Sustainable fashion is a movement. The goal is to place environmental, social and ethical improvements within the fashion industry and to create new value and deeper wealth for society as a whole. This can be achieved by reducing the amount of waste, prolonging the life cycle of materials and reducing harm to the environment as a result of production and consumption.
Sustainable Clothing
Sustainable clothing refers to the fabrics that are created or re-purposed from eco-friendly resources. Being environmentally conscious about our clothing means buying clothes second-hand or from thrift stores, donating, reusing or reselling used clothing, and reducing the amount of clothing one has in general.
The general three principals here are reduce, reuse, recycle.
The Five Main Issues Being Addressed
Although all clothing has at least some negative impact on the environment, the overall idea of sustainable fashion is to make a difference and improve efforts addressing environmental and social concerns. Here are the five main issues that are currently being addressed to provide more sustainable fashion:
Water Usage
Although the Earth is covered in water, most of it isn’t usable due to saltwater or it being polluted. There are such high demands for freshwater for drinking and for agricultural purposes and as a result, brands are looking to see how they can cut back how much water is being used to make their clothing.
Hazardous Chemicals
The hazardous chemicals from dyes and finishes oppose a danger for the workers producing the clothing as well as the community water sources. Coming up with innovative alternatives to dyes and finishes from the productive processes are key.
Short Lifecycle
With brands constantly releasing new designs and consumers constantly purchasing, the biggest goal in sustainable fashion is to buy less and wear their current clothing longer.
Waste
This is where the whole concept of reduce, reuse, recycle comes in. There should be an effective way to make products useful again whether that’s repairing garments or creating new pieces out of the old.
Agriculture
Utilizing organic cotton, linen and other fibers helps reduce the water consumption needed to make clothing other than the conventional growing methods.
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