When it comes to sustainability not everyone can afford buying sustainable fashion. It can be a lot of money up front which is hard to come by if you're living paycheck to paycheck. Also others may not have access to sustainable fashion due to sizing. Personally I struggle with clothing sizes since I’m so short and need to try on all my clothes before purchasing. If you are someone who wants to reduce their environmental impact here are some tips to make fast fashion as sustainable as you can.
Microplastics and Washing
When washing your clothing the fabric will shed lint and fibers, and if your fabric is a synthetic fabric it will shed non biodegradable fibers. These microplastics then enter the waterways to be consumed by fish and other people. One easy way to avoid these situations is to only wash clothing that needs to be washed. Or if you can spare the money you could try a microplastic catcher for your washing machine such as the Cora Ball.
Avoid the Dryer
The dryer is not only damaging for your clothing but also a huge energy waster in your home. I still use the dryer for most of my everyday items but putting clothes like leggings in the drier is just asking to have to buy them more often. Not only will hanging or laying your clothing to dry save the environment it will also save you money in more than one way.
Folding vs Hanging
Many pieces of clothes like stretchy T-shirts prefer to be folded whereas other clothes prefer to be hung like blazers. Lots of stretchy clothes will lose their shape if you hang them. Whereas other clothing will crease badly if you fold them. By hanging them you avoid ironing all the time and the damage that goes along with it.
Re-Wear, Re-Wear, Re-Wear
The best way to make fast far more sustainable is to not treat it like fast fashion. One of the major problems with fast fashion is how people treat the clothes like they're disposable. Buying less is always the best option and the more you wear one item the less you buy. Consider how long your clothing lasts, try and record how many wears you get out of an item. Many people recommend 30 wears per item. What lasts that long and what doesn’t? There are so many ways to use one clothing piece. I highly recommend considering a piece of clothing's possibilities before purchasing. By re-wearing clothing you're saving yourself tons of money as well as saving the planet.
I made some hanger labels to remind you of how many wears you have for each piece of clothing. All you need is a printer and a pair of scissors. Cut out the grey tag and use the hole at the top to hang around the hanger wire.
I also made a drawer tracker to keep track of the wears of your dresser items as well.
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