Most of us are aware by now of the impact that our clothing can have on the people who make it. Since the Rana Plaza factory collapse last year, the spotlight on unfair and unsafe working conditions endured by garmet workers has gotten a lot bigger, and for good reason.
But what about the environment? The kind of clothing you buy can also have a huge impact on the health of the earth. Keeping an eye on your fashion footprint is just as important as choosing fashion from brands that care about labour rights, but it can also be just as confusing! In keeping with our commitment to doing the homework for you, Good On You has put together an eco-fashion primer for people who love the feeling of slipping into a perfect new outfit – but also like living on a healthy, happy planet!
This cement mixer is the same volume as the water footprint of your favourite pair of jeans.
What’s the story?
When we covered fast fashion brands, we mentioned that the current global fashion industry is pretty unsustainable. One of the big reasons for this is the sheer quantity of clothing we buy. The Australian fashion industry just by itself is worth $13 billion every year – that’s a lot of t-shirts! Heaps of that money is spent on low-quality clothing that doesn’t last, or super-trendy items that will get you laughed at if you wear them for more than a few years in a row. How many items in your wardrobe are pilling, stretched, faded, or don’t fit quite right? How many look soooo 2008? Lots of us don’t get much wear out of what we buy, and that seems a lot more serious when you consider that one pair of jeans has a water footprint of 2,900 gallons (11,000 litres)! You read that right – the pair of jeans you’ve only worn 2 or 3 times, now languishing at the margins of your closet, cost the earth 70 bathtubs full of water.
Get into the right frame of mind
That’s why it’s so important to think of the things you can’t see when you’re buying clothes. Brands don’t have to tell you how much water it took to make your jeans. They also don’t have to tell you their carbon footprint – one cotton t-shirt is responsible for the release of about 2.4kg of CO2 into the atmosphere. That’s not to mention the impacts of textile waste, pollutants used during manufacturing, fertiliser, pesticides, shipping miles, petrochemicals used to make polyester… the list goes on. The price of our clothing is often artificially low when we take into account the environmental damage it causes. But because clothing companies don’t go out of their way to make this information obvious, it’s up to us to keep it in mind.
Don’t let the planet become a fashion victim. It’s always tempting to buy a lot of cheap clothing, but our approach to shopping has to change if we want to conserve the environment. It doesn’t have to mean wearing the same thing every day for a whole year (although some people have done that, and we think it’s super cool!) You can look just as good shopping with eco concerns in mind as without, and it doesn’t have to be a chore.
The most important thing we can do for the planet is shop for high-quality clothes that last, and use our fertile imaginations to come up with ways of making it look stylish season after season. Check out these easy, no-sew clothing hacks for some inspiration. Op shopping or scouring vintage stores is another great option; it’s a win-win-win for the environment, charities and your back pocket. That’s why we put together this guide to op shopping! Sewing your own clothes is another winner, and there are heaps of amazing bloggers out there to show you the ropes (er, threads.)
You don’t have to wear a potato sack to reduce your fashion footprint.
Where to buy new
Even if the only thing you do to shrink your fashion footprint is buy less stuff from places you already shop, that’s a great start! But when you absolutely must feel the thrill of ripping a tag off something brand-spanking-new, there are lots of ways to do it without feeding the fast fashion industry (buying from some of the great eco-conscious brands on Good On You is a good start!) Peppermint Magazine is a fantastic Australian mag you can buy in most newsagents that is dedicated to style and sustainability for women, and it’s chock full of content to help you get started as an eco-fashionista. Earth First has a great list of sustainable Aussie fashion brands – reduce those air miles and support local business at the same time.
Blogs and Instagrams are also a great way to find great sustainable clothing options (stay tuned for a Good On You special post on stylish, sustainable fashion bloggers). Sometimes it’s as simple as seeing someone else look amazing in earth-friendly threads to get you enthusiastic!
That’s what it comes down to in the end: a willingness to tweak around the edges of your shopping habits. Like cuffing a pair of pants, conscious fashion choices are a simple way to make a big difference.
Photo credit
Behind the scenes – Jason Hargrove (CC)
Hino cement mixer – Canadian Pacific (CC)
Lauki iena?k pilse?ta? – K?rlis Dambr?ns (CC)