Hey, friends! If you follow me over on Instagram, you probably know that I have been making some lifestyle changes over the past few years. Not only do I strive to create less waste, but I also try to be very intentional with what I purchase and practice ethical and sustainable shopping. Living a simpler life is a driving factor in these changes, but most importantly, I don’t want anyone to suffer in order for me to purchase something. This applies to food, clothes, and anything else I’m buying, but today’s post is clothing focused!
Why Should You Care?
First, it’s important to identify WHY we should care about making our shopping habits more ethical and sustainable. If you haven’t already watched a documentary or done some research of your own, here are a few reasons you should care!
1. The People Making Your Clothing
What could be more important than caring about PEOPLE? Many clothing companies produce their clothing in overseas factories that do not provide safe working environments for their employees.
Many women are verbally, physically and sexually assaulted while on the job. On top of that, 50% of factory workers in countries like the Philippines and India are not even paid the minimum wage.
In some countries, the workers make as low as 37 cents an hour and many factories use child labor just to produce the clothing we are throwing in a landfill. The CEO’s of these big box stores are millionaires (or even billionaires!) while the people actually doing the work of making the garments are literally living in poverty while working unbearable hours in terrible working conditions.
Additionally, the chemicals used in the production of textiles is having a hazardous impact on the factory workers, farmers growing materials like cotton, and surrounding areas.
2. The Environment
As it stands, nearly SIXTY PERCENT of clothing ends up in an incinerator or landfill. While North America is the largest consumer of textiles, we only wear our clothes for about a quarter of the global average before disposing of them. About 15 million tons of textile waste is produced in the United States alone each year, while synthetic materials like polyester can take hundreds of years to decompose.
In terms of the means used to create the garments, the textile industry is running mostly on non-renewable resources. Fabrics made of cotton, flax, and hemp require a lot of water and 20% of industrial water pollution is caused by the dyeing and treatment of textiles. The synthetic fabrics, like nylon and polyester, use fossil fuels and petrochemicals, while also requiring a lot of water and energy to produce. In turn, they also omit harmful greenhouse gasses that are released into the air we, or the people surrounding these factories, breathe.
Steps to Take
Now that we have covered why you should care, I’m so excited to share this guide to ethical and sustainable shopping. I’ve put together these five steps to consuming smarter. This isn’t only a guide to help you, but a guide to help me too! I always say that every dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in. I don’t know about you, but the world I want to live in doesn’t include mass consumption and sweat shops. Keep reading for a few tips to shopping in an ethical and sustainable way!
1. Buy Less
This is the number one rule to live by when it comes to shopping, in my opinion. By consuming ONLY what you need or love, you will automatically be producing less waste. In order for me to purchase something, and not to go all Marie Kondo on you 😉, it truly has to spark joy. I will never purchase something just because it’s a good deal or just because it looks cute on the hanger. It has to fit just right and make me do a little dance of joy for it to make the cut.
Changing your habits is also so important to this. For instance, I used to love going shopping. I made multiple trips per week to Target and when I would hang out with friends, we would always go shopping. I can’t even begin to tell you how much crap I consumed and how much money I wasted with these habits. That’s not to say you should NEVER go shopping. But when you do, it should be because you really need or want something, not just an activity to pass time. I’ve since been filling my time with more productive and life giving activities, such as reading, writing, playing guitar, working out, etc. And when I DO go shopping, I first try secondhand shops.
2. Shop Your Own Closet
While I’m all for minimizing, I suggest shopping your closet before going to buy new or dumping the old things. Sometimes, we just need to try on our clothes and pair them in new ways to make us realize we can still enjoy them! Obviously, don’t keep something that’s ratty and you know you hate, but if there’s something you’re on the fence about, try putting it together in a new outfit. You might wind up using it instead of going to buy something new.
3. Shop Secondhand
In terms of shopping, I truly believe that secondhand is the must sustainable way to do it. Just walk into your local thrift shop and you will probably find an overabundance of clothes hanging on racks. Secondhand shopping creates an extended life cycle for clothing. Not only that, many secondhand stores support some kind of charity, so instead of putting your money into the pockets of big box stores, you could be contributing to something more meaningful.
I also feel like it’s important to note that there is nothing shameful about shopping at secondhand stores. When I was younger, I used to view it as something you only did if you didn’t have the money to buy new clothes. My mindset has changed and obviously I know now how silly that is! Using up things that have already been made is quite possibly the best way to consume. Not only that, I have found joy in expressing my style through clothing again by shopping secondhand! I often find the same things I could find at my favorite stores, except all in one place AND I find things with tons of character.
4. Rent or Borrow
When I have an event coming up, I tend to freak out about what I am going to wear, stress myself out, and wind up spending a ton on something I’m literally only going to wear one time. But what if instead of wasting our money and energy on buying something new, we first asked a friend if they had something suitable, or rented it! There are many different sites you can rent dresses on, like Rent the Runway, and this prevents the consumption of a new garment that will either take up space in your closet, end up in a thrift store, or even worse, end up in a landfill.
Added Value for 2020: Alternatively, find or create a swap and borrow group on Facebook for your local area! I recently did this in Oki for house items and I have a friend that created one for clothes. Both have been great and help rehome items that could otherwise end up in a landfill. They’re also helpful to find something secondhand instead of buying it new.
5. Buy from Companies with Strong Values
It’s inevitable that we will need to buy something new at some point. For instance, I’m not going to buy underwear secondhand 😂 and sometimes, no matter how hard you look, you just can’t find what you’re looking for at a secondhand store. Not only that, but investing our money in the companies that ARE doing this whole ethical and sustainable thing right shows them that we want their products over cheap, mass produced products. For these companies to stay in business, they have to be purchased from! So if you do want to buy something new, consider buying it from an ethical company like Everlane, Amour Vert, or Pact Apparel.
I hope these tips for ethical and sustainable shopping will be helpful to you and inspire you to shop smarter! This issue is so much bigger than us, but by making some small changes, I truly believe we can start to make a difference. Start by changing your habits and be vocal about it so that more people can become aware and start making changes in their life!
What’s something you’ve done to be more sustainable in your lifestyle?
Photos taken by Kym Dehoney Photography.
