7 Days of Green - Day 4

When you think about living green, you always think about recycling plastic. But there's something else that you can do. Think about your clothes.

Check the tag of your shirt to see what it's made of. It's most likely made from some form of polyester. If you didn't know, polyester is plastic. Aside from the fact that polyester does not breathe and is not the most comfortable fabric, fibers from polyester fabric tend to wash off and find their way into the ocean, introducing more plastic into the food chain. 85% of human debris on coastlines comes from microfibers.

Especially in this culture of fast fashion, the fashion industry has an immense impact on the environment. The amounts of water used, the types of chemicals used, the amounts of greenhouse gases involved. Whatever you're thinking, triple that. Add another million. Then multiply it by two again. The fashion industry has such a large impact on the environment, and so many people don't even know about it.

Just to give you an idea, the fashion industry uses about 1.5 trillion liters of water per year.

Check out Sustain Your Style for all of the statistics. They're staggering.

But we're just a couple of people in Pensacola, Florida. How can we change the fashion industry? The reality is, we can't change it by ourselves. But we can make an effort to reduce our effects on the environment.

Your challenge is: Wear Green for the day.

Wear a green item of clothing and tell people about this challenge. Tell people about the effects of the fashion industry and think about what you can do to reduce your footprint. Try looking up eco-friendly clothing brands. Buy more natural fibers such as cotton, linen, and wool. Instead of throwing your clothes away, try to donate or resell them. You'd be surprised how long they might last. Even if you can't wear it anymore, use it as a rag. Think about how you can wear green today.

Make sure you click the "complete" button on the event page for this challenge to show me that you completed it. The more days you complete, the closer you are to winning a prize package!

Live green!