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Let’s be honest – we’ve all bragged to our friends and family about the cute blouse we scored on clearance at our favorite fast fashion retailer. Places like SHEIN, Forever21, and H&M are a great place to find the latest fashions at an affordable price, but what if I told you that what you’re saving in the moment costs you – and the planet – more in the long run?

Clothes shopping used to be an occasional event — something that happened a few times a year at most. People would only buy new items out of necessity or when they outgrew the clothing they already had. However, in the past 20 years, there has been a massive shift in the fashion industry towards “fast fashion.”

WHAT IS ‘FAST FASHION’?

Trends started changing more and more rapidly, and to keep up with this new demand, clothing manufacturers had to make clothing as quickly and cheaply as possible- with little to no regard for the quality of the pieces they produced. These days, when consumers purchase new clothes, they only wear them a few times before they toss them out and replace them with the next trendy thing. This problematic cycle has led the fast fashion industry to become one of the world’s largest polluters, with the equivalent of a garbage truck load of clothes being burnt or buried in a landfill every second.

The sheer amount of clothing waste is a problem, but the materials used to create these clothes make the situation more dire. Fast fashion brands rely on synthetic fibers, which are derived from petroleum and require massive amounts of energy to produce. These fibers are not biodegradable and can take centuries to decompose in landfills, releasing toxic chemicals and microplastics into the soil and water. The effects are so bad that, globally, the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is more pollution than all maritime shipping and international flights produce, combined.

So, what can we do? How can we as a community influence the trend of hyper-consumerism and overconsumption, slow down clothing pollution, and, in general, be more mindful of our purchasing patterns?

SHOP LOCAL

Well, the first step is simple – shop local. Online fast fashion retailers often ship from manufacturing facilities overseas, which means that your package must go on a boat, or a plane, to cross the ocean. This requires a lot of fuel and releases more pollutants into the air. When you shop local, however, you not only receive your items immediately, but you reduce the pollution that is created from the shipping process.

The second thing you can do is care about the quality of the items that you purchase. While fast fashion manufacturers might not care about the quality of your items, your local retailers do. In fact, a large percentage of the clothing at my boutique, Lex on Main, is sustainably and ethically manufactured, right here, in the United States. When we do use retailers that manufacture their products overseas, they must meet our high standards of quality. I personally hand pick every single item in the store, and I am very particular about the pieces that we stock.

CONSIDER SECOND-HAND SHOPPING

Finally, consider shopping second-hand. Lex on Main offers a small selection of hand-picked, second-hand items for the more eco-conscious shopper. Additionally, there are plenty of resources available to find sustainable and ethically made clothing online. If you look at the hashtag, #sustainablefashion, on Instagram, there are more than 17 million posts that can help you to find clothing that suits your individual style-without hurting the planet.

I especially like the account Good On You (@goodonyou_app), where you can find ratings for from “We Avoid It” to “Great” for major fashion brands, based on how environmentally-friendly and fair their business practices are. Since they have done a lot of the heavy lifting by researching these brands, they’ve made our job easier. I recommend looking at their Reels and Guides to check how your favorite retailer scores, or to find new sustainable brands you may have never heard of.

At the end of the day, one person deciding to be more sustainable is not enough to change the fashion industry. However, if we all make the commitment to do better, to donate our unwanted clothes, to buy from brands that use biodegradable fibers, and to invest in higher quality items so that we reduce textile waste, things will get better. Don’t discredit the small part that we can play in the bigger picture or the impact that each of us has. This Earth Day, keep your textile purchases in mind, shop small, and don’t forget to show love to the planet that we call home.

SUNDARI MORGAN is the owner of Lex on Main Boutique, the winner of The Farmville Herald’s 2022 Reader’s Choice Award for “Best Women’s Clothing Store.” She can be reached via lexonmainboutique@gmail.com.