The Alternative to Destructive Big Business Monopolies is Small Community-Centered Business

There are going to be small amounts of clothing waste no matter how hard we try to eliminate them especially now while synthetic fibers and materials exist in our world. Some people are just now catching on to realize that many synthetic fibers are actually plastic fibers. The zippers, the fasteners, the cords and the thread used to sew them are plastic. The micro-fleece that is commonly advertised as being warm is plastic. The umbrellas, the tags, the screen prints, the shopping bags, the bubble jackets and ski-wear is all plastic. Even your cotton socks have plastic. The people like us who are sick of the toxins and plastic and over-consumption are doing all we can but we still can not halt it all together tomorrow. The good thing is there are alternatives and opportunities to change things and switch out items and behaviors.

I really want to focus on the positive so be an example in your family to wear natural fibers and to inform the people you know often and gently. Eventually they will get it and avoid the waste and toxins in our daily lives.

On Instagram I see numerous environmental accounts demonizing people, politicians and companies for our current environmental problems. Most of it is true and understandable but the solutions given are sometimes impossible. I saw the infogram post that says we have enough clothes to last many years so we should buy used and thrifted clothing. I really don’t think that helps. I’m not so keen on wearing fast fashion because it’s available. I’m noy going to wear that polyester top because it’s there and available to use. I am not going to stop people from implenting that idea, either. I do have a polyester shirt with the tags still on it that was gifted to me and I don’t want to wear it and I don’t want anyone else to wear and suffer the negative health effects of the polyester, either. If they were to wash the top, they would emit micro-plastics into the water. I also have a pair of polyester mesh shorts from the 1990s that I still wear in the summer that I am not sure what to do with either. I don’t have many clothes and I don’t throw them away until they fall apart. I’m not into the fast fashion shopping craze but I do like observing fashion and being involved in it since I was a kid. I just liked basics and classics of fashion like J. Crew and LL Bean and love watching Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein fashion shows. The point is that I’m not over-consuming and I usually have a very small wardrobe. I just take care of them carefully so that they will last a long time. I don’t want to buy used clothing or synthetic clothing nor am I planning to buy any clothing. I don’t see the suggestions of zero-waste promotion accounts as being the solution for everyone or that they have the only solutions. We can still solve the same problems with different solutions. We can still strive for a similar goal and still get along and help each other. Enviromental solutions need an open mind and a yield to multiple ideas.

My view is to eliminate plastic, promote natural fibers and buy less and buy local. All my posts and views will reflect that. I would rather throw my polyester clothing in a landfill to start their long decomposition process. If it emits methane, I hope our state is able to convert gasses to fuel or energy. Used batteries and toxic materials still eventually go to a landfill.

Professional fashion buyers that buy the cheap clothing for their stores or inventory need to stop buying the imported synthetic clothing. All the big stores and their top staff are profiting from cheap clothing are currently part of the problem. Do they know about the toxins and the synthestics piling up? Do they care that it is being shipped in plastic across an ocean? Do they care that the people making them are getting very little money and working long hours and have to be subject to these toxins?

There is only one way to get anything known to these elites because they seem to be living in their own bubble apart from the huge organic environmental movement. Maybe they are using this as an monitary profit opportunity for fake eco-friendly changes also known as “green-washing”. The only way is to stop this harmful trend is to stop buying imported synthetic clothing from them. They see everything as a economic numbers, trends, scales and diagrams. Promote and buy the eco-friendly alternatives. Support local artists and artisans who are real people and care about sustainable ways to do it. They are people in your community and it helps the local economy. It’s more expensive but it causes you to buy less. This naturally stops the overconsumption and mass production trend. Small business blends into the community better and they talk to their customers. Big business has multiple factories and machines and it eventually leads to criminal corruption and abuse of people and animals and the destruction of our envirmonent. Short cuts, man-made enviromental disasters and mistakes happen within large industries. For them it is about money. The only way to end this madness is to stop buying from them and turn to alternaltives and local small business that care about people, the city and the country that they work in. They are also helping preserve the heritage and culture and unique traditions of that town and state. The money stays in the same town that they work in and it helps keep it beautiful, clean, brings in tourists, encourages local employment and generally keeps the people happy and out of poverty. The small business stores and artists are the real and present beneficial resources of the communities we live in.

The alternative to big business is small business. Let’s go!

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