Sustainable clothing shopping

While I do not know what I am studying in school yet, I know it is not going to be sustainability or fashion, yet these remain two things that I love and am passionate about. There are things we can control when it comes to environmental issues and things we can not, and in my opinion, this is a topic we actually CAN control in our own lives.
Sustainable shopping goes so much deeper than just thrifting. It is near impossible to thrift every piece of clothing. So how do we shop for clothes with the environment in our mind? Many like to pay attention to what fabric their clothes are made of.

Polyester feels soft and is usually cheap, but is fully made of plastic, with each piece leaking over 1,900 microfibers per wash. This means that shirt or jacket or shorts is not going to last forever, eventually ending up in the ocean, in our fish, in our bodies, in our drinking water. Synthetic clothing makes up for the majority of the microplastics in our ocean.

So shop cotton, right? Cotton is natural and is actually biodegradable. Well, new information for me too: to grow enough cotton to make one shirt, it takes roughly 2,700 liters (about 713 gallons) of water!!!! Once it is grown and reaches the factory, it takes another 100-150 liters of water to treat each kilogram of fiber, and then the dyeing process produces the most pollution, using extremely harsh chemicals such as azo dyes, formaldehyde, and heavy metals.

I have been trying to buy more cotton because I thought it was better, but it uses way more energy than any other clothing fabrics. So this feels like a lose-lose situation. There are trade offs for both, so neither is the perfect fabric to buy.
So even though the situation seems un-fixable, at least now you know a little more about both, and here are some solutions to the clothing problem in general. Things that you can do daily:

1. Looking for organic or recycled cotton when shopping. Organic or recycled cotton uses notably less water and does not go through the same chemical processing, making it a safer option. Look for certifications like GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) or OEKO-TEX, which test for dyes and chemical residues.
2. Wash your clothes on cold, and wash your synthetic fabrics less to prevent shedding.
3. Cotton-poly blends shed less than pure polyester and are often more durable than pure cotton, which means fewer replacements over time.
4. Avoid fleece and acrylic when possible, since they shed significantly more microfibers than other synthetics.
5. Use a filter bag (like a Guppyfriend) or an external washing machine filter when washing synthetics, these can catch a large share of shed microfibers (lint traps have been shown to retain up to 90% of polyester fibers) before they reach wastewater.
6. Secondhand clothing sidesteps both the chemical and microplastic question entirely, since the environmental cost already occurred. 

Clothing sales have roughly doubled since 2000 while wear-per-item dropped sharply, and only a small fraction of discarded clothing gets reused or recycled, buying fewer, better-made pieces and actually wearing them out does more than picking the “right” fabric.  If you are not thrifting yet, I highly recommend you to just go once and see. I always thought living in this area that I would not find anything, but once I started going I realized that there are plenty of great clothes.
I invite you to start small and try to do the easy things included on my list here, and to be creative with your clothes. Wear them in different ways, go to the thrift with an open mind. It would take a lot to truly make a difference in our environment, but the least we can do is try.

**There is also the question of working conditions in the clothing industry, which I invite you to read about here.

Sources I used: FSU, The conscious challenge(I encourage you to watch the TEDTALK on this page), FashionRevolution, PlasticDetox, PLOS

****This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and is not a substitute for a conversation with a qualified healthcare provider. Individual health needs vary. If you have questions about your health, we invite you to schedule a consultation with one of our providers.