Okay, so it looks like the high street is finally getting ‘woke’. We have brands dropping little ‘sustainable lines’ or making one shoe in their arsenal out of recycled plastics. Some of them even ship their products with paper instead of plastic.
But lets be real, it isn’t enough.
One small token amongst a million other products can only be for show. If a brand really cared about making things better they would vow to make all of their products sustainable, they wouldn’t over-produce and burn their excess stock, they wouldn’t cram new styles into store every single week…
If big, rich, powerful brands really cared, then they would have mad changes already. Big brands and producers are the ones with the power to make a difference, and yet the blame and guilt is being shifted onto the shoulders of the consumers.
We have to buy metal straws. We have to feel guilty because the sustainable lines are more expensive and we can’t afford them. We have to do hours of research to find a brand’s policies. We scroll past hundreds of posts telling us we have to buy these new items to feel fulfilled.. But WE AREN’T THE ONES CAUSING THE PROBLEMS.
How can the company continue to churn out the harmful products, and then tell us off for buying them. Make it make sense!
I obviously stand for each person doing as much as they can to reduce their impact, but the truth is it all feels very futile to be picking through my recycling and trawling charity shops when CEO’s are jumping in a private jet three times a day and only offering me food wrapped in insane amounts of plastic to buy.
Sustainable consumption is possible – if you have the budget, time and access to do it. Which then leads the problem back around to one rooted in class systems, and ensures that already marginalised, or less priveged groups, are unable to take part in the solutions.
It’s not okay. The high street can do more. And they need to do more if our planet is going to survive. We will keep speaking up and sharing information with you – both in blogs and on our social media channels. But we also want to ask you to remember the guilt is not on you, and you can call out the brands who force waste and exploitation down our throats.
Lets do it together! You can go to https://www.fashionrevolution.org/about/get-involved/ for a template to email a brand, for help with a tweet, a donation link and loads of guides for hosting your own events, campaign assets and even educational resources.
Lets go!
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