〰 Our planet needs us to change 〰 Earth day and Fashion revolution week
In this time of a climate crisis, plastic pollution and rise of veganism, there is also a rise of people that give a damn (yay for the last one). But unfortunately, brands are increasingly using sustainability as a marketing tool to sell their products to that “target group”. Some of them might be sustainable, some not. But the reality is we can not solve pollution by replacing one single-use product for another, one piece of clothing for another, wrap all processed vegan products in plastic…. We can not continue consuming so much and wasting natural resources. It´s time to rethink not just what we buy but also, how we live.
We all need to consume less
When people ask how they can live more sustainably, what they can buy to replace plastic products or fast fashion clothing. The answer would be that we cannot buy our way into sustainability. Overconsumption brought us pollution, exploitation, crisis. If we stop producing single-use plastic cups and replace them with paper, we just shifted the problem on another natural resource. If we make a switch from fast to fair fashion, but don´t cut down on our shopping habits, (yes, we are still doing some good), we are still creating a demand for more. People cannot possibly use all the things they buy. All 200 pieces of clothing in someone’s wardrobe will not get used, even if they are made by a sustainable brand.
Climate crisis and sustainability should not be a business opportunity for companies that don´t care about the planet. But rather a time of pushing the consumerism break. Time to look around and ask ourselves if we really need a new phone, new sweater, or if we really can´t spend our holidays in our own country or drive, take a train or bus to our holiday location. Maybe this is the summer for your train tour around Europe. Time for us to slow down and use and wear what we have.
And brands, oh brands will do all they can to get us to buy more. They know people are eco-conscious today. More people want to do something to help the environment. So the brands will make you believe that you do. They will pack everything in green packaging, put Eco in the name, name it Conscious collection (yes you H&M).
And even if the brands are sustainable, we should take time and think about buying a product from them. Do I really need it, does it go with most of the items I already own, what material is it made from, will it last, will I wear it in 1 or 3 years? If Yes, please buy it and support the companies that are actually doing good and trying. Take care of that item, wash it cold, wash it less and make it last.
Recycling is not gonna save the climate change
When you ask people what they are personally doing to tackle climate change, a lot of them would say “I recycle”. Recycling alone is not going to do much to prevent disastrous climate change, but it makes people feel good and doesn’t threaten core corporate interests. Only 9% of the world’s plastic gets recycled. Only 2% of clothes in H&M recycling program gets recycled. It´s all created to make you buy more. It is infinitely preferable to prevent waste altogether, rather than recycle it.
I will write a whole post about recycling because it seems that is a general belief that recycling is a solution, that recycling works, that all we put in recycling bin gets recycled. It´s not and it doesn´t, sorry.
Buying less, buying 2nd hand, swapping, repairing, repurposing products we already have should be our main focus. As a result, we will also save a bunch of money and keep the planet happy and safe.
Earth Day
Today 22nd of April is Earth Day and the Earth is not happy. Topic and focus of this year’s Earth day is Protect Our Species.
Nature’s gifts to our planet are the millions of species that we know and love, and many more that remain to be discovered. Unfortunately, human beings have irrevocably upset the balance of nature and, as a result, the world is facing the greatest rate of extinction since we lost the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. But unlike the fate of the dinosaurs, the rapid extinction of species in our world today is the result of human activity.
The good news is that the rate of extinctions can still be slowed, and many of our declining, threatened and endangered species can still recover if we work together now to build a united global movement of consumers, voters, educators, faith leaders, and scientists to demand immediate action.
We should not do something only on that day, we should have Earth day every day until sustainable becomes a new normal.
Here are some ideas what you can do on Eart Day. Learn more.
Fashion Revolution week
Today is also a start of Fashion Revolution Week, the annual global campaign calling for a fairer, safer, more transparent fashion industry, will run from Monday 22nd – Sunday 28th April 2019.
Fashion goes around in circles (even if the industry is not yet circular) and the 90s is cool again, so who needs to buy new? Be disruptive. Your voice is a powerful tool. Together we can demand change, clean up the mess, say slow down, we have enough. (from Fashion Revolution booklet)
This year Fashion Revolution Week will highlight how the future fashion industry must respect both people and planet with fair and decent work, environmental protection and gender equality. From Australia to Brazil, Uruguay to Vietnam. More than 275 million people are again expected to take part in Fashion Revolution Week by asking brands #whomademyclothes.
Find out how you can get involved right here and Join us.
Some good news
From the book “Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”⠀ (from SorelleAmore´s post):
– most of the world has access to a forever improving medical system
– the world is safer today than ever before
– most of the world is out of extreme poverty
– the world is having fewer babies than ever before due to access to education, plummeting child mortality rates and people escaping poverty
– population growth will be levelling out at around 10-12 billion people
– people dying from natural disasters has halved over the last 100 years
– life expectancy around the world is increasing
– women around the world are spending almost the same amount of time in classrooms as men
– lots of animals are coming back from extinction
And so many more heartwarming facts that will make you feel better and positive about the world today.
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Greetings from sunny Hvar, life is good here and there is less plastic on my beach this year than last year. That´s also something. And now I will finish my coffee and go for a beach clean up. You can check what I´m doing through my Instagram stories.
If you have 15min you can read the interview I did for Bellabeat in honour of Earth Day.
Thank you and I´ll be back with another post soon,
Mateja
I will state this in every post because it is something we have to always take into consideration. And that is the privilege of a choice. There are a lot of people with disabilities, people living on a very tight budget, people with allergies, people in extremely poor communities or developing countries (where most of our waste ends up) that pay the cost of pollution, busy working parents that do not have time to make these changes. There are people that do not have the choice I have. I am speaking from the position of a privileged, white, European woman, living in safe Austrian mountains, with a budget, health and options big enough to be able to choose. Choosing to spend less and have less is different than being required to live on less.
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