Louise O'Neill: These two women know more about sustainability than I do
Emma Gleeson and Pat Kane
I feel guilty writing a column for the Sustainability Issue of . I try my best to avoid plastic, to buy local, to recycle, to be a mindful, conscious consumer. I love the refill bottles from A Living Edit and recycled plastic swimwear from Batoko. But I can be lazy, too. I want strawberries at Christmas, even though they’re not in season. I want a dress from the latest designer collaboration with H&M, so I ignore the environmental impact of fast fashion. I think we should limit our use of fossil fuels but I crave an open fire every winter. I’m certainly not an expert in this field — I know I could be doing a lot more than I am. For that reason, I decided to talk to two women who are actually doing the work and whose advice is infinitely more valuable than anything I could add to the conversation. Here goes!
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“After becoming a mother, I started to notice the amount of rubbish we were going through every day rising at an alarming rate — from plastic wraps and bottles, to random boxes, and let’s not forget about the hundreds of nappies! My initial reaction was to educate myself on recycling and composting — two powerful initiatives that seemed to be, in theory, quick wins. But after a few months, I realised that recycling and composting were not the only answers — we needed to address the thoughtless consumption of plastic bottles, shampoo bottles and all single-use material that we were bringing into our home. And so, we did it!
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB
Based on my personal journey, I decided to create reuzi.ie
Reuzi is an activist business that wants to make a real, tangible difference to the environmental crisis. One of our goals is to break the stigma around sustainability. Sustainability is not exclusive to scientists or the ‘all-or-nothing’ folk. We want to make sustainability an easy-to-digest subject with fun, colourful products, and educational services. We also want to help everyone take just one extra step towards sustainable living. It's not about stopping doing what you love, it's about finding better ways of doing those things! Here are a few tips to get you started:
1) Understand your 'why'. Why do you want to change some old habits? Why do you want to do better? These answers should keep you motivated throughout your journey.
2) Start Small and Slow. Don't go hell for leather from the start. It won’t happen overnight. Pick your battles and know that real, solid changes take time, research, and discipline.
3) Aim for progress and not perfection... don't let perfection stop you from getting started. All progress is progress.
4) Be realistic — not every single thing will suit you and your circumstances... someone else's 'easy' might be your 'hard AF' and that's ok. Be kind to yourself and as I always say, you do you! And most importantly, be proud of yourself for taking that first step.
YOU CAN DO THIS!”
“I got into sustainability when I did a Masters in the History of Fashion at the London College of Fashion. My research focused on the psychological effects of fast fashion on young female consumers. Today, my work still comes from this angle — if we can understand how the global system of cheap goods, exploitation and waste is bad for us, the consumers in the wealthier countries, we're more likely to change habits.
Asking people to care about garment workers and climate refugees is too big a stretch of empathy for most of us and I hate when sustainability discussions are couched in negative language — what will you give up? what are you doing wrong? what will you sacrifice? It should be about ‘how can you make your life simpler and more joyful!’ My message is that your life will actually be by living more sustainably, not worse.
At a very basic level, you will save money not buying what you don't need (often out of boredom or sadness, especially this year), you will find proper joy in what you do own, you will enjoy your food more when you care about where it came from, and you'll make wonderful connections by swapping and freecycling things you no longer need instead of dumping them. My top tips:
1) Recycling should be a last resort. Reduce, refuse, reuse come first [when anyone talks about recycling in glowing terms I'm always like ‘1995 called, it wants its environmentalism back bbz’]
2) Rotate your wardrobe (and your kids’ toys) — put clothes you love away, out of sight. When you feel the itch for something new go to that out-of-sight bag. We get so bored by what we see every day.
3) Give up on perfectionism. It can cripple us and leave us feeling useless. We need more people making changes imperfectly, not a small number doing this 'perfectly'.
4) Greenwashing is dangerous and dishonest. It confuses well-intentioned consumers into thinking they're doing the right thing. Then when they discover the brand has been greenwashing it can turn them off trying at all. If a brand is not making less — far, far less — products and consistently paying their workers properly, then a few recycled leggings mean nothing."
Emma Gleeson’s best-selling book on conscious decluttering — — is out now.
