Upset shopper sparks outrage after pointing out wedding industry practice: ‘I can’t stand it’
From uneaten food to disposable plates and party favors, weddings produce a ton of garbage.
It’s not just the wedding itself that causes a ton of waste, though, as one annoyed Redditor pointed out on the r/anticonsumption subreddit.
“Can brides-to-be please stop this horrible trend?!?” they asked, posting a photo of specially printed swimsuits with the phrases “Bride Squad” and “Team Bride.”
“This is just a small fraction of the swimwear that shows up when you search for ‘bride’ on a preloved app,” the poster continued. “I know the wedding industry is notoriously wasteful, but now the excess is extended to the pre-wedding celebrations.”
The average wedding produces 400 pounds of garbage and 63 tons of planet-warming gases. While most of this is attributed to the venue and food, throwaway clothing like these swimsuits also makes an impact.
The fast-fashion industry has devastating impacts on the environment, drying up water sources, polluting rivers, and adding to landfill waste. The industry accounts for 10 percent of the world’s planet-warming gases each year.
Commenters overwhelmingly agreed with the original poster.
“Wedding swag and industry items are generally meant to be used once and tossed — poor quality, plastic crap,” one said. “The entire wedding industrial complex annoys the f*** out of me more than it should. LOL.”
A wedding industry insider said that they pushed brides to purchase three wedding dresses for the big day — one for the ceremony, one for the reception, and another for dancing.
“Each would be worn for only a portion of one day. Massive consumption,” they wrote.
“I can’t stand it when brides want to wear matching shirts. Not only are they overpriced, [but] you literally wear this dumb bridesmaid shirt one time,” another person commented. “You can’t rewear it for another wedding because it won’t match the next bride’s ‘theme.’ So it just sits there.”
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