50 Years of Government Spending, in 1 Graph
(via 50 Years of Government Spending, In 1 Graph : Planet Money : NPR)
Often, the best green living advice boils down to one simple priniciple: Buy less stuff.
But it turns out it’s not quite that simple, unless you’re willing to do serious harm to developing countries in the process…
Ethical Style: Don’t Donate Clothes, Repurpose Them
Quality clothing means better fabric, and good fabric can be reworked again and again to make sure it never goes out of style. Today, we want an ever-changing array of cheap clothes, and we rarely think about sustainability or quality. In order to consume clothes more ethically, we must change the way we think about them.
Ethical fashion requires making new styles out of metaphorical rags (even if they’re just last season’s jeggings), whether from your closet, thrift stores, consignment shops, or online outlets.
Ethical Style: Where Do My Used Clothes Go?
Today, we only hang on to about 21 percent of the clothing we buy every year. What happens to the pieces that don’t make the cut? Most of them end up in landfills—only about 15 percent of discarded clothing is recycled or reused, whether by individual or industry. Perhaps it’s time to start asking a new question: Why do we have so much junk that we are in the position to inundate the world with our reject piles?
Brownwashing: Why Green Consumers Buy Brown Things
Dunkin’ Donuts, Cinnabon, and Target are swapping their white napkins for brown ones. Seventh Generation even dyes its translucent diapers brown. But does “brown” necessarily mean “eco-friendly?”–or are marketers messing with our minds?
Recession? What recession? A record number of 226 million Americans spent $52.4 BILLION on Black Friday weekend, a 16% increase from last year. Research shows that Americans’ spending has increased over the past few decades as people literally try to buy happiness. Unsurprisingly, it’s not working.
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