The other day, my boyfriend got a new belt in the mail, but it wasn’t woven or made of leather. It was made completely from recycled bicycle tires. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even known that either had he not told me. It just looks like a really nice, well-made belt.
You’d be surprised to know that eco-friendly fashions are more common than you think. From belts to bags and shoes to shirts, you can find tons of great clothing made from organic and recycled materials.
Are you curious where you can pick up some eco-friendly clothing? Not to worry, below are a few places that offer great options for your wardrobe that won’t burst your budget.
Soul Flower
Soul Flower features affordable clothing for men, women and children made from organic cotton, hemp and recycled plastics. Additionally, the fabrics they use are made in the United States and utilize natural inks. Their green practices go much further than just their clothing.
For every single tree they use when printing their catalog, they plant three trees. In a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, they planted over 2,000 trees last year in the Pere Marquette State Forest here in my home state. Plus, Soul Flower is a green-certified office. From recycled packing materials to soy-based printing inks, this company thinks holistically about their impact on the environment and how they can lessen it.
Dirtball
Dirtball clothing is a bit less hippy looking than Soul Flower, which makes it appealing to a wider audience. Utilizing both recycled cotton and plastic, each piece of clothing they offer reduces the amount of waste that enters landfills. Here are just a few recycling stats about Dirtball:
- Seven 16 ounce recycled water bottles are in each t-shirt.
- Their custom “Dirt Shorts” contain nearly twenty-five 16 ounce recycled plastic bottles.
- Their “Dirt Shorts” can be sent back to Dirtball to be recycled into new shorts – plus you get a sweet discount on your next order.
Dirtball’s clothing and accessories range in price from about $15–$60. Their prices and selection are great, and I would highly recommend you check them out. Plus, like Soul Flower, all their items are made in the USA.
The Ultimate Green Store
The Ultimate Green Store is a little more expensive than the previous two options, but they also have a wider variety of items to offer. While they offer mens, womens and young adults clothing, The Ultimate Green Store also offers eco-friendly baby clothing. Featuring organic cotton and vegetable dyes, these chemical-free baby clothes are safe for your little one. Non-organic cotton may contain residue from pesticides or fertilizers that are harmful to your baby
The Ultimate Green Store works with a ton of other environmentally conscious companies. Visit their site to learn more about each one they work with and their eco-friendly practices.
Your local Goodwill, Salvation Army or consignment store
Maybe you don’t like shopping online or you checked out the sites above and they were a little more money than you’re comfortable spending. That’s okay because your local consignment shop is another great place to look. Granted, you might have to sort through a ton of ugly pieces to find gems. Still though, buying clothes from one of these stores helps save resources.
Here’s a pro tip for you: if you want good clothing from a Goodwill-type shop, visit the ones located in more affluent communities. They generally have better stuff.
The labels may not say eco-friendly or recycled at Goodwill, but if you stop and think you’re giving these donated items another life and conserving energy in the process. Making a t-shirt takes a lot of energy. Think about it for a second.
A farmer has to grow the cotton, and then it has to be harvested, transported to the factory, made into cotton fibers, woven into a shirt, packaged for shipment, transported to the store and lastly put on the shelf of the store where it will sit for an extended period of time. Each of these consumes energy, and recycling clothing eliminates more than half of the energy needed to make a new shirt.
Eco-friendly clothing is easier to obtain than you think, and it’s more affordable than I thought. It’s just another way to debunk the myth that living a green lifestyle is expensive because really it isn’t.
Do you have any eco-friendly clothing in your closet? Share what you have with other Zing readers!
The post Eco-Friendly Clothing: Where to Buy It appeared first on Quicken Loans Blog.