Why is caring for clothing, caring for the planet?

The home cleaning phase plays a bigger role than we think.

When we think of unsustainable practices of fashion, we may think of colorful rivers full of chemicals or intensive GMO cotton farms - but that’s only the manufacturing stage. In the full lifecycle of a piece of clothing, there is one stage we, as individuals, can fully control to contribute to a sustainable fashion future: clothing care. 

It is estimated that the environmental impacts of the cleaning stage include intense resource use, water pollution, eutrophication, greenhouse gas emission and potential toxicity impacts. In fact, Fashion Revolution has reported that approximately 25% of all carbon emissions from each garment is accounted for in it’s home clothing care stage.

However, the good news is that it’s all in your hands! It only takes a change in habit from mindless washing just because “that’s how we’ve always done it” to being aware of how our actions impact the environment. And even more good news: the new habits aren’t a difficult switch at all - simple steps like washing at lower water temperatures or air drying are easy and accessible to everyone.