Is It Sustainable?

It can be quite difficult to know if a company is truly sustainable or not. Not to mention the word ‘sustainable’ in itself can be puzzling. It can mean the company uses biodegradable materials, doesn’t use fur, reduces plastic use, produces locally, pays fair wages, zero waste practices, is conscious about the end life of their garments, and the list goes on and on. So- how do we personally vouch for companies at ODC and what can you look for when shopping to ensure you’re supporting a company that cares? Check out our suggestions below!

What ODC looks for:

We like to support companies that care, and while we list brands that may not do everything perfectly, we’re looking out for those that are transparent about their practices and ones that talk about short and long term goals for sustainability. Our red flag? When brands list they are fully sustainable, totally ‘green’, or use words like ‘eco-friendly’, ‘sustainable’, or ‘conscious’ loosely. We understand all these words are thrown around a lot, we use them too, but try and avoid supporting companies that use these words as a cover. You can usually tell whether they are being authentic or not based on the evidence they back their claims with.

Some things you can look out for when looking into a business; factory information & certifications, production practices (i.e. renewable energy use, recycling, water treatment), carbon footprint/greenhouse gas emissions, packaging & shipping, and a list of fabrics they use.

1) Factories:

with regards to factory information, it’s always helpful when a company discloses where their factories are located or what kind of values the factory has; i.e. is it family run, what certifications they have or if it’s local to where the company is based? Does the company care about where their items are shipped from to avoid high carbon emissions? Lots of times, on their ‘about us’ or ‘sustainability’ section of the website, a transparent company will have pictures of some of the factory workers or a list of ‘must-haves’ for working with that facility. For them, there’s nothing to hide.

2) Production practices:

In addition to the factory information, sometimes companies will list things they practice in their factory or office. Things like water treatment, using renewable energy to run the factory/office space, mandating recycling, using low-impact dyes and chemicals in the treatment processes or ensuring there is a way to take back customers used garments to close to loop on fabric waste. Reformation does a great job listing what specifics their factories and office spaces do. When thinking about the end life of a garment, I personally think if a business is part of the production process, they should also be held accountable for where their garments end up, (somewhere other than a landfill!). Companies like For Days figured out a way to take back all customer’s used clothes and rework the fabrics are therefore high up on my ‘favorites’ list.

3) Local vs. overseas production:

Some companies will choose to source and produce all their clothes locally. While ‘made in China’ tends to have a negative stigma attached to it, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. You can find some amazing ethically run factories abroad and help finance family run or artisanal businesses this way by providing them with orders. This can help give them exposure to the Western world too. Local production does however severely cut down on carbon emissions from shipping internationally. Check out the ‘our mission’ section of Los Angeles Apparel, they talk about their reasoning for producing locally in L.A..

4) Shipping materials:

While I don’t necessarily think using recycled/biodegradable mailers is ‘enough’ of a qualification to call yourself a sustainably-minded brand, it is nice when companies ensure everything they ship their items in are made from eco-friendly materials. My personal favorites are biodegradable mailers. No Issue is a great company to support if you’re in the production world and looking for a supplier.

5) Fabrics:

Lastly, nearly all of the companies we have on this site use some sort of sustainable materials in their fabrics. Tencel, recycled cotton, hemp or linen are some awesome options and alternatives to synthetic materials (like polyester). Generally speaking plastic is quite hard to avoid, so if it’s something they mention they’re trying to phase out, that’s great. Just check in if they’re working to meet that goal. You can write e-mails to companies under their ‘contact us’ section and say you’re a proud supporter of sustainability and love the brand but wish they would invest in more materials besides plastic. Our dollar is our vote, so let them know you want to support a company that cares about the environment! We’ve survived in the past without plastic, let’s phase it out and demand more earth-friendly materials in the garments we buy (demand will help lower costs too, in addition of course to the necessity of subsidies created by policymakers).

We hope this guide helped define what different qualities make a brand sustainable or not. As a customer, think deeply about what qualities (one or all) of the aforementioned attributes resonate best with you and support companies that share the same values. And remember, the absolute best thing we can to do be conscious of our purchasing habits is to first, reduce your purchases overall. Reuse what you already have, go shopping in your own closet and if you do need something, think before you buy to make sure it’s something you truly need to buy new. Try borrowing from a friend or hosting a clothing swap party. You can also support second hand shopping. As mentioned, reusing something that’s already been produced can easily help it stay away from another landfill. This is a powerful tool we can all incorporate into our lifestyle habits.

Lastly!

Beyond small daily actions, if you can we must vote this November! Supporting companies who are doing it right is a great start but unfortunately it goes far and beyond that. Ultimately, it needs to be a combination of our individual actions and those in power who can control what protection agencies are being funded, what eco-friendly materials get subsidized, and what sources of energy are heavily taxed. Activate yourself, rally with your friends, and demand a government in power that aligns with all your values and for the safety of our planet.. And remember, the planet will live far beyond our existence. Protecting the environment is a problem that will affect us all, rich and poor. Vote!

The Butterfly Effect

This post is written by Co-Founder (and mum of Britt), Maria Bromley

Some days I am more mindful than others.

Just remembering to bring my reusable shopping bags into the store from my car is a small victory. It's not a big deal but it's one less plastic bag that I use.  Each day that we make one mindful decision creates a ripple effect. Yesterday I made some choices. My family loves seltzer water. We go through cases of seltzer at a time.  I recycle the cans but yesterday I thought, I can do better.  I decided to invest in a Soda Stream.  We use it every day and have cut back dramatically on our recycled cans. I also switched from my single use coffee pods to a french press.  I didn't eliminate my pods entirely - as I love a quick shot of espresso - but I am reducing my usage and recycling the old pods.  I was surprised and pleased when I dropped off my bag of used pods at the UPS store, and the clerk said they get several dropped off everyday. People are waking up to the power of mindful decisions. It's such a hopeful sign for the future. 

If you're of a certain vintage, like me, you may have grown up learning about the 3 R's; reduce, reuse and recycle. Recently, this has been updated to the 5 R's; refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle.  The extra R's, refuse and repurpose have been recently added. Refuse to buy things that jeopardize the long-term health of the planet. Vote with your wallet, in other words.  "Stop sucking" was a recent campaign to eliminate plastic straws. Eliminate the demand and the product will stop being produced, simple laws of economics. Repurpose allows us to take what has already been made and find different uses.  But repurpose is lower down in the order of priority because we want to stop products from being produced that we do not need and are damaging to the environment.

Recently the EU Parliament approved a ban on single use plastic.  Plastics make up over 80% of marine litter.  On a recent trip to Zanzibar we were staying near the beach and decided to take a walk. I grabbed a bag to pick up some of the litter along the way.  Within a few minutes we had so much trash we had to go back for more bags.  Zanzibar is on the east coast of Africa and much of the garbage floats across the ocean and lands on its shores. While it may seems thousands of miles away, the trash that floats to its beaches will eventually find its ways to our shores. 

This article is meant to be more about mindfulness than recycling. Every decision we make has an impact.  When we are mindful of our decisions, how they affect not only ourselves, but the rest of the world, we become aware of the power we have. There is a mathematical theory called the Butterfly effect that states that small, localized changes in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. Next time you go for a walk, grab a bag, pick up some trash and think about the fact that you are metaphorically flapping your Butterfly wings and creating ripples around the world. 

-Maria Bromley, Mom Of Model

An analysis on the Life of the Plastic Straw

2018 was a popular year for the little plastic straw. Something that seems so insignificant is popped into every single one of our drinks, whether we need it or not, without the slightest thought on its purpose or necessity. Think about it, if you ask for a glass of water, almost always it’s accompanied by a big plastic straw that we often discard before we even take our first sip. So what switched? There were viral videos of sea turtles with straws being stuck in their nostrils and people began to pay attention to the the little straw and began wondering how else straws were negatively harming our planet and what we could do.

The thing about the plastic straw is that it’s tangible. We all see its overabundant use in restaurants and bars, have used it to stir a drink for one second then tossed it to the side only the repeat the same procedure for our next drink and the drink after that, with one or two straws in each water we order in between. Why the sudden overuse of them? While they were originally created for making things a little easier to drink, in the 1930s they gained popularity when  an inventor wanted to make it easier for his daughter to drink a milkshake. From that, the straws are mass-produced by a system selling people things they don’t really need, for the most part. Consumers of course took advantage of it and now we’re left with another over-consumed product with of course, inevitable backlash. We can see the waste. On our beaches, straws are often one of the top ten items collected globally on the coastlines. 

It was once quoted that in the U.S. alone, 500 million straws are used EVERY DAY. That seems like an incredible amount that’s hard to picture exactly how many that truly is. Here are some figures to put it into perspective… “500 million straws could fill over 127 school buses each day, or more than 46,400 school buses every year.. 500 million straws per day is an average of 1.6 straws per person (in the US) per day. Based on this national average, each person in the US will use approximately 38,000 or more straws between the ages of 5 and 65.” While I’m not 100% that this stat is entirely accurate, it goes without saying that whatever the number is, it is high and there is something we can do about it. 

So what can we do? There are a ton of alternate options out there, here are my favorite options ranking from best to last:

• No straw (no waste)

• Bamboo straw (sturdy, dishwasher safe, light)

• Metal straws (sturdy, dishwasher safe, easy to clean, not good for hot beverages)

• Glass straws (sturdy, easy to clean, but breakable)

• Paper straws (trendy and fun but don’t last and wasteful to produce)

  • Why the hate for paper? It’s similar to the debate between plastic and paper bags. 

  • A study done last year by Denmark’s Ministry of Environment and Food found that paper bags need to be reused at least 43 times for its per-use environmental impacts to be less than that of typical plastic bag used once. 

  • You choose between plastic, reusable and less energy to make but not biodegradable or paper, harder to reuse, a ton of energy to make but biodegradable…Truthfully, neither is “good”

There’s a few things to note when talking about banning the straws. For one, a large population of our world needs them. It’s easy for anyone who isn’t physically challenged to say “no straw”, 

“I don’t use those”, “who would need a plastic straw”, or to even look down upon people who order them. When I saw the video of the turtle, I knew I would try my best to say no when the opportunity presented itself, pretty much always, but I vowed to myself to never shame anyone who forgot to say “no straw”. Check out this article by Alden Wicker of EcoCult. She talks about the necessity to address the issue of plastic waste but to be flexible with the movement and open to people who actually need the straw. Banning something that certain people’s lives depend upon is ridiculous and we should by no means shame anyone. With my decisions I make about the sustainable movement, I hope to influence many people in my community to do whatever they can. We need to keep this in mind. 

I loved Alden’s idea about an opt-in system when talking about the straw ban movement. Instead of the waiters at restaurants automatically putting a straw in every single drink, they always need to have them on hand and you have to say when you order “I need a plastic straw”. That in itself will heavily cut down the amount wasted at each restaurant yet no one who actually needs one will (hopefully) not be looked down upon. 

While I support the movement to use less straws, some feel the movement to falls extremely short. Sure, plastic straws are overused and create a lot of waste but many argued that this movement failed to address something bigger that is creating much more waste than the straw.  The commercialized fishing net, and other plastic waste in general. Straws are an easy target because many people can do without them. I don’t question the necessity of the plastic straw movement, I think any movement is a step in the positive direction but my argument would be that it shouldn’t stop there. 

Have you ever seen a commercialized size fishing net in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; the largest accumulation of ocean plastic? The patch is estimated to be 1.6 million square kilometers, twice the size of Texas and having 46% of the weight be taken up by fishing nets. Plastic tends to get stuck in these large gyres or patches and disintegrate with all the sun exposure and natural currents until it’s into tiny pieces, called micro plastics, that we oftentimes can’t even see. Years ago we would see occasional pieces of plastic found in sea turtles but now, with all the micro plastics forming and floating around, 100% of all sea turtles have some form of plastic they have ingested. 59% of all seabirds have plastic found in them and more than 25% of fish sampled from all around the world has plastic in it. That’s an issue that goes above and beyond the straw movement that we have to address. 

The plastic that litters our oceans are becoming much more of a problem. We can’t ignore it. Plastic debris, both micro plastics (particles less than 5mm) and macro plastics (larger than 5mm) are positively related to the mismanaged plastic waste generated by river catchments. To me, the straw movement was the catalyst for bigger change. While China for instance is the biggest producer of plastic waste, it also is now making huge efforts to avoid this. 

Other countries that are now coming into wealth like the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, are huge contributors to the plastic waste issue. With the rise of GDP levels in many of these East Asian countries comes benefits that we often overlook like the convenience of to-go Tupperware or the ease of a plastic bag to carry your goods, better yet, drinkable water in plastic bottles! But what these places don’t think about is the infrastructure needed to deal with the waste that comes from development. If we are to address the need for waste-management infrastructure in these five countries alone, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, it is estimated we can significantly reduce global leakage of plastic waste into the ocean by 2025, potentially by 45%!

So where does that leave us? 

Well, theres a few things I have in mind for trying to make a change..

This article, again written by Alden Wicker of EcoCult talked about her challenge going plastic-free on her recent trip to India. There was balance achieved between being a good guest, accepting where plastic was sometimes needed but doing the best she could, remembering to bring a water bottle, utensils, avoiding straws where possible and the like. But we have to remember these developing economies are vastly different from the U.S. Oftentimes to a waiter in India, providing good service is of utmost importance to them. Figuring out what “no straw” means while trying to remember how to speak English and treat your guest well comes with a huge learning curve.

When we’re visiting these East Asian countries we have to be supportive of the new cycle of growth they’re going through and dealing with. Improving governance and rooting out corruption for example. What we can do is influence them and work with them to realize the importance of tackling change now. They are blessed because they haven’t gotten as used to the readily available use of plastic as much as the Western society has. When we travel, we can reduce our plastic intake and show them it’s possible to live life easily without it. We can stop shipping our waste to them and deal with it ourselves. We can show them certain technological advancements that are making it easier to recycle plastics and show how they can discard it. And we can influence them to stop producing plastic altogether and use another biodegradable alternative at the same time.

While most of the plastic waste is coming from East Asia, we can continue to do our best efforts at home. Things like the three R's; reduce, reuse, recycle...and remember they should be in that order. 

• Reducing our purchases (being conscious consumers)

• Reusing things whenever possible

• Recycling after you attempt to reduce and reuse. 

• Eating less fish (less fish, less need for fishing, less fishing nets. Supply, demand)

• Avoid plastic bags

• Saying no to straws when we can

• Voting for change

• Marching for change 

• Reducing meat intake

• Composting

• Paying for carbon offsetting

• Switch to reusables

  • Reusable bags, Tupperware, coffee mugs, water bottles, etc. 

While 2018 was the year of the plastic straw, let's make 2019 the year of tackling all plastic. We’re addicted to it and with fighting addiction comes arguments, fight back, disagreements and disbelief. But the facts are there. The fish have plastic in them. The turtles are eating plastic and our world will suffer from that. Humans live off the Earth and the oceans are the veins that pump life into us all. Let us tackle plastic waste, something we have so easily lived without before the 1930s, and switch to a reusable, biodegradable material that closes the loop on waste and refreshes our oceans with life and air. The Earth’s ten-year challenge brought upon devastation from pictures of deforestation, ice melting, and oceans and rivers littered with plastic waste. Let’s reverse that trend and make pictures in 2029 that we’re proud of.