ecobirmingham are here to help you take steps to live a greener lifestyle. Let’s talk about fashion.
The term fast fashion has been thrown around for years, used to describe the quick turnaround of catwalk looks to shops for the consumer to purchase. Often this leads to the item being low quality and disposed of once the new season comes around. In fact WRAP (a charity working to reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way) estimate £140 million worth of clothing goes into landfill each year!
Slow fashion is the antithesis of this – it is a sustainable, ethical fashion movement that involves buying vintage clothes, redesigning old clothes, shopping from smaller producers, making clothes and accessories at home and buying garments that last longer, generally higher quality items.
Tips for making more sustainable fashion choices:
- Buy secondhand – shop vintage, charity shops, use Facebook Marketplace, Depop, or eBay.
- Swap shops – Swap unwanted clothes for something new at swap and swishing events, or organise your own with friends. There’s also a scheme in South Birmingham where you can donate and pick up school uniforms for free. Read more about it here.
- Mend – try repairing or altering clothing if you can before throwing it away.
- Quality – purchase higher quality items that will last, saving you money in the long term.
- Do you need it? – only buy what you need, not what you want.
- Sell – any items you’ve used once or twice and think could do with a new home, sell.
- Donate – don’t fancy selling? Donate your preloved items to charity and help someone in need.
- Recycle – clothes can be recycled at many drop off stations. Check out Love Your Clothes to find your nearest recycling station.
Looking to make steps towards a green(er) future? Found this article useful?
We’re working on a new project aiming to inspire and help households make greener choices in their lives. Please help us identify what would help you by filling in our (very) short survey here.
Together we can make Birmingham a greener and healthier place to live. Donations from people like you are essential to ensure we can continue our important work across the city. Find out how you can help us tackle the big environmental issues in Birmingham here.