Sustainlabel

Sometimes it can be hard to find exactly what you're looking for. Maybe you live in a small place? Or maybe your local store just has a poor range of products. I'm sure we've all ended up buying something online, at some point in our lives.

I won't argue, online shopping is great! Unfortunately, it also has some downsides such as long travel distance and that isn't very green. Most forms of transportation is not light on the carbon footprint. The best way to avoid being a contributor is to do thorough research and make sure that you're not missing any local store that might have your product. Keep in mind that cheapest often is the least sustainable. So please, don't be the kind of person who orders something from the other side of the globe, just to save a couple of euros. You're not saving the environment. Try to look at those extra euros you're paying for a more local purchase as a form of environmental fee.

Here are some questions you should ask before every online shopping trip

Do I need it?
Can I get from a local store?
If it's for short-term use, can I borrow it from someone I know?
Check if a local citizen is selling a used version it.
Could this item be found in a thrift shop?
Can I make this item myself?

Sometimes the answer to all these questions will be "no". If so, check out these points for a greener online shopping.

Buy within your own country. If that's not possible, check out what the nearby countries offer first. Generally, try to stay within your continent. The only time you should be ordering something outside of your continent is when the product is completely unavailable in your own.
Buy consumables in bulk so that you won't have to make frequent purchases.
Try to get items from different shops sent to you in one package by finding a shop that sells them all. Getting all your items in one package accounts for one travel, instead of multiple ones. (This is difficult and sometimes completely impossible).
If you buy multiple consumables from the same shop on a regular basis, wait until you've used up several of them before making your next purchase.

Greener online shopping

If I were to write a book on sustainability, clothes would be one of the largest chapters in that book. That's because there are so many issues with clothing, starting from how the fabrics are being made to the processing, sweatshops, biodegradability, marketing and so on. I’m not here to write a book. I've decided to keep this as short as possible by dividing the many aspects of clothing into several posts. I might even make a video sometime.

What to look for when you shop
I’ll start with something basic, fabrics. The fabrics used in clothing can be divided into two main categories: manufactured fabrics and natural fabrics. The names are self-explanatory. One is synthesized and the other one is derived more directly from nature.

The manufactured fabrics are either synthetic polymers (polyester, acrylic, nylon and spandex) or natural polymers (rayons such as viscose, lyocell and modal). There are more but you'll most likely find one of these when looking at labels. The rayons are actually biodegradable, therefore some will argue that they’re environmental too. It really depends though. The way most rayons are produced are not environmentally friendly at all. The only upside to this is that the production of rayons requires less water than the plant based natural fabrics. (You'll get to read about that in a minute). Currently, Tencel® is the most sustainably produced rayon. Tencel® is lyocell made by the Austrian company Lenzig AG, one of few companies that produce rayons in a more sustainable way.

Then we have natural fabrics that are either plant (cotton, linen, hemp and flax) or protein derived (wool, silk, cashmere, angora, llama, mohair and alpaca). Once again, this just the most common ones. They are all biodegradable but there are other ethical and environmental issues with these. First of all, the protein derived fabrics are not vegan. Although no animals are killed, many still find animal derived products unethical. The plant derived fabrics are not sin free either. Plant based textile production uses a lot of energy, with cotton being the largest culprit. An unbelievable amount of water goes into producing a single piece of clothing. We’re talking hundreds, even thousands of gallons. Cotton production accounts for 16 percent of global pesticide release. On top of that it uses one of the most poisonous pesticides on the market, creating a toxic environment for the workers and possibly toxic clothing too.

Organically grown fabric would be ideal, if it wasn't for all the processing it has to go through. It may not be so organic after all. Cleaning is still required and this process uses toxic chemicals, making the fabric no better than the non-organic version. In the end no alternative is truly sustainable. You can only choose what you think is the lesser evil. I still choose natural fabrics, solely because they are all completely biodegradable. Synthetic polymer clothing is basically plastic clothing. Every time such clothing is being washed it releases microplastics. This plastic ends up in our ocean, harming the aquatic life.

Make sure to check the label on your clothing next time you buy!