Are you inspired by April’s Earth Day celebrations and want to do more? These five actions in 2025 will help you have a lasting impact on the planet throughout the year.
I love the creativity and energy that people place on Earth Month. I adore watching people recognize their relationship with the planet and identify movements they might want to join or actions they can take to ensure that the earth is inhabitable for generations to come. But real change involves year-round, years-long public and private collaboration. Behavior change on the level we need requires communication, government involvement, and advancements in both technology and infrastructure. Shifts in consumer awareness and behavior are also a key component to this evolution. So yes, change at a macro level will be critical to future improvements. But what you do as a consumer, as a human on our shared earth, and as a person of influence in your community or friend group matters, too.
This Earth Day recognize that as one single consumer you have agency to act with purpose and to drive change. Consider taking these five actions to make an impact that will last well beyond the end of April.
- Plan and host a community clothing exchange for this fall. Reduced consumption of new clothing is key to reducing the impact of global fashion production on the environment. Consumption trends have been rising for the past several decades, and many of us have bought and already own more clothing than we need. Let’s build clothing exchanges into every community calendar. Take some time in April to thoughtfully plan an event to host with your friends in August or September. Pick a location (it can be your house, a community center, a small business), set the date, and tell people about it. The impact of championing reuse at a local level is measurable. You can get lots of tips on how to plan sustainable fashion events online or through The Circular Thrift ebook. Use code CTEARTH for a 25% discount.
- Take one clothing item that needs to be repaired and fix it yourself. Is it a beloved sock with a hole in it that you wore on an amazing first date to a museum? A sweater with an unraveled cuff that you wore when you had a great conversation with your best friend on a train? Some pants where the hem is coming down but you absolutely nailed that interview? If you don’t want to wear these clothes anymore yourself, you can mend them and put them back into circulation. It does not have to be perfect. If you feel that your skills don’t match what is needed for the mending task at hand, then get the clothing into the hands of a professional mender. If you already know of someone local, great! If not, contact Old Flame Mending. Founder Rebecca Harrison is on a mission to empower everyone to mend their clothing, and her company is here to help! When we cultivate a longer-term relationship with our stuff, we ultimately reduce our appetite to buy new when a mending effort might work just as well. Receive a discount on a mail-in mending kit with code CTEARTH25.
- Audit your closet and wardrobe use. Organize your clothing in a way that is desirable to you and helps you pick better outfits. Marie Condo has opinions that you can see here. I like to organize clothing by category and color, but you can organize in the way that works best for you. For the first 100 items you touch make note of the fiber content of the clothing. Is it 100% something or a blend? Today’s textile recycling technology can more easily recycle single-fiber clothing than blends. How much of your clothing is truly recyclable? You don’t need to do anything with what isn’t. Keep wearing what you already own and love no matter what it is made of. Now, while you are at it, also make a note of how many times you think you have worn each item. Zero to three times? Four to 10 times? Way more than 10 times? Does your profile match the typical consumer who wears what they buy an average of seven times before they are done with it? You can download this form to track your assessment. Share your results. What you learn will provide a sobering reality about our capacity (or lack thereof) to “do something” with end-of-life clothing and may make you rethink your next bored mall stroll or screen scroll.
- Contact an organization serving the local community and find out what they need (and don’t need!). Get three friends to join you and set aside just the needed items to warrant a quarterly trip. Resale through national charities, and the social programs that are funded by resale, are important; I support them. The reality is that a high percentage of donated clothing does not get purchased, so giving clothing another round at a local level is a great action plan. I work with several organizations in Columbus, Ohio to get them the clothing that they need. One of these organizations supports people at risk of sex trafficking. Their clients need sports bras, fleece hoodies, sweatpants, and extra small denim. Every few months I drop off a bag with only those items. They appreciate not having to get rid of a bunch of clothing they didn’t ask for and don’t need. Find a similar recipient where you live and consider volunteering with the organization.
- Read one of these three articles on sustainable fashion and discuss it with two friends. We all have influence over our peer group. When you show interest in something that is important to you and is purpose-driven, your actions can have a ripple effect.
- Option 1) Remake.world’s Fashion Accountability Report for 2024. Learn how brands are scored in leading or supporting systemic and environmental change in fashion.
- Option 2) Ellen Macarthur Foundation – pushing the boundaries of extended producer responsibility for textiles – podcast or report. This report will give you an overview of how the whole system can evolve to result in reduced waste and increased circularity, and how brands may be pressed into service to support the change.
- Option 3) Accelerating Circularity’s 2024 Annual Report. Read about the ways in which brands and other organizations are working together to pilot projects that keep post-consumer textiles out of landfills. Consider supporting the brands mentioned in this article. They are leading by investing money in these trials.
April is an event-packed month filled with ways to make an impact on your community. But we have the power to bring that passion to our activities year-round. If you’d like to host clothing swaps in your community and get the support of other likeminded people, join our Circular Thrift Community. We’ve created a digital playbook filled with step-by-step instructions on how to host clothing swaps, mending events and more so that anyone can dive in to make a big impact in their community.
