Did you know that the fashion industry has the third highest pollution rate? There is a lot more that goes into producing mass amounts of clothing than you might think. Not only does clothing production take tons of water, but it also causes the release of a lot of Co2 emissions–a leading cause of global warming.
This doesn’t mean we should stop shopping for clothes altogether, though. There are ways to shop and be sustainable about it. The first thing is doing research and trying to support brands that commit to being sustainable and ethical in their production. This means producing as little waste as possible and consuming resources responsibly.
We as buyers can also make efforts to be sustainable with our clothing. We can do this by only purchasing high-quality clothing that will last, and by taking good care of it to reduce the need to replace the clothes we already have. Even if you’re somebody who likes to change their “look” fairly often, keeping clothes in good shape can make it easier to sell them to second-hand stores so that they don’t end up at a dump. Similarly, second-hand stores can be a great way to shop for new clothes without buying newly manufactured items, which helps reduce production.