{"id":3181,"date":"2008-07-16T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3181"},"modified":"2008-07-16T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2008-07-16T12:00:42","slug":"the-environmentalists-old-clothes-reduce-reuse-do-not-replace-the-things-we-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-environmentalists-old-clothes-reduce-reuse-do-not-replace-the-things-we-own\/","title":{"rendered":"The Environmentalist’s Old Clothes: Reduce, Reuse, Do Not Replace the Things We Own"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>In my striving for sustainability, I often have been guilty of going a bit replacement crazy. If something or other should come to be less natural, efficient, or eco-friendly than I think it should be, then I am quick to get it gone and get something more satisfying to my environmental ideals. For example, I got rid of all my incandescent light bulbs, though they worked perfectly well, so that compact fluorescents could enlighten me. Or, in another case, I closeted all my old T-shirts and got hemp\/organic cotton blend shirts, since they were more \u201cnatural\u201d and pesticide-free.<\/p>\n This last replacement indulgence in particular brings to mind something that Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden<\/em>: \u201cIf you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes.\u201d1<\/p>\n Thoreau\u2019s point is a very useful one for folks like me. Our hearts are in the right place in wanting to do good for the Earth, of course, and we can reap some benefits from the changes (i.e., replacements) we make. But in the end, we may end up doing more harm than good by adding to the current flood of human material waste and wasting our own money unnecessarily. And it is even harder nowadays to resist the replacement urge, since technological developments and the growing trendiness of sustainability have produced a bevy of new, better, greener products for us to drool over. So yes, we want to do good\u2026but, as Buddhist teaching puts it, we also may well be greedy<\/em> to do \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes it might be much better–and much more sustainable for me and the planet–if I could find some way to use my \u201cold clothes\u201d more wisely rather than simply hide them away in the closet, give them away, or throw them away. Rather than running out to the store and forking out more money, a terribly scarce personal resource, can I do some real good by making due<\/em> with what I already have? For example:<\/p>\n When I look closely, I find lots of ways that I can get creative and reuse or adapt items I already own in order to be more environmentally friendly. From small to large, my existing goods can be made to do real good if I put some effort into it instead of just forking out my money. Yes, I might not be on the cutting edge of sustainability, but maybe in some cases being practical<\/em> can be the most sustainable<\/em> decision in the long run.<\/p>\n Not everyone has the resources to perform a wardrobe overhaul every season, when the ever-shifty winds of taste and lucre blow priorities into a frenzy. And those new threads will eventually wear out, too, no matter how wonderful they might seem hanging on the rack.<\/p>\n So maybe, sometimes, the most sustainable thing I can do is to wear those old clothes as carefully as I can, even if they are ratty and full of holes and stink to high heaven.<\/p>\n Related Posts: Notes In my striving for sustainability, I often have been guilty of going a bit replacement crazy. If something or other should come to be less natural, efficient, or eco-friendly than [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":3182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,79,13],"tags":[8512,689,48],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\nTurning Trash Into Treasure: How Diverting Waste is the Ultimate Act of Sustainability<\/a>
\nSustainable by Necessity: Traditional Lifestyles in the Modern Environmental Crisis<\/a>
\nDisposable Planet: Saving Resources with Reusable Products<\/a><\/p>\n
\nImage credit: Stannered<\/a> at Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/em>
\n1. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden<\/em>. Ed. Owen Thomas. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966. 15. I have to chuckle at Thoreau here. Yes, he went into the woods and roughed it in his old clothes. But no matter what he professes about thriftiness and self-reliance, he still made sure to take those clothes into town so as to get them laundered! Oh, my good Mr. Thoreau!<\/strong> So much for idealism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"