4 Sustainable Strategies to Buy Clothes
I love to dress fashionably, but I found most fast fashion trends cheesy. I don’t want to wear a skirt that I see everywhere! I want to be different, to outstand from the crowd! On the other hand, I’m becoming more aware of the fashion industry's environmental impact, which feels contradictory to my interest! But after lots of research, I found my way!
Starting with the fashion industry's environmental impact, that is the second most polluting industry, while around 1.5 trillion litres of water is being used annually. I initially didn't want to feed you with statistics, but I’m sorry you must know how our choices can determine our destiny!
“In total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year. That’s enough to fill the Sydney harbor annually.” — UNECE
If you live in a lovely city like Amsterdam, with beautiful buildings, boats and canals around you, you might never think of a landfill full of smelly pieces of clothes. Most of us forget such dumps exist because we do not see them every day! Imagine every morning when you open the curtains, you see a pile of dirty clothes, what would you do?
“Washing clothes also releases half a million tonnes of microfibres into the ocean every year.” — UNenvironment program
Seafood might not seem relevant, but it is! Microplastics are very tiny pieces of plastic that don’t biodegrade. 35% of all microplastics in the oceans came from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester. Therefore, it’s already in our food cycle, and many studies have published recently investigate the toxicity of microplastics in the humans’ body. If your children ask to plan a sushi night, now doesn’t that seriously concern you?
“30% of the rayon and viscose used in clothing comes from endangered and ancient forests.” — The Guardian
Textiles' production has one of the most damaging impacts on the planet; breaking down the raw material involves toxic chemicals that can affect the surrounding environment and people who work in the factories. But is that avoidable? Can we reduce our destructive effect on the environment and the workers?
Back to the promise I made earlier, I would like to take you through four strategies that help you be an environmentalism fashionable person and touch on the benefits.
1. Ask Questions Before Buying a Single Item
When I was a kid, my mom always asked these questions before purchasing a piece of cloth:
- Do you love this piece? Does it spark joy in you?
- Do you need this piece? Is this piece functional? I believe people used to focus more on functional products rather than fashionable in the past.
- Are you going to need this piece more than X(X>1) times in the next year? (X is a variable that can be different for each individual. It also depends on how environmentalist you are!)
- If the answer to all the mentioned questions is YES, you can buy it.
2. Choose Quality
There are thousands of brands in the fashion industry, each brand launching multiple new collections every year, giving us way too many options to choose from. Read about a few brands and their designers. Choose the one that usually produces the highest quality and preferably a fairtrade one. Limit your choice to only one or two brands and check their collections if you need a new item.
You can make even better choices by:
- Choosing fibres with low water consumption such as linen and lyocell
- Look for fabrics with certification label controlling chemical content such as OEKO-TEX®, GOTS, or BLUESIGN®.
- Avoid synthetic fibres like polyester.
- Buy clothes made in countries powered by more renewable energies.
- After buying it, if you wore a piece multiple times and didn’t want to wear it anymore, make sure you either resell it or recycle the piece.
- Buy local to minimise your CO2 footprint.
3. Choose Sustainable Brands
More people are investing in ethical and environmentally friendly fashion brands. There are tens of brands’ webshops accessible, also Instagram and Pinterest. To make the best choices Choose the companies who:
- Use renewable energies
- Organic cotton cultivation
- Natural dyes from plants
- Fabrics from easily renewable crops such as hemp, bamboo and nettle
- Sunglasses made of recycled post-consumer waste
- Jeans made of repurposed denim
4. Buy Second-hand
If you want to be even more eco-friendly, you can buy second-hand items. In Europe, there are several applications where you can find even your favourite high-end brands. Otherwise, you can also visit your local second-hand shop.
For example, in the Netherlands, the second-hand market is quite popular. You can find everything on Marktplaats.nl, from a full skiing outfit to a car or a camera lens! Buying second hand is not only environmentally friendly but also saves plenty of money.
Your Impacts
If I summarise what impacts you could have made by making a conscious choice, in a nutshell, you contribute to:
- Less water pollution and water consumption
- Fewer microfibers in our oceans
- Less waste accumulation
- Fewer greenhouse gases emission
- Fewer soils degradation and desertification
- Less rainforest destruction
Takeaways
When buying a product, make a conscious choice by:
- Ask questions if you need the item!?
- Choose the best quality that lasts long.
- Choose from sustainable brands.
- Buy second-hand and if you do not use an item anymore, donate or sell the product to someone who uses it.
