Chatterbox: Down to Earth

Sustainability and Overconsumption Thread

Fast fashion is a major issue. Many sources say that the clothing industry is responsible for up to 10% of global emissions. Other statistics (that i did not do a ton of fact checking on) say that the cultivation of cotton for 1 t-shirt produces more than one kilogram of CO2. From there, there’s processing and sewing and shipping and it can come up to 7 kilograms - before the customer even takes the shirt home. From there, washing and drying only adds more and more.

For such an energy-intensive process, the average amount of times to wear a piece of clothing is 7-10. This is an average, so there are going to be outliers, but it’s terrifyingly low. It’s estimated that 80 to 150 billion clothes are produced each year. But almost no fashion companies put out a number, probably because they don’t want people to know the ridiculous amount of waste they create.

there’s certainly too much trash. Even when clothes are donated, they aren’t always resold. The US exports over a billion pounds of clothing a year to places like Ghana. From there, a lot get thrown in the trash. A lot of what is given there isn’t even high enough quality for it to be reused by anyone. Only between 10 and 30 percent of secondhand donations to charity shops actually get resold in store. 

A lot of these retailers keep the prices low. How? Very few major retailers of clothes (even ones that claim to be sustainable!) treat their workers well. From an article published in 2023, some garment makers in Bangladesh make as little as $3 a day. If you exploit your workers, you can make things cheaper. But this doesn’t mean that more expensive clothes are made in better conditions - most of the time it just means they use more expensive materials and just have a higher price.

How bad are the factories? child labor abounds, and if kids are working in factories, they can’t go to school or have a decent childhood or, most likely, get out of the cycle of poverty. And there are so many safety issues. For instance, materials used in making the items can be toxic and cause severe health issues (which you can’t afford to get help with if you make that little money). (on the topic of other industries, people who mine gold often amalgamate it using mercury and inhale a bunch of the fumes. It is not good.)

Companies aren’t helping. Through planned obsolescence, they make items that are specifically designed to break down so you have to buy a new one. For instance, a lot of phones and computers are designed so you can’t repair them, no matter how hard you try. and printer ink cartridges often still have ink when you’re told to replace them. Even worse, if you look up the term, you get stuff defending it. Regardless of if it’s specifically intentional or not, every company’s goal should be to not contribute to the massive pile of waste on the planet. New better cameras and features are not worth, for instance, bleaching coral reefs to the point where they’ll never return, or causing dangerous heatwaves (especially dangerous to people who can’t afford medical care). Most people are not videographers, and if they were, they'd probably at least hope to get better supplies, instead of just a phone camera.

So what to do? The best solution is to just not buy new clothes or items whenever it's avoidable, and buy them second-hand when you do need them. Obviously at some point you’ll need to, but can you postpone it? Do you really need it? Can you learn to mend? Mending doesn’t have to be boring - what about a cool patch on a hole in the knee of some pants? But even if it is boring, it’s incredibly easy and hand-sewing can look very professional and not even be noticeable. I’ll post more on mending later! the most sustainable option is always the one you already own.

So far this has been focused on clothes. However, it’s equally important to reduce the amount of other items that you buy. Most of what’s been written is true about any other item.

If you try writing down the amount of items (that aren't something like food or medical supplies or something truly necessary, more like clothes or stuffed animals or books) that you or your family have bought in a year, the number very well might surprise you. don’t get too worried about timeline here - just write down anything that comes to mind. consider the amount of resources that any one given item would have taken. Does the item have any plastic in it? (Many things you might not expect, like a lot of fabrics, do.) All that’s going to happen is that it’s going to turn into microplastics, which are potentially very harmful to everyone. Plastic doesn’t really biodegrade. 

You can't undo what's already done, so don't beat yourself up about old things you've bought. Also, I'm not saying you have to give up anything you like! You just have to be responsible about it. For instance, maybe you only buy books you'll want to reread, and others you can get at the library. (My library will take book requests to buy; yours might too.)

I’d say the most important takeaway is to expand the lifespan of your items. If it’s at all possible to fix something that’s broken, do it! Ideally, everything you own would be bought with the expectation that you will take the time to try to fix it if it breaks. Also, get a drying rack! Drying takes more energy than washing, and it also is very harsh on your clothes. If you let them dry on a rack, it’ll both take less energy and make your clothes last longer. You could even handwash your clothes (but i’d say rack drying is a higher priority). And check how sustainable the places you’re buying from are. Most of the time, more sustainable items cost way more because they’re actually paying their workers, etc; however if you buy less clothes this may be less of an issue. You can buy a coat that will last for 20 years or have to buy one every few years, if that makes sense. It’s also important to note that many companies overstate how sustainable they are. Any company that has new releases every few weeks or months is probably not that sustainable. Just because something is organic doesn’t mean it was made in a low emissions factory that doesn’t create a lot of toxic runoff into the environment and isn’t cruel to workers. Always research companies with keywords like “greenwashing” and “unsustainable” added to the search; always be suspicious.

While obviously at some point you won’t be able to fix an item anymore, and you’re going to need new things sometimes, the more you can avoid it the better. But even one person makes a small difference in the long run. In the end, we need everyone to try, and much more action to prevent this sort of thing in companies and find better solutions than forcing other countries to take care of our trash.

So, what else can you do? Spread the word! If people don’t realize how harmful their actions are, they’re not going to know they need to stop them. There are many options for this - telling people in person or in letters, making flyers (you have my full permission to take any part of this and put it into the flyers, as much as you want - though i would reccomend fact checking and citing your information, since I can’t add sources on the CB), writing a letter to a local newspaper. You can also write to companies that contribute the most to the issue and tell them that you dislike the problems with the way they run, or to government officials. 

It’s also likely that your average CBer isn’t even the worst contributor, so extra care should be taken around avoiding and disincouring things like clothing haul videos on social media.

I might post more about flyers later, since I might be trying to make a campaign there (since i think it’d be more effective than the other one i tried). But i'm already overwhelming the Admins XD if anyone has questions let me know and i'll try to answer!