Finding truly ‘eco-friendly’ clothing can be tough. There are plenty of brand names which claim to be ‘green’, but after a closer look, aren’t as kind to the planet as they would like their customers to think.
Anybody who’s been serious about wearing only eco-friendly fashion will know exactly how tiring it can be to find clothing which actually fits the bill. But, the good news is that you can still be kind to the environment through your clothing, no matter where you purchased it from. Regardless of the type of clothes you buy and where you buy them from, the way you use them makes an enormous environmental difference.
Hang On to Old Clothes
If there ever was a really good reason to treat yourself to some new designer gear from Stand Out, this is it. Going for clothing which is great quality and designed to last as long as possible means that there will be less of a need for you to switch out your wardrobe every year and you can hang on to as many items of your clothing as possible. Since all clothes have quite a significant impact on the environment, using them for as long as you can is one of the easiest and best things you can do to make your fashion more eco-friendly.
Washing and Drying
The way in which you look after your clothes can also have an impact on the environment. Wherever possible, you should hang-dry your clothing – whether that’s outdoors on a clothes line or indoors on a drying rack. Hang drying your clothes uses less electricity, simultaneously reducing your carbon footprint. Along with this, when you wash your clothes, using cold rather than hot water in your washing machine can make a huge difference to the amount of energy used. All you need is a good quality detergent – many modern detergents are designed to do a great job of washing your clothes whether you use water that’s hot or cold.
Recycle
What do you usually do with your clothing items when you’re fed up of them and never wear them anymore? We all buy clothing from time to time that eventually, we grow out of – either physically or mentally – or simply get bored of it and move on to something new. Did you know that it takes ten times as much energy to produce a ton of textiles when compared to a ton of glass? However, whilst most of us have a habit of recycling glass, it’s less common to hear of somebody recycling clothing. Recycling your clothes through giving them to thrift stores, charitable causes, or even making things out of them yourself can definitely increase the eco-friendliness of your fashion choices.
Creating a ‘green’ wardrobe can be a lot harder than you think, especially if you’re focusing mainly on the production and material of the clothing. However, regardless of the type of clothing that you own, there are many different things which you can do to ensure that you have an eco-friendly wardrobe.
