Earth Day 2022

4/22/2022

I spent my childhood surrounded by nature. My parents named me Daynie Rain because of their love for the environment, and throughout my growing up, they instilled that adoration into me as well. We were constantly outside- at the beach watching the most incredible sunrises, sunsets, and everything in between, jumping into crystal clear springs, or swimming through huge east coast waves. If we weren't in nature, we were learning about it. My mom taught classes at the YMCA in which we learned about different bugs, the importance of recycling, and spent days making crafts out of reused materials- anything you could imagine to encourage us to become immersed in the outdoors. I'd always loved the planet and the place that I was so lucky to call home, but it wasn't until 2018 that I began to grow my own appreciation for it, separate from my parents.

2018 was one of the most growth filled years of my life, as well as the year I fell in love with the planet. I was 15 and we had spent that year travelling like crazy. I was going through a really hard time in my life and I think my parents wanted me to have a distraction, so adventuring was their choice of interference on that one. It was the year I had the opportunity to visit Kenya, which is a place that after visiting, it's very difficult to not physically feel your heart changing (for so many different reasons), we visited the Keys for the first time in my life, which showed me a version of my own state that prior to, I had only seen in pictures, and travelled to Colorado to visit the mountains of the Rocky's where I fell in love with a whole new type of scenery. If we were home, we were always at the beach- sometimes 4 and 5 days a week. It was also around this time that I began to educate myself on ways to live more sustainably. In my experience, falling in love with something causes you to want to protect it. My family had always been pretty aware of their carbon footprint, and had been implementing a lot of creative ways to reduce waste for as far back as I could remember, but our efforts just multiplied after I began doing my own research and finding simple switches to make. I remember constantly researching changes I could implement to reduce my impact. I became vegetarian, switched to bamboo toothbrushes, stopped purchasing plastic products whenever possible, reduced my dairy and egg consumption, began thrifting all of my clothes, and became more conscious about the products I purchased and what they were made of/ where they originated from.

I think that 2018/2019 was one of the best times of my life, and I think all of these things contributed to that heavily. I remember I had an alarm on my phone set for 7 every evening that reminded me to go make sure I caught a glimpse of the sunset that day and none of my friends had cars yet so we all rode bikes everywhere which led to the discovery of some of the most beautiful hidden gems I've ever seen, that otherwise wouldn't have been discovered if we were travelling by car. Looking back on this time, I remember everything being so bright and vibrant- as if God adjusted the saturation on my days. Every sunset was the best I'd ever seen, every field was the greenest I'd ever laid in, every body of water was the freshest I'd ever jumped into. Days were bright and the weather was somehow always perfect. Whether that was the reality of it or not, my appreciation for the world around me was so big that in my head, it was all true. I felt healthier because I was consuming more green fruits and veggies, etc. I was spending almost every day outdoors adventuring and exploring, I was at a peak creative state, making videos all the time because me and my friends were always exploring new places, and because I was doing good for the planet as well as for myself, my confidence flourished.

I'll be honest and say that I've gotten out of the habit of being super consistent with limiting my waste consumption and production. We live in a consumer industry and it's difficult to not get wrapped up in that at times. I try my best to do my part, but as of late, my efforts have been no where close to what they once were. I'm making a conscious attempt to get back to where I once was, but one thing that has consistently stayed important for me to uphold throughout the years is my unwillingness to support or contribute to fast fashion. I knowwwww we hear about this all the time and that everyone is probably getting tired of hearing about why brands like "Shein" or "Romwe" suck, but a lot of people don't truly realize how much of an impact they have on the planet by supporting brands such as these. Feel free to close this blog post out if you don't feel like hearing about this, but if you happen to be interested, or maybe you are unaware of the toll that these companies contribute to carbon production, unethical labor conditions and more, read on...

For starters, the fashion industry is the 2nd largest consumer industry of water. It takes hundreds, if not thousands of gallons of water for each product. The process of creating a T-shirt from start to finish uses roughly 700 gallons of water alone. The fashion industry is also the second largest polluter of water. This is due to the dumping of leftover dyes from the production process into bodies of water after completion. Not only this, but fashion production contributes to 10% of total carbon emissions worldwide. This amounts to roughly 1.2 billion TONS of carbon released each year which is insane. Not to mention the emissions released throughout the process of shipping these pieces all over the world.

At the end of the day, 85% of these textiles end up in landfills at the end of the year anyways. You're purchasing low quality products from brands who capitalize off of the in and out trends, and by the time a new fad becomes popular, these companies already have products on the market to satisfy that desire. But the pieces and clothing items that you throw out don't just disappear when they hit the dump site, the microplastics in these products take hundreds of years to biodegrade (if they do at all). Essentially, every clothing item you've ever worn, is still somewhere on the planet today.

The worst part about all of this is that these companies legitimately capitalize off of child labor and unlawful practices to make a profit. Some workers for these companies are reported to make only $2.77 an hour. In this day and age, avoiding brands that utilize unethical production practices is so difficult because it's so common that we often don't even realize it, but steering clear of companies such as Brandy Melville, Fashion Nova, Forever21, Nasty Gal, Pretty little thing, Urban outfitters, and obviously brands like Shein or Romwe who don't even try to hide the fact that they actively place profit above human welfare is a good place to start.

On top of all of this, these brands aren't even using their original designs, they're stealing from small artists and creators without credit or compensation for their blatant plagiarism. Hundreds, if not thousands of creators are taken advantage of every year by brands such as Shein who steal product designs to sell for a fraction of the price. This is people's livelihood and hard work being stolen out from under them. Sometimes even using the product pictures taken by the original creators themselves to advertise their off- brand recreations.

It's one thing to use Shein because you can't afford other options, but the issue is those who can afford other, more ethical options choosing not to for the sake of a deal. Some alternative, more sustainable options to go for when thinking about making a new clothing purchase are:

Shop small- Some of my favorite companies who opt for more ethically sourced, and often even completely recycled materials include: Beaten Path Co., Threads by Andie, and the Stoked Surfer who sells second hand pieces. The people behind these companies are real individuals who benefit first- hand from your purchase (and they all happen to be pretty cool in my opinion ;)) as oppose to large corporations who use their power to take advantage.

Thrifting- Another option is to thrift for new closet additions. I would say that 90% of my closet is thrifted or purchased second hand. Not only is it far less expensive, fun to do, and a great way to find interesting and unique pieces, but also, by choosing recycled pieces, you're not contributing to the production process of new clothing at all which is huge.

Second hand- Yet another good choice for a more ethical approach to clothes shopping is using apps and websites such as depop, ebay, or poshmark where you can search for specific items if you're looking for something in particular that you aren't certain you'll find at a thrift store. Often times, these sites are far less expensive than buying brand new, and yet again, you're not contributing to the overconsumption and overproduction processes created by fast fashion companies.

One of my favorite things about Earth Day every year, along with seeing all the beautiful pictures and watching people give our home the appreciation that it deserves all year 'round, is seeing people become more educated on simple changes that they can make to create a brighter future for us, as well as to allow future generations to have the opportunity to grow a love for this special place. We are so blessed to be able to make this planet our home and we all need to do our part to protect it. Avoiding fast fashion is just one way to do that. Happy Earth Day <333