the inclusion criteria, from which articles received a second round of full-text screening. Subsequently, full-text analysis was conducted on the resulting 68 articles. We identified policy, sustainability, and wastewater as key research areas across all the top garment-producing countries. A lack of empirical research methods and consumer knowledge on the environmental impacts of fast fashion are key knowledge gaps hindering improved environmental practices. Investments in education and infrastructure will aid in the progression towards a more sustainable garment-producing industry.
Bailey et al. (Tue,) studied this question.