How Our Very Own Wardrobes Can Help Us Become More Sustainable

We all recognise the importance of sustainability and sustainable living and want to know exactly where our clothes come from and how they were made but there are lots of ways we can help reduce the environmental footprint in our very own wardrobes!

We can buy less and wear our clothes for longer and ‘treat them like the good friends they are’.  This is the simplest and possibly most effective thing we can do.

We can buy previously owned, second hand or vintage clothing (whichever term you prefer). By doing this our clothes have an extended life and if you donate or buy from charity shops you’re also helping people that really need help and support.

Wash your clothes as per the washing instructions. Care labels are there for a reason so don’t chop them off unless you’ve memorised them! And if your clothes don’t need washing, don’t wash them.

As with anything important, do your due diligence. While many brands want to be 100% sustainable and environmentally friendly this isn’t always possible. Transparency across the entire supply chain from farm to shop isn’t always as clear as we would like because so many processes are sub-contracted and it’s difficult to get information because suppliers don’t necessarily  want to ’share’ which makes it harder for brands to be truly transparent. So do your research and find out everything you can about the brand and what they’re doing for sustainability and humanity  Look for codes of practice and certification for fabrics as well as reviews from independent sources. When it comes to independent reviews think about how ‘independent’ they really are.

When you get to a point where you think you’re not going to wear a particular garment any more give some real thought to what you can do to extend it’s life. Will you recycle it so it can be made into new material for a new item of clothing? Will you transform it into a new outfit yourself or ask a tailor to do it for you? Will you give it to a charity shop or ask if your friends or family would like it? 

Before making a final decision look at the item and really think if someone else would want to buy it and love it. Wash it before it goes to a charity shop and fix any buttons or zips beforehand just to ensure that when it goes through the sorting process it’s in a saleable condition because if it’s not it  may go straight to landfill and not where you intended and you have inadvertently added to the problem you were hoping to avoid.

Brands are trying their best to be more sustainable but we can all do our bit too.