They say you get what you pay for, but sometimes you get even less than that. A consumer learned their lesson after putting a T-shirt from fast-fashion brand Cotton On through a single washer and dryer cycle.

The Redditor shared the aftermath on the r/australia subreddit and pointed out the "already ruined collar."

The pictured shirt has an undesirable, flimsy-looking collar after just one cycle, which understandably frustrated the OP.

"My wardrobe seems to be increasingly cycling through clothes that last a few washes, incredible how low quality and wasteful the fast fashion industry is," they observed. 

The OP is far from alone in experiencing the alarming dip in clothing quality that is all too common nowadays. Fast fashion has undoubtedly made things worse by valuing the speed of textile production to capitalize on trends over the quality of their clothes, as Earth.com described.

Not only does this make for a maddening experience for consumers, whose clothing quickly falls apart, but it's also awful for the planet. Fast-fashion clothing's production is responsible for an alarming amount of pollution, water usage, and waste, as the UN Environment Programme explained.

Once the clothing gets made, the picture gets even worse. Much of the unwanted clothing is sent to countries like Ghana, but much of it ends up harming their local environment, as it is unsellable. Even though we might think it's recyclable or reusable, the truth is far more bleak once it goes in the bin.

In reality, much of fast fashion will end up in methane-producing landfills or in heaps of trash out in nature halfway across the world. A remedy to this problem is seeking out higher-quality clothing instead, whether that be brand new or at a thrift store.

Commenters were unsurprised, but mostly similarly frustrated by fast fashion's influence.

One sarcastically chimed in: "Good Lord! you aren't supposed to wash cotton on, wear once and dispose."

Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics? Giving me money back 💰 Letting me trade for new stuff 👕 Making it as easy as possible ⚡ Keeping my stuff out of landfills 🗑️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

One resourceful user did have a remedy.

"Dunk the top of the tshirt (where the elastic collar is) in hot water for a minute or two and lay it flat," they instructed. "The elastic around the collar will shrink to its original shape and look good as new."

Fast fashion did have a few defenders, which bothered one Redditor.

"Scary reading the comments and the amount of people who don't mind about fast fashion," they declared.

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