We can all do more to slow the effects of climate change. I’m trying to make a conscious effort to use less single use plastics, to eat less meat and to shop more responsibly. Fast fashion is hugely damaging to the environment and thankfully companies and consumers alike seem to be waking up to how serious this problem is. I’m sure I’m not the only one guilty of buying things I don’t need, throwing things away after wearing them only a handful of times and choosing cheap, unsustainable items rather than investing in pieces that will last a long time. We’re not all in the position to spend hundreds of pouds on jeans and jumpers (I’m certainly not!) but there are still ways to shop sustainably without spending an arm and a leg.
The first and most obvious option is to visit your local charity shops. These are great for a number of reasons, firstly you’re recycling clothing which would otherwise be thrown away, secondly you’re most likely going to be saving some money and thirdly you’re sending your money to a good cause and people that need it rather than a large corporation. I worked in a charity shop for a year and I can tell you they are very picky with what goes on the shop floor and what doesn’t. Anything that doesn’t look pretty new won’t make it out so you don’t have to worry about sacraficing quality, some of the pieces are even brand new with the tags on! Some charities also have an online store and some of these are available on ASOS Marketplace making it even easier to shop for a good cause.
Along a similar vein, second hand or vintage shops are other great places to shop sustainably. Buying second hand is so much better for the environment and you can find some great gems in second hand shops that you would never find on the high street. The Vintage Clothing Kilo sale is a great option that comes to multiple UK cities where you pay £15 per kilo of items you buy, making it inexpensive and better for the environment! Read more about The Vintage Kilo Sale here.
One of my favourite new features to help with sustainable shopping is ASOS’s responsible filter. This sorts the items you’re shown and only displays items that are made from recycled materials or that use sustainable fabrics that use less water in their production. This means that when you’re searching for new autumn pieces you can shop responsibly at the click of a button. You can shop the ASOS responsible edit here and if you want to see some of the things I picked out from it (which you definitely should, not that I’m biased or anything but they’re pretty great) then click here.
The H&M Conscious range has been a favourite of mine for a while because it singles out products that are made from at least 50% recycled materials so you can easily find and buy products that are less damaging to the environment. I’ve bought a few pieces from there that look and feel great but the thing that caught my eye about the conscious range was how inexpensive many of the products are. If you want to read more about H&M’s conscious range just follow this link.
Finally, a sure fire way to reduce the impact of shopping on the environment is just to buy less. I love shopping and getting new clothes as much as the next person (maybe a little more let’s be honest) but I’m making a conscious effort to buy things that I’ll want to wear over and over again rather than filling my wardrobe with trend pieces that this time next year will make me wonder what on Earth I was thinking. I’m also trying to get to that point where I open my wardrobe and love every single thing in it, and that’s much easier to do when I’ve not got as much to wade through!
Every week there seems to be a new person or company we’re not allowed to support anymore or a new thing that we should stop doing in the name of the environment, I don’t know about you but I find that kind of stressful! That’s why with this post I wanted to put together a couple of ways we can change how we shop without it having a drastic impact on our lives. The environmental crisis should be making us all think about how and where we shop, be it for food or clothing, and if there’s a way we can do that without changing our lives entirely then I think it definitely deserves a chance.
Hollie x
