The more it is talked about, the more people will catch one! I have seen quite a few of the larger brands moving over to sustainable, eco friendly options. Keep it up!!
Wow Jen! Thanks for sharing. I am a biggggg fan of small steps in the right direction. Cool to know that Kohl's realizes how important these issues are.
Wow, thanks Allie! Last month I received an interesting email from Kohls about their "sustainable options". Intrigued I discovered they have taken steps to work on this issue, and while they may not be 100% sustainable, they're better than before. Peruse https://www.kohls.com/feature/sustainability.jsp
So are you thinking you want to make better choices with your future clothes and stop buying plastic to wrap your body in?! Here are some tips:
1. Invest in timeless, quality pieces that last. Like your friends, clothes should always be quality over quantity
2. Buy used high quality items whenever you possibly can instead of buying new. Check out high end consignment shops, thrift stores, Clothes Mentor, Plato's Closet, online second hand markets such as Poshmark, eBay, thredUP, Etsy, etc. There are tons of options! Good thing the 80s are coming back (Did you know that in addition to the microfiber issue with clothes, textile dying is the second largest polluter of clean water worldwide, after agriculture. That is why it's so important to limit purchases to only absolute necessities, always shop secondhand, and source clothing from responsible companies if you must purchase new)
3. Do your research before purchasing a newly manufactured item if you can't avoid it. There are good Certified B Corporations out there working to make an impactful difference and there are lots of other companies that haven't achieved that distinction but employ many sustainable, conscientious practices.
Interested? Check out some of these cool blogs and companies that can help you get started on (or continue in) your sustainable clothing journey:
1. The Chic Diary - offers tips and tricks, reviews, and lists of eco-friendly clothing alternatives
2. All Birds Shoes - made from wool, eucalyptus, sugar cane, castor bean oil, etc. this company has really gone the extra mile to be as sustainable as they can be and they are constantly improving
3. Vivo Barefoot - need an active-wear shoe that doesn't leave you feeling blue? Check these cool shoes out. They source responsibly and most of their shoes are made with recycled water bottles (remember not to wash them unless you get a GUPPYFRIEND or an after wash filter ;)). They also recently released their most environmentally sound shoe yet - the Primus Lite II BIO
4. Amour Vert - committed to making sustainable, versatile, and thoughtfully designed clothing that is good for the planet. They use 6 different fabrics and blends to make all of their clothing. All of these fabrics and blends are natural/organic/responsibly made/recycled.
5. Patagonia - this company encourages their customer's to only buy what they need. They also repair all normal wear and tear to their products at a fair price and accept items that are beyond repair for recycling.
6. Good Krama - they use leftover Cambodian krama (material used to make scarves) for all of their clothes. They source deadstock fabrics and offcuts that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill to make slow fashion staples - buy once, wear forever (even from season to season). Check out their about us page, it has some great information about the negative impacts of the current fashion industry.
7. RubyMoon - swim and active-wear made from ghost fishing equipment pulled from the ocean by NGO Healthy Seas. They also believe in a circular economy so they will take any stretchy active wear clothing that you would like to discard to make new products and give you a 5% discount for your efforts. While obviously not ideal since the material is plastic, as long as all swim and active wear is made from plastic fibers, you might as well choose a company who is doing their best to make the world a better place. And keep working that keyboard pushing for even better alternatives!
We hear a lot about our large, plastic waste reaching waterways, and breaking down into microplastics, and how they're degrading water quality of natural waters around the globe. A few years ago, we heard a lot about plastic microbeads in soaps and other cosmetic products destroying water quality and they were banned from being put in any products in 2017 (thank goodness!). But did you know there is another huge microplastic problem for our beautiful planet that we don’t hear much about? Laundry. That’s right, laundry.
Much of our clothing (and other textiles like sheets - ultra-soft-microfiber-hotel-quality sheets, anyone?) these days is made from plastic fibers such as polyester, nylon, and acrylic. In fact, over 60% of the clothing in the world is made from these materials now. Just like natural fibers such as cotton, linen, wool, and silk, plastic fabrics shed when washed and dried. These small plastic fibers cannot be removed during waste water treatment so they enter receiving bodies of water - just like microbeads and medications. The average family produces enough of these fibers during their regular, yearly laundry to produce 100 water bottles. If every household in Virginia Beach alone does an average amount of wash each year, this means that over 17 million water bottles could be made from the plastic fibers rushing down their collective drains.
The problem with plastic is complicated. Think it’s a fantastic idea to make clothes out of recycled water bottles or bottles retrieved from our beautiful oceans? What about now that you know just a fraction of the information that is out there on plastic microfibers? So now what? What do you wear? What do you do with your socks, your favorite fleece blanket, that cute sun dress you bought last week? Should you just throw everything away and start over?!?!
You definitely shouldn’t just trash all of your clothes that aren’t made out of natural fibers - clothes are incredibly energy intensive to produce. But there are things you can do to help lessen the amount of plastic microfibers that are released from your clothing and to catch the ones that are released. To catch all those pesky fibers, you can try washing all of your plastic fiber clothes in a washing bag (the guppyfriend is one) or adding a post-wash filter to your washing machine. The good news is, while they aren't a perfect solution, these simple devices have been shown to capture 99% of plastic fibers released during washing. If you're not sure about either of those options, you can also follow the tips below:
1. Vote with your dollar! Only buy clothes made with natural fibers whenever possible.
2. Avoid cheap, fast fashion
3. Educate family and friends. And coworkers, strangers, the cashier at the grocery store, your kid's teacher…
4. Speak up and tell designers you want clothes made from natural fibers. Tell your employer you want uniforms made of natural fibers if you wear a uniform.
5. Wash your synthetic clothes less frequently for shorter wash cycles so the fibers sustain less damage
6. Wash using the cold wash setting. This is also less damaging to your clothes and releases fewer fibers.
7. Fill your washing machine to the max. Full loads result in less friction which means fewer fibers will be pulled from your clothes
8. Use liquid detergent (Dropps are liquid and plastic free!). This also creates less friction to help release fewer fibers
9. Dry your clothes on a delicate setting which will help reduce damage and help your clothes retain more of their fibers
10. Watch this short video to learn more about this huge problem
Allie Hobgood 7/22/2021 2:20 PMWow Jen! Thanks for sharing. I am a biggggg fan of small steps in the right direction. Cool to know that Kohl's realizes how important these issues are.
Jennifer Klotz 7/21/2021 5:30 PMWow, thanks Allie! Last month I received an interesting email from Kohls about their "sustainable options". Intrigued I discovered they have taken steps to work on this issue, and while they may not be 100% sustainable, they're better than before. Peruse https://www.kohls.com/feature/sustainability.jsp
3. Do your research before purchasing a newly manufactured item if you can't avoid it. There are good Certified B Corporations out there working to make an impactful difference and there are lots of other companies that haven't achieved that distinction but employ many sustainable, conscientious practices.Interested? Check out some of these cool blogs and companies that can help you get started on (or continue in) your sustainable clothing journey:1. The Chic Diary - offers tips and tricks, reviews, and lists of eco-friendly clothing alternatives2. All Birds Shoes - made from wool, eucalyptus, sugar cane, castor bean oil, etc. this company has really gone the extra mile to be as sustainable as they can be and they are constantly improving3. Vivo Barefoot - need an active-wear shoe that doesn't leave you feeling blue? Check these cool shoes out. They source responsibly and most of their shoes are made with recycled water bottles (remember not to wash them unless you get a GUPPYFRIEND or an after wash filter ;)). They also recently released their most environmentally sound shoe yet - the Primus Lite II BIO4. Amour Vert - committed to making sustainable, versatile, and thoughtfully designed clothing that is good for the planet. They use 6 different fabrics and blends to make all of their clothing. All of these fabrics and blends are natural/organic/responsibly made/recycled.5. Patagonia - this company encourages their customer's to only buy what they need. They also repair all normal wear and tear to their products at a fair price and accept items that are beyond repair for recycling.6. Good Krama - they use leftover Cambodian krama (material used to make scarves) for all of their clothes. They source deadstock fabrics and offcuts that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill to make slow fashion staples - buy once, wear forever (even from season to season). Check out their about us page, it has some great information about the negative impacts of the current fashion industry.7. RubyMoon - swim and active-wear made from ghost fishing equipment pulled from the ocean by NGO Healthy Seas. They also believe in a circular economy so they will take any stretchy active wear clothing that you would like to discard to make new products and give you a 5% discount for your efforts. While obviously not ideal since the material is plastic, as long as all swim and active wear is made from plastic fibers, you might as well choose a company who is doing their best to make the world a better place. And keep working that keyboard pushing for even better alternatives!