Trying to move on...

Yes, I know that I promised to avoid politics, but the echoes of “Drill Baby Drill” from last night’s RNC are still reverberating in my head. We have 3% of the world’s oil reserves, and consume 25% of the world’s oil. So how is drilling the answer? It’s mildly depressing.

However, since we all need a respite for the moment, I’m going to hold off on any more comments. As you may well imagine, I’m overflowing with them. For now, though, I am going to hold my tongue. So have I been doing anything recently besides staring, bleary-eyed and pale-faced, at Wolf Blitzer and the CNN news team? Of course!

Recently I started to investigate different ways to green my wardrobe. Where might I find sustainable clothing? I know that the environmental impact of the clothing industry is significant; Americans on average throw away 68 pounds of clothes and textiles every year. This is a new phenomenon—ask your grandmother if she ever threw away clothes as a child. I doubt it. I am sure they mended their clothes when they became worn, and passed clothes from older to younger child. How did we get to this mindset of disposable clothing?

Waste isn’t the only issue: polyester is made from petroleum, dyes can be harmful for the environment, and many clothes are made in horrific conditions in sweatshops. Are there other options besides going to the typical stores in the mall?

I’ve been doing a lot of investigation into different clothing options. First, just recycling your clothes can make a huge difference. Donate your old clothes—it’s easy to find a clothes drop location or a church that will take the items. There is no reason for usable clothes to be filling our landfills.

Treehugger has a decent section on greening your wardrobe. Unfortunately, I haven’t found much in the way of organic clothing. More accurately, I haven’t found much in the way of organic clothing for men. It seems that there are a growing number of options for women’s clothing, but precious few for men. I will continue to investigate, though, because if there are good sustainable clothing lines out there for men, I want to make sure I use my purchasing dollar to support them. And I will make sure to write about it here.

I’ll leave you with a final note on politics: Register to Vote! You can find a wealth of information at HeadCount.