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Waste Reduction Week and the 7 Important Theme Days
Waste Reduction Week has started and is running from October 18 – 24, 2021. Last year we focused on one day of the week, looking at how to upcycle t-shirts and reduce textile waste. This year, we are going to briefly share each theme day with you. What is Waste Reduction Week? Waste Reduction Weeks began happening around Canada back in the 1980’s but, 20 years ago in 2001, Waste Reduction Week became official. With a focus on a circular economy, Waste Reduction Week is a national program run by the Circular Innovation Council. Waste Reduction Week in Canada is a year-round program, focused on the principles of circular economy, resource…
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How Your Clothing Helps the Planet: 5 Easy Changes
Krista and I have been spending time looking at different areas of our lives where we can take personal action and help the planet. The recent IPCC Report on climate change was fairly overwhelming, so we wanted to check in and dive a little deeper on a few areas. We’ve looked at a few areas of our lives so far, such as our food choices, energy choices, and even our internet use choices. This week I’m looking at how our clothing helps (or harms) the planet and some choices we can make. The Problem with Fashion The fast fashion industry has sold us on the idea that we constantly need new items in our…
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Plastic Free July: Plastic In Our Clothing
Take a peek into your closet – have you ever stopped to think about the plastic that might be hiding in your wardrobe? What are most of your clothes made of — are they synthetic or natural fibers? Do they have an elastic waistband or stretch material? Do they have plastic snaps, buttons, or zippers? It turns out there is a surprising amount of plastic in our clothes and it has a potentially larger impact on the environment than even straws or other single use plastics! Types of Fabric How often do you look at the fibre content in the label on your clothes? I grew up buying fabric and…
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Waste Reduction Week: Upcycled T-Shirts
This past August we featured a series that focused on five fast fashion facts and five questions with a sustainable, slow fashion brand. In this instalment of the series, we shared that fast fashion has driven consumers to purchase, and dispose of, many more garments than in the past. Furthermore, due to the poor quality of many of these textiles, most are not able to be recycled or sold in second-hand shops. As this is Textiles Tuesday in #wastereductionweek we’re sharing a few ways to re-use your old t-shirts that will keep them in use, keep them out of landfills, and maybe replace a single-use disposable item as well! Dryer…
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Celebrating 100 Blog Posts With Our Most Popular Reads
Today we are celebrating our 100th blog post! And to mark that milestone, we thought we’d share some of our most popular posts with you. Here are 10 of our readers’ favourite posts. Top Posts for Slow Fashion From this year’s slow fashion series, our top posts include a visible mending tutorial, a how-to guide to hosting your own clothing swap, and a feature on one of our favourite Canadian sustainable fashion brands. Visible Mending: What’s Old Can Be New Again Sustainable Children’s Wear: fairechild How to Host a Clothing Swap Top Posts for Living Plastic Free We participated in Plastic Free July for the first time this year and…
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How to Host a Clothing Swap
Clothing swaps are one of my favourite things. Anything that combines saving money, shopping, and some time with friends is a good thing in my books! A clothing swap is a chance for you to pass on your unused clothes to others who will enjoy them and for you to add some new items to your closet. We’ve mentioned in our post about sustainable choices saving money that purchasing one less new clothing item a year can save 6-billion pounds of carbon emissions. So clothing swaps are sustainable for your budget and the environment. In this post I have a “How To” guide on hosting a clothing swap along with…
