Everyday tips to be greener from your closet to kitchen

Everyday tips to be greener from your closet to kitchen

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Everyday tips to be greener from your closet to kitchen

With an increasingly threatening climate crisis, it may not seem like ordinary people are able to combat the effects of climate change.

Except, there are a number of things people can do.

One of them is even a way to be sustainable and fashionable.

According to the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University, the fashion industry is responsible for 10 percent of human-caused greenhouse emissions and 20 percent of global wastewater.

In Westbrook, Bloom Consignment and Retail makes sustainable fashion possible.

Owner Lily van der Steenhoven says, “I have always loved consignment. It’s a really sustainable way to shop.”

Bloom Consignment and Retail has everything from shoes, to shirts, to dresses, and each piece gets a new life when purchased-keeping them from otherwise going to the landfill.

That’s part of Lily’s mission.

“Consignment is a really fun and exciting way to find unique pieces, on-trend pieces, without buying new clothes,” Lily added.

Clothes are often thrown away. The U.N. reports 85 percent of textiles are sent to landfills.

For another sustainable tip, maybe even look in your kitchen.

Six years ago, Laura Marston made a pledge to stop using single-use plastic and look for products with less packaging and plastic.

She says, “The more I learned about just how we use plastic and what happens at the disposal end, I just thought well I have to change my own personal habits.”

Marston continued, “I identified that there was kind of a hole in the market here in home and personal care products were really hard to find, either refillable or plastic free” Marston’s store GoGo Refill in South Portland sells tubeless toothpaste, bottle-less shampoo, refillable soaps, and so much more.

A great place to start being more sustainable is under your sink.

“You've got specialty cleaners, you have all-purpose cleaner, you've got a plastic sponge and a plastic dish brush,” Marston pointed out.

By making sustainable swaps like cleaning supply bottles for concentrated bars, or plastic sponges and brushes for compostable ones, Marston says: “[The] whole dish process that used to have six plastic bottles associated with it, has now zero.”

Even making the switch to reusable paper towels is significant.

Change doesn’t have to be big, just meaningful according to Marston.

“With everything like this, and specifically with sustainability, any positive change you make is a positive change,” Marston said.

To further reduce your carbon footprint, try a Meatless Monday.

Research shows that the production of meat and dairy are some of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

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