|
Monday,
February 05, 2008
Driven
by fashion or your conscious?
Not long ago there was a story about how Paris Hilton was
going to buy a Toyota
Prius. Suddenly, it seems, Paris was awakened to the
importance of going green, and I applaud her for the move.
The other day, I even read that Paris, and many in
Hollywood, have now embraced bamboo underwear - yet
another move I applaud.
Still, Hollywood is an industry that pushes new fashion -
the fashions that everyone must have - about every other
day. And, let's be honest, a huge amount of this fashion
is produced by slave labor, but it isn't just slave labor
that's the problem, it's the incredible amount of
environmental damage that fashion is causing.
Because everyday joes can't afford the price of the new
fashions, nor the speed that fashions change, new discount
fashion stores have arisen and they have led to a new
element of our fast-food culture called "fast
clothes".
"But clothes — and fast clothes in particular —
are large and worsening sources of the carbon emissions
that contribute to global warming, both because of how
they are produced and how they are cared for, concludes a
thought-provoking report from researchers at Cambridge
University entitled, "Well Dressed?"" (more)
All of this is leading to a new push towards synthetic
fabrics, which require less care, and therefore less clean
water to wash and less energy wasted in the dryer. Plus,
many synthetic clothes don't require dry-cleaning -
another environmental killer. However, if you only wear
these clothes once or twice - fast clothes - then one must
ask how much of a difference synthetic fabrics really are
making.
Most environmentalists believe that organic cotton or
hemp, for example, especially classic styles, rather than
stylish clothes, usually highlight ‘green clothes’.
Why? The longer you keep clothes, the better it is for the
environment - at least in terms of new clothes. Recycling
clothes is probably the best thing you can do.
Keep your clothes longer. Buy organic if possible. Wash
them less. Always try to hang dry and STAY away from the
dry-cleaners.
While there isn't a perfect solution to 'green
clothes',
there are many things many people can do, but
participating in the fashionable 'fast clothes' movement
is not one of those solutions.
More
Clean Energy News
|
