Thanks for this article! To give a little perspective from the other side, I work for a small clothing company and we've been researching ways to make our product more eco-friendly. It's a lot more difficult than I would have expected. Everyone has a different opinion of what, exactly, makes a garment eco-friendly and we can't always verify what the mills tell us about their materials. We have joked that the best thing we could do for the environment is change our business model to convince people not to buy new clothes, but then we'd all be out of a job.

I think more people, including myself, need to learn how to sew. Making my own clothes out of old stuff would ALSO save me money, and the stress of looking at myself under the harsh lights of a clothing store dressing room.

Lets be really eco friendly all of us go naked therefore no impact, lets not eat anymore therefore no impact, walk use horses therefore no impact. All the things we need to live impact the inviroment in some way. Get real people.

I get a bunch of shit from Rawganique.com...it's mostly natural hemps and OCotton. When possible, I try to buy bamboo products if they're a viable alternative to what I need (cutting boards for instance)...I try to do my part, but I didn't realize most of what you said in the article. Hmm.

Naked - Sold
Not eating - ehh...or we could just eat more natural foods instead of processed shit food that helps to make us horrifically fat anyway. OMG! Shoot a deer during the season and stick it in your freezer? Absurd!! A community garden? I need to lay off the reefer.
Walk/use horses - good plan, actually. But the tradeoff there is the water and food flow that needs to go into sustaining the horse. Your best bet is to walk, ride a bike, or in cold climates XC ski (bamboo skis, of course). You city folk can use mass transit or just walk to where you need to get to (most of the time, I understand the need for other transportation as well)
How about instead of just resigning yourself to a defeatist attitude of "everything we do sucks anyway", you think of some ways to make it suck less? I ditched my SUV for a Sedan. I have LEDs around the house instead of incandescents. I've got Energy Star applicances. And I avoid driving when it's possible. Not only are all these things good for the environment, but they're GREAT for my checking account. After switching to LED lighting, my electric bill went from about $50 a month to about $25. Less driving means I pay less at the pump. Seriously, get real Mankarien

Hmmmm, me thinks someone works at Trader Joe's. If I am right, I love that store but can't stand how much produce is individually wrapped. I've written several e-mail to their 'contact' section on the website. Maybe if more people do the same they will change this practice. Otherwise, they sell good stuff.

Oh yes, you should see all the rings on my kitchen table. Those things will never go away! One even looks like a flower pattern...

Wait what-tha? Do you have the link to that. I want to try that now.
How cool is this?

dreamergirl, I don't have a link because I saw it on one of those home makeover on the cheap shows on Home Garden channel or something like that. This woman was just holding a pot of cold coffee, had a brush and said you could stain a (real) wood table.....I'm not sure about the other details...seems like one might be missing but...it's real!

Hey Sleepy Lady,

I dig some of your points but I'm confused.......... When you were talking about the chemicals in dry cleaning that cause cancer in rats the first thing I thought about was "well, we should be fine as long as we don't eat our clothes" and who are these chemicals dangerous to? The people handeling the chemicals or the people wearing the clothes after they've been treated with the chemicals.I guess these chemicals could seep in through pors in our skin but Just how much exposure to these chemicals is needed to cause cancer? I personally don't dry clean my clothes but I have friends that do quite frequently, how much is too much.

On the back of the little pink Sweet-n-Low packets it says that it has been known to cause cancer in labratory rats. However for a human you'd have to ingest a whole room full of sweet-n-low before you have to worry about anything.

Interesting article. I get a lot of my clothes from secondhand stores, so that helps the environment to a small extent.

ANW

Great article. Thanks.

Of course, the other problem is that eco-friendly and fair trade products tend to cost more, and so ethical consumerism becomes a luxury for those in high-ish income brackets. (Of course, the only reason cheap stuff is cheap is because it's mass produced with little thought for working conditions or the environment...)

the Stereo Sound Agency ahve been producing TRUELY eco fashion for almost a year, i know this becuse it was my designs they put into production,