The rise of Labubus: the death of the planet. The tiny monsters with plastic faces and polyester fur took over social media in June of 2024 and eventually ended up in landfills everywhere. Netizens loved the mystery of not knowing what variation of the toy would be inside its box, until they did not get the one they desired.
Stanley’s in every color from Jan. 2023 to Dec. 2023, bows on every piece of clothing from Jan. 2024 to June 2024 and Adidas Sambas in June 2024 to Jan. 2025 are all prime examples of overconsumption of microtrends. Consumerist culture got to the point where trends died in a matter of days, took people’s money and worsened the already poor condition of the climate. Thrown out clothing and other items wound up in Chile and Ghana, and turned into an environmental crisis. Millions of tons of garments were left in Chile’s Atacama Desert every year, according to John Bartlett of National Geographic, and 15 million pieces of clothes were dumped in Africa every week, according to Charlie Campbell of Time Magazine.
Online stores like Temu and Shein were well known for being unethical. However, many did not know of the waste from major corporations such as Apple, Amazon, H&M and Adidas.
According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, “Big brands are some of the largest contributors to global waste, especially in the consumer goods, technology, and fashion sectors. [They] ship billions of products each year—most of them packaged in plastic.”
The plastic packages damaged the Earth because they did not decompose. People bought clothes in the height of a trend and then dumped them after the craze died down. When people had nowhere to put the clothes they no longer wanted or clothes that could not get sold, the clothes ended up in garbage hubs; unable to decompose, they polluted the area and made these areas unlivable.
Karen Nkatha from Greenpeace outlined, “overproduction and overconsumption have resulted in inadequate disposal solutions, prompting Global North countries to dump their fashion waste in the Global South – among them in Africa – under the guise of charitable donations.”
Clothes donated were more than likely to be left in a dump in another country. Millions of pounds of plastic were accumulated with the attire. People bought and discarded clothes faster than they could be remade, creating massive waste.
Jazmyn Sadiq-Arroyo explained, “I find out about microtrends through TikTok and the videos my friends and I watch. I regret buying based on what is popular because I spend a lot of money due to the raised prices.”
People felt as though these trends were meaningless money schemes that lasted a month at most. The inflated pricing was due to how popular these items were, as society was still willing to pay.
“I have fallen victim to Labubus from discovering them on TikTok. I kinda think they’re cute, though the trend might end fast, leaving me with nothing to do with all of them.” Thonnadi Saw mentioned.
The popular social media app, TikTok, was promoting such items, especially through its shop, TikTok Shop. This shop was an example of fast fashion.
To combat this issue, others stopped buying from fast fashion stores and asked themselves if they needed the item that was the new craze. This prevented overspending and the support corporations had, as they damaged the environment without remorse.
