ZEROWASTE

Plastic Pollution

 

The ban on plastic micro beads has eventually happened in the UK. This is a massive step forward in the right direction, we are now hoping the same ban will be happening soon for single use plastics!

 

What are microbeads? 

Micro beads are small beads of plastic usually found in products like face scrubs and toothpastes.  They are not degradable, once these plastic beads are made they last forever, so you can imagine how many are already in circulation today. 

 

What is wrong with microbeads, why are they harmful? 

When using products with mircobeads in them, such as a face scrub, they are then washed away with water so these micro beads enter the water system. This then ends up in the sea, all sea life are eating these micro beads thinking it’s food,  when in fact it is harmfull plastics which they cannot digest. Then humans who choose to eat fish are actually ingesting plastic contaminated fish.   

 

The great thing is they are now banned to be used in products, but this doesn’t solve the problem of the thousands of microbeads already in the world, harming nature and the wildlife. 

Read more about the microbeads ban here:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/09/plastic-microbeads-ban-enters-force-in-uk?CMP=share_btn_fb

 

Single-use Plastics  

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Image from https://inhabitat.com/tag/plastic-pollution/ 

 

The other main problem with plastics are single-use plastics. 

 

What are single-use plastics ? 

These are plastics that are made to only use once then thrown away.  Items such as: bottles of water, coffee cups, plastic straws, plastic cutlery, shopping bags, takaway containers and packaging.

 

Why are single-use plastics bad to use?.

There is quiet a few reasons Single-use Plastics are bad for the environment. They are not biodegradable the life span of a plastic bottle is 450 years. All the plastics that were ever made are still around today. Most people don’t recycle them correctly and they end up as landfill. It is destroying all our ecosystems, leaching toxins into the environment. Animals are eating these plastics thinking there food which is bad for their health and lifespan. 

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Image from http://www.spotusa.org/recycle.html

 

The most heartbreaking thing is this can all be avoided! 

 

What you can do to use less plastic? 

 

- Invest in a reusable water bottle & coffee cup (some coffee shops give you discount if you bring your own cup)

 

- Be aware of packaging when purchasing food, you can get the same fruit and veg without the excess plastic.

 

- Take a reusable shopping bag with you everywhere, to save buying a plastic bag.

 

- Change your hand-wash, body wash and shampoo to solid bars of soap.

 

- Purchase a bamboo toothbrush.

 

- Refuse to use straws when you’re out, you can also buy reusable metal straws. 

 

- If you still have some plastic at least recycle them correctly.

 

There is so much you can do you reduce your plastic usage and help the planet.

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The True Cost Documentary

 
Image from https://truecostmovie.com/‘This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the huma…

Image from https://truecostmovie.com/

This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?

Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes

Extract from https://truecostmovie.com/

Watching this film changed everything, from my personal life to my business. It was shocking to watch! It made me realise how much fashion plays a huge part in ruining the Earth, as well as the lives of people involved within the fashion industry. From people that live near factories, that leak out chemicals into the water supply, slave labour from children, to people working every hour of the day for little to no money, fashion has ruined people lives. Consumers should to be aware of this!

In the documentary it revisits the horror that was the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in 2013, bringing fashion factory workers health and safety to the forefront of the news around the world.  

People buy into fast fashion so easily without considering the impact. Designers & brands used to only produce 2 collections a year, now it’s 52, a collection out each week of the year, it just shows how bad fast fashion has got.

Ask yourself a few questions when you next go shopping: How can this t-shirt only cost £5?  How was the fabric grown and produced? Where was the the garment produced? Who made the garment? Are they getting paid fairly? What is the carbon footprint of this item? The most important question is Can I make a difference?

After watching the documentary it made me realise that I can make a difference, being a fashion designer. I can make changes for the better. Showing consumers that you can have luxury contemporary fashion that is also ethically made and sustainably produced. I am hoping other businesses  realise that they can make a change for the better.

 

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Is it difficult to become a fully sustainable business? Yes it is but it was the best thing we ever did. Everything is a learning curve, we are always trying new ideas and improving to make things better.

We were already using end of roll fabrics, these fabrics would otherwise end up as landfill waste, and we were producing garments in house, but we knew we could do more.

 Zero waste is also a move we wanted to do for a while, by using fabric in the most economical way. Also rather then only recycling the fabric waste, we are now recycling everything from patten paper, card, and branding materials. If we are outsourcing a product we make sure the business has the same ethics as us, and rather them then discarding the waste, we ask them to send it to us for us to reuses or recycle, we do this so we are fully knowledgeable of where the waste ends up. 

We are aiming to be be a transparent business. What we mean by that is if a customer asks where were their garments produced & where the fabric was made, we want to be able to answer that question confidently. Currently all our organic fabrics are all fully traceable. We at ZARAMIA AVA have also since gone vegan to have the least carbon footprint as we can. Going vegan as a business makes you question everything from the fabrics to the dyes, prints and packaging.

Read our Ethos here www.ZaraMiaAva.com/Ethos 

Links: 

A film by Andrew Morgan

https://truecostmovie.com/ 

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