How to be environmentally friendly and satisfy your inner fashionista at the same time
- Beatrix Nitschke
- Nov 2, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 19, 2021
We all love fashion, but we need to rethink our consumption patterns to save the environment and act against environmental catastrophes.
Who cannot relate to this moment when you stand in front of your wardrobe, tons of different clothing items are piling up, but still, you do not seem to find anything suitable for the day that you could wear. That screams for a new shopping trip to buy yet another pair of trousers and a top that again will join the club of unworn and abandoned clothing items in your closet. Still, you need to buy it in order to fit in the crowd and be up to date with the latest trends. Fashion can be an addiction and this addiction is slowly, but surely, suffocating the environment. Every second a truck full of textiles ends up in a landfill, which leads to 92 million tonnes of clothes that are being thrown away globally every year and the production of garments pollutes the air, destroys water sources, and creates toxic waste.
Hence, reducing our consumption and using our clothes for a longer period of time rather than throwing them away right after a few times of wearing them would be more helpful for reducing the environmental impact of fashion items. So maybe next time when you have a sudden urge to throw out your money and spend it on clothes ask yourself if you will really wear this crazy fluffy fur coat more than 30 times and if the answer is no, better treat yourself with something else (little hint: chocolate also does the trick of increasing the endorphins).
Buying second-hand clothes could also be another option. However, if you are anything like me shopping second-hand can be quite an overwhelming experience. It’s almost like a scavenger hunt where you first have to fight yourself through a labyrinth of clothing items that seem to have been lost in the wrong century before you get to your desired treasure. Therefore, online second-hand clothing platforms make the shopping experience more pleasant through offering filters and giving trendy fashion options to choose from. Here are some examples that you should definitely check out and where you could also maybe make others happy by selling your unique fashion items that you don't wear anymore:
Learn more about this topic in the following blog posts:
Source:
Bell, A., "Why clothes are so hard to recycle", BBC, July 13, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200710-why-clothes-are-so-hard-to-recycle, accessed 31 October 2021.
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