If you’re like me, and deeply care about just, ethical practices of production, you might, like me, wish to boycott purchasing all together because of what we know about the industry of clothing, food, home goods, etc. But let’s face it: we still need to dress ourselves and eat breakfast before we leave the house.
The good news, is that we can actually do good while purchasing essential – and nonessential – products. Here is a list of our vetted, and many personally tried-and-true, companies that we love. These companies do everything from taking plastic bottles to make your new favorite fleece or plush blanket, to empowering women through work and education. We hope this list helps to get you started, or meaningfully adds to your existing list.
As a side note: thrift and second-hand shopping is a GREAT way to go, and I actually always suggest this before purchasing brand new items. There is already an overabundance of clothing items out there that, if not picked up, will spend their second life in a landfill, often times in countries in the Global South.
Did you know that the world now consumes about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year, and the average American now generates 82 pounds of textile waste each year? That’s about 11 million tons of textile waste from the U.S. alone. The lifespan of new clothing – from production, to transportation, laundry, and the end of life in a landfill – produces a significant amount of hazardous chemicals and greenhouse gases. For more information on this, check out this article by Greenpeace.
