Your best climate-friendly day ever
Cheap, stylish clothing is tempting to buy—especially if you want to try out a new fashion trend that you’re not sure you’ll love (ahem … crop tops). But so-called “fast fashion”—characterized by inexpensive, often poor-quality items made in questionable conditions—carries a massive carbon load. “The purchase and use of clothing contributes about 3 percent of global production CO2 emissions or over 850 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 a year,” says a 2016 Greenpeace report. Add together high-energy needs, the proliferation of plastic-based materials like polyester, cotton grown with synthetic fertilizers and irresponsible elimination of toxic fabric dyes, and your cheap clothing purchases equal a bad environmental choice.
The solution? “The simplest step we can take is to wear our clothes for longer,” suggests Greenpeace. “Just increasing the lifespan of our clothes reduces all of their environmental impacts. … Doubling the useful life of clothing from one year to two years reduces harmful emissions over the year by 24 percent.”
For a fun, sustainable wardrobe refresh, organize a clothing swap. Invite friends and family members to bring over clothing (and books and kitchen tools, for that matter) they no longer wear and exchange items without payment; donate any leftover clothes to Goodwill or another charity. If you must purchase new clothing, seek items that contain a Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification, which verifies it contains at least 70 percent organic fiber and ensures that manufacturing processes don’t involve toxic heavy metals or chemicals. (You may have to contact the company directly to confirm this criteria.) Also consider buying products with the Fair Trade Certified apparel seal, which includes social, economic and environmental standards.