Fair Fashion

Time for a Retail Cleanse! The 2016 Shop Drop Challenge

shopdrop2016

As powerful as it is for conscious consumers to vote with their wallets, we often forget that sometimes the best solution is to refrain from, well, consuming in the first place. While the notion that paying for the right car, the right foods, the right t-shirt can rescue our ailing planet and global community is incredibly attractive, the truth is that you can’t buy your way out of a bad situation.

And just how bad is the situation? The average American woman spends $60 every month on clothes and dumps six pounds of textile waste into landfills. Multiply that by 160 million women living in America, that adds up to almost $10 billion and one billion pounds of textile waste a month!

Thankfully, you can take steps to help change that. The Shop Drop Challenge presented by the lovely folks at MommyGreenest is an easy way to help take a break from rampant consumerism and raise awareness about the fashion industry’s environmental problems. Even better is that this year thredUP, the world’s largest online consignment and thrift store, is supporting the program and sweetening the deal by offering the chance to with a $250 shopping spree!

Still not convinced? Here are some more environmental reasons to take the Challenge:

  • Each year 1.7 billion clothing items go unused in closets across the globe.
  • It takes 2,200 gallons of water to produce one pair of jeans – that’s the same as nearly 300 showers.
  • A plain cotton t-shirt requires a 1/3 pound of toxic fertilizer to produce.
  • 95% of the clothes we throw into the landfill are recyclable.
  • So what are you waiting for? Head on over to MommyGreenest and sign up now!

Soyo Hong is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. An artist and writer in NYC, she is a regular contributor to digital platforms such as Animal New York, Hopes&Fears, and Ratter.