Sustainability is for the rich-Let's talk about it

If you're like me, a stereotypical broke college student, finding affordable items is extremely important when you're shopping. I don't have money to spend on whatever I want, I need to be strategic in what I'm buying so I don't become more broke than I already am. 

Despite the fact that my bank account has seen better days, I still love shopping. It's just so much fun to buy new clothes, I don't think it's a habit I'll ever truly break. If you've read some other posts on The Sustainable Style, I'm making the hard commitment to be more sustainable in my shopping habits (like the name suggests). Yes, there's options for me that are affordable and sustainable like thrift stores or reselling apps. But sometimes I want to buy something new for myself without feeling the guilt of shopping fast fashion, or the guilt in seeing my account balance drop dangerously low because I spent $200 on a pair of shoes.

I know I'm not the only one in this position, and I know I'm not the only one who feels pressured to shop sustainably even when it's not always accessible.

Something we don't talk about enough is the pressure for middle and lower classes to take responsibility for the current climate crisis. We hear all the time that we need to "do our part", despite our limited resources and the fact that major corporations are the cause of a lot of environmental problems while providing no assistance to fix them. We're convinced that recycling a can or buying less fast fashion is going to save the environment--it'll no doubt help, but there's bigger factors at play here than just us.

With that pressure, we're told constantly to shop sustainably. I get 20 ads a day for sustainable clothing brands enticing me to buy their products in order to save the environment. I would love to shop from a brand that I know has ethical production methods, except for one issue: they are extremely expensive. Madewell can sell a pair of jeans for over $100 and we're supposed to casually purchase pairs as if this is accessible.

I realize that ethical/quality clothes=more money. They make extremely durable clothing that last for years, which helps explain the price. I also realize I'm not in their target demographic for these brands since I don't have the disposal income to spend on this kind of clothing.

However, it's frustrating that the responsibility to be sustainable is placed on people with less income when sustainable options are so expensive. True sustainability is for the rich, and yet they're aren't the ones that bare the responsibility. 

There's a lot of things we can do to be more sustainable, especially when it comes to buying clothes, but I think that we need to realize that we can't do it all alone. It's okay to buy fast fashion sometimes and it's okay to get rid of one or two shirts after wearing them once. There's no way to be a perfect sustainable consumer and we shouldn't be ashamed if our purchases don't reflect that once in awhile (as long as it's not a habit). There's billions of people in this world and thousands of corporations that also have the responsibility to help the environment, it's not just on us. 

We can do our part, but we can't do it alone.