The fashion industry goes green

 
How does the fashion industry go green?  Well there are several ways and not only can the manufacturers do their part, but we can too!
 
Clothing that involves the production of natural fibers, vegetable dyes, and biodegradable materials like bamboo and corn, are considered eco-friendly and have gained tremendous popularity.  Gone are the days of itchy Birkenstocks and hemp skirts - designers and manufacturers have become quite savvy in their approach to saving the planet.
 
What can we do?  Besides buying clothing that is made of natural fibers and processed in a way that preserves our environment (see sites below) we can do even more.  
 
Swapping clothes has become a new rage in New York, London and many other places around the world.  The idea is to gather people in one location, charge a nominal fee and let the swapping begin.  
  
Since approximately 900,000 tons of clothing and shoes are dumped in landfills each year, by recycling our clothes, we can avoid burning thousands of tons of textiles each year.  Recycling, rather than burning, waste textiles saves six times as much energy, and twice as much as with paper waste. 
 
I found it amazing that "Conventional farming devours roughly a third of a pound of pesticides and fertilizers to just produce enough cotton for a single t-shirt." This is according to  Organic Exchange, a non-profit organization that encourages the use of natural and unprocessed fibers in garments worldwide.  Even more alarming is that the substances used are considered to be detrimental not only to the ecosystem, but to the consumers who wear the t-shirts.

Buy green!  Visit sites like the ones below to make a difference:

www.adili.com
www.peopletree.com     
www.soul-flower.com 
www.mykorazon.com  
www.eileenfisher.com