There's nothing stylish about fast fashion I love clothes. I love expressing my personal style through clothing. I like making it, shopping for it, and styling it. For so many years, like with lots of young women, clothes shopping was how I self-regulated, celebrated, and distracted myself. As I got older, and could afford better, I bought better. I knew I didn't like cheap, synthetic, or disposable clothes, but I wasn't as aware then as I am now, about fashion's (fast, cheap fashion, and expensive investment fashion) horrible impacts on the environment and on those who make it. When we say, "Oh that's cheap because it's not handmade," we truly misunderstand what it takes to make a garment of any kind. Every garment - even the one on sale at H&M for $1.99 was handmade all the way down the chain. From producing the fibers, to weaving the cloth, to assembling the item. And all along that chain there is waste and pollution. These days, I've revived my love for vintage shopping and refined my wardrobe down to things I really love that stand the test of time against fashion's fads. I don't advocate for a minimalist wardrobe - that's too constricting for me, but I'm sure I own way less than the average woman of my age and means. But here's the thing - we can all get on board with reducing fashion's impact on people and planet, no matter what income bracket we're in, because, there’s nothing trendy about fashion that ends up in a landfill, not matter where you're at with it.
Plus, didn’t you hear? All the cool kids (and adults) are wearing second-hand clothes this season! What makes fashion one of the worst industry polluters in the world? The answers are more numerous than the plastic sequins on the racks at Target, but here’s a few unstylish reasons fashion has a devastating effect both environmentally, and socially.
How can you opt-out of environmental and socially-destructive fashion?
Don’t be trashy: #iquitfastfashion
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Compost, it's so hot right now, compostFood waste is big, big contributor to global warming. Landfills are the second largest human source of methane emissions, and food rotting in landfills is the largest source of these emissions. The gas rotting food emits, methane, has 24 times the impact on the climate as CO2. In the US alone, we send over 50 million tons of food waste to landfills each year. The production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 37 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The USDA estimates 30-40 percent of our food goes to waste. So what can you do?
And the big one: Compost! If you live in Metro Portland, you can compost all food, including meat, right at your curbside. The benefits of composting are vast. Here’s a list of composting benefits from the EPA:
Don’t be trashy: #compostit |
Intentional living in Portland, ORI take sustainability personally. Really personally. I use my voice to advocate for plastic-free and low-waste living by offering tips, tricks and hacks to busy families through community work and speaking engagements. I practice low-waste creating which I share on my Instagram account @saint.clairs.scissors Archives
January 2020
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