This blog post is like a part two to “Summer Sustainability,” my last post on sustainABILITY. After doing some research for my issue brief, I wanted to share some of the information that I learned about fast fashion and how it contributes to slavery in the 21st century. While the history lesson may end with the Emancipation Proclamation, there are an estimated 20-40 million people enslaved around the world today. The fast-fashion industry is the leading culprit of exploiting developing nations, and the U.S. is the largest consumer of apparel in the world. With all of this information in hand, I want to share the ethical considerations that we should all take into consideration before buying something new.

A recent survey indicated that 93% of fast-fashion companies do not pay their employees a living wage, but this shouldn’t be a shock. I often see TikToks or posts on Instagram of young girls showing off their latest purchases from Shein or Amazon and boasting extremely low prices. But if you buy a shirt for $2, and the company has to pay for the materials, shipping, and the cost of promoting products while still making a profit, imagine how much is left over to pay the workers.

There are tens of millions of people enslaved around the world, and the fast fashion industry is a huge culprit of this exploitation.

Garment workers also are forced to work in unsafe working conditions that can cause lasting health issues. The dyes used to color clothing contain heavy metals like chromium and cobalt, and direct exposure can lead to damage of the central nervous system and lead for different forms of cancer. While supporting a company that has such a disregard for human life is unethical, it becomes worse as we remember that they can only afford minimal medical treatment because of the abysmal wages.

The honest truth is that this isn’t something that people consider when buying clothes because it doesn’t direct effect them…yet. The fast fashion industry accounts for 30-40% of microplastics being produced annually, and this is an issue that is beginning to effect more countries. For the first time ever, microplastics were found in a human placenta! This was unprecedented, and it was a major concern that the microplastics would trigger an immune response that could lead to a miscarriage. While this was the first time that plastic has been found in a placenta, it’s not a surprise as the average person will consume 44 pounds of plastic over their lifetime.

This infographic provides more information on how fast fashion effects the environment.

I understand the appeals of fast fashion, particularly due to the low abundance of stores that support slow-fashion, so I’m not saying that you can never purchase a new item again. Before you buy, think about how many times you’ll wear something. Will you be able to wear it next year or is it just a trend? Is it high enough quality that it will last years? And as mentioned in the previous post, there are plenty of ways to refresh your wardrobe without purchasing new clothes.

As the school year comes to a close and we say our goodbyes so we can head into the summer sun, there is so much you can choose to do to limit your environmental impact.

As the weather gets warmer and we can finally put jeans and sweaters away, I’m sure a lot of us are looking forward to sprucing up our summer wardrobe. After all, the styles and trends have changed over the year. But, 80 BILLION new clothing items are made every year, and 85% of the clothing bought in the US ends up in a landfill every year. And while there is a varying degree of impact made by these companies, I would highly suggest that everyone forgets that companies like Shein exist. I see people say, “What a great deal” on a top for 5 dollars, but they don’t realize that in that 5 dollar cost, the materials need to be covered, the company needs to profit, but then someone has to make it, too. These are not living wages, but people continue to support these companies because it is convenient. So, my biggest advice is to stop buying from these companies and spend some time thinking about if you reallyyy need an item before buying it.

There aren’t many options for buying new clothes sustainability because overconsumption is one of the biggest issues that we face in regards to the fashion industry and sustainability. There are three main ways that you can be more sustainable while also updating your closet. The first is the very popular practice of thrift shopping. This clothing is already created, so it doesn’t contribute to overconsumption, and up to 80% of clothes donated are eventually sent to the landfill when the stores have new items donated. By buying these clothes, you’re saving them from ending up as waste, and you can give many of them new life.

That leads into the second way you can update your closet, upcycling! This takes a little more effort, but it’s a great way to modernize and reinvent the items you currently have in your house. In high school, I was in a sewing class and we had an upcycling project, so I ended up taking old bedsheets to make a dress that I love.

The blue and white dress was made from old bed sheets, and I love how it turned out. You can also see some other upcycled items in this photo!

There are a ton of easy ways to make your old clothes (or bed sheets) feel like new. Something that is really trendy right now is the center split shirts that YouTuber LaurDIY recreated on her channel. Embroidery, cutting clothes in a new way, or painting on clothes are also great ways to give new life to clothes.

This split-shirt look is super easy and a great way to create a new shirt!

The final way to enhance your closet is almost too easy. Swap clothes with your friends if you wear similar sizes. They may love your old band t-shirt you don’t wear while you can finally wear their cute jean shorts. As long as you trust someone to be respectful of your clothes, it’s a great way to get new clothes for free and without hurting the environment.

With that, I hope you all go into the summer season thinking about what you can do for our beautiful planet!

It was announced earlier this month that Starbucks will be ditching their famous cups that can be found all over 13 year-olds’ Instagram feeds for more sustainable options. They say that while they know their cups have become an iconic part of their brand, they’re also a symbol of consumerism and unnecessary waste with 7 billion disposable cups being thrown out every year! Their new plans include allowing and encouraging customers to bring in their own cups and travel mugs to take their drinks on the go. A strategy that is currently being researched is hitting customers where it hurts: the wallet. Some stores will begin to charge 10 cents for a disposable cup while giving a 50 cent discount for bringing your own cup.

Starbucks is planning to bring back reusable options for customers to limit their waste.

I have great faith that this will be adopted with open arms by many with the main drawback being that there’s a penalty on top of the already expensive prices if you decide to get a drink on the go and don’t have a cup on hand. Starbucks has though ahead, though! They are also looking into having a cup sharing program where if you forget a cup, you can sign out one to loan! Starbucks has highlighted what the program might look like, and it’s like the Green2Go boxes in the dining hall. You sign them out and if you don’t return it in some time (the end of the semester), you’re charged for it. Overall, I think that this is a great was to reduce waste for a huge company like Starbucks.

Starbucks is responsible for 7 billion cups being thrown away each year. This new program will allow them to “break free from plastic” and be more sustainable.

I would love to see this idea come to Penn State’s dining halls. There are plenty of Starbucks and Pepsi drink stations around campus, and all of these cups add up. I think that Penn State should start planning for the future and think about how they can implement a cup share program. “Cup Share” definitely doesn’t sound the most appetizing, but in reality it’s just like you’re getting a drink at a restaurant! The cups will be washed, sanitized, and made available for students like me and you to enjoy. This could also allow for lower pricing for drinks because cups are a one time purchase that just take some soap, water, and man power to clean.

While there are definitely some kinks that will need to be worked out, having such a large company make this change will open the conversation for other industries to begin thinking about changes like this.

With busy schedules and the buffet not being my preferable meal option, I find myself ordering from PennState Eats almost everyday. With each order I know that I’m creating a lot more waste than if I would eat in at the buffet with the take out containers, sauce packets, and plastic utensils. I love starting my morning with oatmeal from Bowls, but I always felt so guilty throwing out so much plastic. And maybe you’ve come to this realization on your own and earlier than I have, but those plastic containers are great to reuse! There’s no need to toss perfectly good to-go containers when only soap and water stand in your way from having clean, new containers to continue to reuse. I keep the lids for the containers, but they’re also great to just use as a bowl for cereal or snacks. I’m planning on taking mine home to use to take meals to work or to bring food back to school after spring break!

These containers are still great to take on the go as long as you give them a good wash!

Another great way to limit your waste is to use regular utensils if you’re taking food back to your dorm. I often find myself grabbing food to-go simply because I’d rather enjoy a meal in a cozy setting like my room instead of the chaos of a dining hall. When you take food out, it’s easy to grab plastic silverware to add to the convenience, but 40 BILLION plastic spoons, forks, and knives are thrown away every year! While it might be convenient to toss things aside instead of having to lug your dishes, soap, and paper towels down to the janitors closet, this is one small step that can make a big change over the year! I have one fork and about 7 spoons (I drink a lot of tea) at my place, and it’s become a routine to clean as I go which makes things a lot better.

A mistake that I made in an effort to reduce my daily use of plastic was switching to wooden chopsticks. These disposable utensils are easily available at the dining halls for sushi fans, but I would use them for whatever other items I could in order to stay away from plastic. This decision was made using my own logic, but as a non-expert, I was a little over-confident in this effort. In the end, sustainability professions find it hard to distinguish which utensil is better because the amount of wood used for chopsticks is equivalent to 3 million birch trees! While the plastic contributes to waste, wooden chopsticks steal trees that are necessary to continue cleaning and creating oxygen.

Choose the “greenest” options whenever you can. Take out can leave a lasting footprint.

In the end, it’s the little things that matter. Wash those containers! Use your own utensils! I believe in you! But also, have some compassion toward yourself if you slip-up every once in awhile. Sometimes we just need the convenience, and you as a single contribute are not responsible for climate change and excess waste. Until next time, stay green!

Each year, it is reported that 522 million bottles of shampoo are tossed and sent to a landfill. Although this number alone is crazy, it doesn’t even take into account bottled products used in your everyday shower/skin care routine like conditioner, face wash, body lotion, body wash, and hair treatments. When I looked into my shower back home over break, I had body wash, 2 shampoo bottles, a conditioner bottle, a leave in conditioner bottle, and a body scrub. As someone who is very much against creating waste, it might be surprising how much plastic is in my shower. However, sustainability is a journey, and having plastic bottles is in the first part of mine!

When I first began looking into more sustainable options for my life, I found shampoo and conditioner bars. These bars intend to reduce waste by taking all of the good ingredients from your hair care products and not diluting them with water. So, these good ingredients are put into a solid bar and often packaged minimally in biodegradable packaging. I found my own when I was on vacation in Florida and found a local company with shampoo and conditioner bars on sale!

Naples Soap Company has a wide variety of shampoo and conditioner bars, and frequently has sales on them! I’ve already gone through a shampoo and conditioner bar, but quickly purchased 2 more of each during a buy 3 get 1 free sale.

My first purchase was “Sunkissed” which is perfect for summer and very floral/fruity.

My top favorite scent! You only need a couple of swipes to condition your hair!

And I understand if at this point, my love for shampoo and conditioner bars confuses you more about why my shower had so many products. After my first bars and put away my bottles, I read an article about how the most sustainable thing for you to start out with is just finishing the products you have now. There’s no reason to throw away something that has a use even if it’s packaging isn’t environmentally friendly. I just was very excited to start using my bars though, so I alternate my products to still get rid of what’s left (hence all of the bottles). But in time, I hope to get rid of the bottles and stick to bars of soap, shampoo, and conditioner. These products also tend to have more wholistic ingredients which is important for me because I have eczema.

It has definitely been a struggle figuring out how to bring my sustainable life to college where convenience is important. I started out with bottles of product, but then invested in small soap trays that fit the bars perfectly and allow me to use them in the showers here more easily.

This tray has a drain for excess water and lid for easy transport. The shape is perfect for the bars I use too!

Living sustainable isn’t always easy, but it can help us live a little better and more holistically! I encourage you to give shampoo and conditioner bars a fair shot because they smell great, are amazing for your hair, and make the earth a cleaner place to live!

We Are Penn State! But, We Are also not doing enough to combat a wasteful culture on campus that is contributing to problems that will directly affect today’s students. While Penn State does have the Penn State Sustainability Institute , I am a little discouraged by the goals that the institute has set for the next 3 years.

The Sustainability Institute Team can be found in the Land and Water Research Building

The institute creates a strategic plan about every 4 years that outlines the ways that they are planning to increase sustainability at Penn State in the next 4 year timeframe. The most recent one is the plan for 2021-2025, but when I read over this plan, it was disappointing. There are three main steps for the next 5 years:

1. Facilitate Lifelong Learning

2. Enable Transformative Action

3. Expand Innovative Leadership

And I was just a little underwhelmed by the detail that these sections went into on the actual plan! It seemed like whenever you realize the morning of that an assignment is due, so you throw something together. I would have liked to see some clear plans of action for how Penn State plans on achieving these goals, but was met with half-thought out ideas. And I think it’s unfair to complain about a problem without offering a solution, so I’d like to outline some specific ideas that the university could implement to reach their goals by 2025!

1. Facilitate lifelong learning: As a freshman, I was required to take a first-year seminar class. While I know all of the classes were different, my instructor brought in representatives from different departments like nutrition, campus police, and gender equity. In order to facilitate lifelong learning, the sustainability institute should try to get a spot in these classes so from the first semester that students are on campus, they understand the environmental impact that a student can have.
2. Enable transformative action: In a recent post on The Growth Mindset, I responded to a comment asking what I thought Penn State could do to increase sustainability efforts, and I had a ton of ideas! The two that would be “most transformative” involve the dining halls and markets on campus that I imagine create large amounts of waste daily. I have mentioned to many people that the Green2Go boxes are a great way to take out your food, but there isn’t any incentive for students to give it a try. My proposal: increase the price of the meals if a student chooses to take out in a single use container (or discount those using Green2Go/dine in). While it may not switch everyone over from the convenience of throw-away boxes, it’ll be enough to get people thinking about if it’s really worth it. I also think that the markets should offer more affordable reusable bags. I once was at a farmer’s market where I bought a simple reusable bag for $1, and I use it constantly. The bags at the markets now are not nearly as inexpensive and can turn students away from choosing a more sustainable option.
3. Expand Innovative Leadership: Penn State is truly run by the students. We have thousands of organizations from club sports, to lettuce club, and academic honor societies. In all of these clubs there are governing bodies, and I believe that a Sustainability Chair should be included in all of them. In my own experience at Club Tennis, I know that we go through a ton of balls, just for them to be thrown out. There are a bunch of ways to reuse or repurpose these balls, so they don’t just end up in the landfill!
   

   With all of the tennis balls used, a seat for the tennis center is a great way to reuse “trash”!

   Having someone to think about ways to make each organization more sustainable is a great way to increase the amount of leaders to think innovatively!

I have hope that in the future, Penn State will be a little more aggressive about their approach toward sustainability. Until then, we can all just try our best to live a little greener everyday!