Madelyn Postman, a Sustainable Amersham volunteer and sustainability specialist, talked about the impact of fashion in our environment as part of the Speak Up for the Planet talks on the 17th of April.
Watch the recording here.
Madelyn covered these important topics for anyone who wears clothes!
What are the three big problems in fashion?
1. Resources. For example, it takes 2,000 gallons of water to make a single pair of jeans.
2. Waste, emissions and pollution. Over-supply in the industry means that about 40% of garments made are not even sold. Supply chains are hidden and 85% of clothes find their way to landfill or to the Atacama Desert in Chile!
3. Human Rights. Brands often exploit their workers
And the three solutions
1. Buy fewer new clothes. Sounds easy but breaking habits can be hard. Buy second hand from online outlets such as Thrifted, Beyond Retro and Vinted. You can sell stuff you don’t wear through them too. Choose plastic-free fabrics that use as little resource as possible. Top of the list are hemp, linen and recycled cotton. If you want to find out about brands and their ethical rating, look up Ethical Consumer and Good on You.
2 Care for your clothes. Wash them only as often as they really need, capture microplastics with a guppy friend, and try creative mending methods such as Japanese sashiko:
Sashiko is a Japanese stitching style that was originally used by working class people as a means to mend used clothing and household items. But it is so much more than that! The even, geometric patterns of sashiko create a beautiful decorative effect
3. Share clothes. With friends of course, but there are websites for that too such as Hurt and some high street retailers including Selfridges and John Lewis have introduced rental schemes.
When you buy new, do some research. Look up the retailer’s ethical score. Do they offer a mending service? Check the label for plastics.
Madelyn also explained the circular economy. This goes further than recycling by building re-use of materials into the design process. Information on https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/. What about digital clothes? Yes, really.
Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash