How to become a climate-conscious shopper
READ TIME • 4 MINS
If you’re wondering what you can do to improve your shopping habits, we’ve put together a guide to help you out. It’s important to note that while we can’t really shop or consume our way out of the climate crisis, we can definitely work towards having more sustainable habits and where you put your money does matter.
Here’s the low-down before fully we dive in:
- Shop your closet: Don’t buy anything and try to make use of what you already own
- Prolong the life of your clothes by caring for them properly
- Buy second hand clothes or items
- Buy clothes made of natural fabrics (check labels in clothes before buying)
- Buy clothes made of recycled or deadstock fabrics
- Check brands’ credentials when it comes to sustainability
- Buy items that can be recycled
Start with your own wardrobe
First off, love and care for the clothes you already own. This might go without saying for some, but the most sustainable thing for the planet is to just wear what you already have and to make sure that you prolong the life of your garments.
Spend some time figuring out what your personal style is. That means paying attention to the items in your wardrobe that you wear more than others and particularly those items that you’ve had the longest and still continue to wear. That can give you an idea of what you actually prefer in the long run and it can help you avoid impulse purchases that don’t really fit your style. Spend some time styling the clothes in your wardrobe, trying them on, mixing and matching in creative ways.
In short, shop your closet: When you see an outfit you really like, try to figure out if you can’t recreate it with items you already own. This might uncover different possibilities you had not considered before.
Taking proper care of your clothes is also important. Be sure to wash your clothes according to the care label and dry clean the ones that require dry cleaning. Don’t cheat on the dry cleaning part, you might end up with a shrunken item and you’ll be sorry. In some cases it might even be advisable to wash more delicate clothes in satchels. Polyester items should be washed in special satchels too. These capture the microplastics that polyester sheds and prevent them from being released into the water system. Make sure to only buy items that you can properly care for; don’t buy those dry-clean-only pants if you know you won’t take them to the dry cleaner’s.
Buy second hand and vintage
If you must buy, second hand or vintage is preferable. It prevents clothes already produced from going to waste and it gives them a new life. You can find amazing gems by buying second hand and nowadays the options are endless. There are brick and mortar stores in most places, but if you find yourself short on time to browse them, buying second hand online is an accessible alternative.
We highly recommend your look for and download local mobile apps that connect you to others either for swapping or second-hand shopping or that you shop on local or worldwide second-hand online platforms.
What makes clothes sustainable
The second best option is to buy clothes that are sustainable. That generally means a couple of things:
- Go for natural fabrics like linen, wool, organic or recycled cotton, hemp, Tencel/lyocell. These are biodegradable, so they won’t be around for hundreds of years like polyester, acrylic & nylon. They won’t shed microplastics during washing (looking at you again, polyester). Also, they are made out of natural fibers which means that you don’t support the oil industry which is one of our biggest polluters. Their production processes are also less taxing from an energy and chemical usage standpoint. We’ve got more on sustainable fabrics in our quick guide.
- Buy recycled fabrics and items made from deadstock. Similar to vintage, deadstock & recycled employ the use of fabric that has already been produced, preventing it from going to waste and ending up in a landfill. It’s advisable to go for recycled material especially when it comes to clothing where it’s difficult to avoid synthetic fabrics, like active or swimwear. In this case, the clothes are made out of plastic that has been recycled and put to use again. There are a couple of brands that use plastic from ocean clean-ups for their clothes.
- Verify the brand/company you’re buying from. Check what information they offer regarding their supply chain, where they get their fabrics, where they produce, the working conditions on their factories and farms, how they treat their suppliers, etc. These are all very important things to take into consideration as ethical behavior definitely helps long term sustainability. Extra bonus points should go to brands that offer to collect no-longer wanted clothes and provide mending services.
- Buy recyclable clothes. This is a particularly tricky step because clothes are combinations of fibres, materials and accessories; labels, sewing thread, buttons, zippers, etc. In some cases, the fabric itself is a blend of natural and synthetic fibers. As part of recycling, fabrics need to be turned back into fibers, either mechanically or chemically. Shorter fibres or fibres of mixed length produce fabrics that are weaker and of lower quality. Getting fibres of the same length is difficult with blends, and so fabrics that are blended are often downcycled instead of recycled, meaning they are turned into mattress stuffing or something similar instead of new clothes. The more we can recycle, the better—so in that respect it’s better to buy clothes made from a single fiber instead of blends. It’s also important to note that so far recycling technologies are only used on a small scale, but they are being scaled up as we speak, so the quality of the clothes that you discard in the coming years is becoming more important.
Also, make sure you buy clothes that are well made, giving them a chance to withstand the test of time. A big part of the waste issue that fashion has is clothes are made out of short fibers (making them less sturdy and prone to tearing) which makes them non-reusable and therefore non-recyclable. Buying clothes that are sturdier and better made can increase the chance their life does not end once you no longer use them.
Here, our first advice comes in handy as well: If you’ve spent some time figuring out what your style is, you can make sure that you’re not buying into some fad. It’s also advisable that you treat your purchases as investments, put some thought and time into it. Mull things over before you actually buy, taking into consideration how the piece would fit into your wardrobe, what it goes with, how many times you plan to wear it and with what exactly. Spending a bit more on it will also make you feel like the item is not easily disposable. I frequently postpone purchases and I believe that can work to your advantage too. Are you still thinking about it, does it still make sense? Do you love it or just like it? Needless to say, you should only buy something you really love.
These are some of the tips we employ to curb needless fashion purchases. We hope this helps and please don’t hesitate to send us tips of your own!