Earth911 is honoring the 52 years of Earth Day with 52 Actions for the Earth. Each week through Earth Day 2023, we will share an action you can take to invest in the Earth and make your own life more sustainable. The environmental impact of the global textile and fashion industry is so big that EarthDay.org has made sustainable fashion one of its major campaigns. While fashion magazines are filled with quizzes to help you figure out your personal style, EarthDay.org’s quiz will help you understand the environmental impacts of the fashion industry better and help you avoid making the wrong kind of fashion impact. This week, you can take action for the Earth by testing – and growing – your (environmental) fashion knowledge.
Fashion for the Earth
The history of Earth Day is the history of collective action by individuals. But over time, the organizers realized that while individual action is necessary to stop climate change, it will not be enough unless industry and governments are also committed to investing in the Earth to create a green economy. It’s not easy to envision how government, businesses, and consumers can work together to transform a polluting industry into a model for the green economy. EarthDay.org chose the fashion industry as both an example of the possibilities of change and a place to begin making a difference. The Fashion for the Earth campaign is designed both to change how people think about shopping and to encourage clothing companies to adopt more sustainable practices.
The Impacts of Fashion
Regular readers of Earth911 are already familiar with some of the environmental impacts of the fashion industry and many of the strategies for making fashion sustainable. We’ve learned how to choose eco-friendly fabrics and considered the environmental trade-offs of different natural fibers, various synthetic fabrics, and even leather and leather alternatives. All of these materials have significant environmental impacts at all stages of their life cycle. Agricultural and industrial pollution are generated during textile manufacture. Human rights and labor abuses occur during the manufacturing of garments. Laundry results in chemical and microplastic pollution. And thanks to fast fashion, both the retail and consumer stages waste tremendous quantities of textiles and garments, resulting in mountains of textile garbage.
Take the Quiz
If you want to cram, read through the Get the Facts section on EarthDay.org’s sustainable fashion page. But if you don’t feel like studying, never fear. The quiz reveals each correct answer as you go, then totals your score at the end.
After you take the Sustainable Fashion Quiz, you might be inspired to do something more. You can take immediate action by signing the sustainable fashion petition. You can go further by making your own wardrobe more sustainable and learning how to quit fast fashion for good. Read up on retailer take-back programs before you clean out your closet and host a clothing swap to recycle the clothes you don’t wear. Maybe you will create a capsule wardrobe to eliminate impulse shopping or learn more sustainable laundry methods and dry-cleaning options. You can learn how to mend to extend the life of your clothes and upcycle worn out clothes into napkins.
