Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Kristin at All of Us Revolution
It was November, 2010, in a dusty suburb of Managua, Nicaragua. My business partner, Shannon, and I were visiting the world’s only 100 percent fair trade, organic cotton cooperative in the world. That’s where our education on clothing, the environment, and ourselves, really began.
Two months later, we joined Project 333.
The Catalyst
Our journey to living with less really began in the summer of 2010. We were two twenty-something travelers with an idea for a travel and minimalist clothing line. So we started learning about how clothes are made. We traveled to cooperatives and markets and talked with experts and manufacturers.
We quickly realized that the reality of fashion is horrifying.
For example…
- Conventional cotton crops use over one-quarter of the world’s pesticides.
- Formaldehyde is commonly used to treat our clothing.
- Polyester is a plastic.
- Each year, billions of kilowatts of energy and trillions of gallons of water are used to produce fabric.
- And slavery still exists in the garment industry.
Much of this chemical treatment, toxic waste dumping, pesticide use, and cheap labor doesn’t happen here at home. It happens in the developing world. Environmental disasters like the complete drying of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan have been attributed to our need for fashion. But these aren’t things you hear about in the news.
The Project
For many people, Project 333 is a great way to simplify their lives, free up some time, and rid their closets of decades of backlogged clothing. It’s an exercise in pushing comfort levels, exercising fashion creativity, and realizing that you are not the clothes you wear.
But for us, Project 333 represents something else, too. It represents a shift in fashion towards something good not just for our own morning routines, but good for the entire planet.
America represents 5 % of the world’s population, yet we consume 25 % of the world’s resources. Most of the clothes I’ve bought in my lifetime have certainly ended up in the landfill, and I’m willing to bet most of your old clothes are there too. So the question that Project 333 really poses is not, “Can you do it?” but “Can we, as a society, afford not to?”
Want and need are two very different things, separated by a big fat line. Project 333 forces us to look at that line, and make a decision about what to wear, what to buy, and what message to send to the companies who make our clothes. It forces us to weigh, in one hand, what we want, and in the other, what future generations need.
It’s tough to think that a seemingly small act, like paring down your wardrobe and making thoughtful purchases can make a difference. But as Shannon and I learned in that dusty Nicaraguan town, every single decision we make has a measurable impact on someone else’s life. So when you take part in Project 333, you aren’t just changing your morning routine, you’re changing the world.
To see more about how Kristin & Shannon are changing the world, check out their website, friend them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Project 333 or share on Twitter.
Wow! This is a great post… Takes it all to whole new level! Thank you
Something that comes to mind is… What happens when consumerism (for clothes and other “stuff”) stops or reduces by let’s say 50%+? Where do the people, that used to manufacture for piddly wages (to our standards) go/what do they do?
I’m all for reducing my fluff spending and being more conscious, for sure… But the above question came to mind, so I was just curious your thoughts. Thanks
Jill, very good point! It’s something we get asked a lot.
If “minimalism” were to truly take hold, wouldn’t a lot of people lose their jobs? And our economy crash?
To me, there’s a fundamental problem in the way we do business; it depends on insane consumption, and the cost is simply too high (literally destroying our home). I think for there to be real change, we’re going to have to alter the entire system. It’s going to have to be based on something other than consuming polluting items.
Maybe in the future, we will all invest more (and spend more) for necessary products, while cutting out our need to purchase everything at a cheap price. Maybe we will find new innovations and resulting businesses in the recycling industry. I certainly don’t have the answers, but I think that we are advanced enough to see that what we’re doing is pretty destructive, and find a way for business and the environment to live in harmony!
Thanks Kristin (and Courtney for posting!). Yah, I like the idea of “we will all invest more (and spend more) for necessary products”. And then those products will last longer, due to the higher quality and will be loved/appreciated more, too, I’m sure. Keep up the good work! xo
This website came to me at such a crucial time. I just spent 5 months in South America with a high-school sized backpack and was so happy to come home to my clothes… but then I quickly realized that I have seven boxes of them. And I’ve been storing them at my boyfriend’s mom’s house. And I’m not planning on having my own place for another six months at least, and have no idea what town that will even be in when it happens. I’ll be touring national parks in my car and camping.
I have some getting rid of to do.
Not to mention what a large part of my thinking power per day goes toward simplifying my life and the lives of those I love, as well as helping the environment and “less fortunate” people who’s livelihoods have been ripped away from them and their only choice is to go to work for the very monstrosity that took it all in the first place.
So glad you mentioned that people paying higher prices for necessities is important. I believe buying less to be the key to a lot of our problems, but when buying is necessary, paying a fair price for the item (considering all the factors like the cost of materials, the salaries of the employees where its manufactured, the energy it takes to power that factory, and the transportation costs of getting it to you) is vital.
I’d like to leave a little note about my industry to add to this. I work in the coffee industry and I know people are becoming outraged that coffee prices are rising, but it’s for a good reason. I was visiting coffee farms in South America and the people who pick the cherries off those trees are scraping by with whatever change they can get by the pound. Many farmers share their profits fairly with these pickers, and the more a greenbuyer can pay the farmer for their coffee, the more improvements they can make to their farm and the higher those picker’s salaries become. $.50 more a day on your cappuccino could mean someone’s kid getting an education down there.