Fighting the urge to splurge: one writer's no-buy challenge for 2022

It's the ultimate challenge - to make sustainability part of our day to day routine. From food to fashion, our writers show you how it can be done. Here, Esther N McCarthy writes about her challenge to go a year without buying any new clothes or shoes...

Pic: iStock

It's August 20, 2021, our wedding anniversary, and I’m making a wager with my husband. Not a sexy couple-y type thing, get your minds out of the gutter. No, I’m betting I can go a year without buying any new clothes or shoes for myself.

There we were, doing the laundry and discussing, like the romantic fools that we are, the environment and fast fashion. There’s a tsunami of microplastic waste on our planet, and the fashion industry is a serious contributor.