What is a goal-oriented blog without a little inspiration and motivation from time to time? Let me introduce you to the weekly Sunday rubric of Our Toxic Fashion: the Sustainable Sunday Quote. In the words of the legendary John Lennon, some say that I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Many clever minds before me have spoken, written or sung beautiful words that deserve to be shared. From fashionistas like Coco Channel to environmentalists like Anna Lappé, on Sundays, Our Toxic Fashion will give them a stage! Ready for the tenth one?

The Sustainable Sunday Quote

                                “There is no such thing as 'away'. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.”

This quote by Annie Leonard addresses another part of environmental pollution: our trash. In her video Story of Stuff Annie Leonard explains that around the 1950s many goods have been designed to be obsolete, to quickly become unusable. Light bulbs are created to provide less hours of light. Phones are designed to be outdated in two to three years. These are all examples of planned obsolescence. However, there is another way to make people dispose things faster: perceived obsolescence. This is when designers make people throw things away that are still perfectly usable, by solely changing how it looks. Fashion is perhaps the best example of perceived obsolescence. Those shoes with the big platform? They can't be worn anymore in 2016, because they are so last year. You might just as well throw them away. Yeah, no.

That is where the problem comes in. As Annie said it nicely: "There is no such thing as 'away'. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere."  The average American produces 4.5 pounds of garbage per day! All of this garbage gets dumped in a landfill or gets incinerated and then gets dumped in a landfill. Both polluting the air, soil and water. Incineration is very harmful as the toxins that are used in the production stage, will be released into the air. Next to that, due to chemical reactions incinerating trash can create new toxins, like dioxin. Annie highlighted: "Dioxin is the most dangerous man-made substance known to humans and incinerators are the number one source of dioxin".  Now how do we stop dangerous pollutants from entering our environment? One of the main solutions might be stopping to produce these huge amounts of trash. Environmentalist Lauren Singer even took it that far that she is now living a zero waste lifestlye, meaning (surprisingly), that she doesn't produce any waste. Perhaps her TED talk might inspire some of you to try the same, or at least motivate you to start thinking about your own disposing behaviour.




So from now on, shout it from the rooftops, write it on the skylines, or perhaps just make a note in your agenda: Every Sunday from now on there will be a new SSQ!




Ps. Bonus points for the ones who got the lyric references hidden within the texts.  
  
Sources:

Halpin, M. (2016). Student art goes green to celebrate Earth Day 2016. Illinois State University News. Retrieved from: https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2016/04/student-art-goes-green-celebrate-earth-day-2016/

Linak, W. P., & Wendt, J. O. (1993). Toxic metal emissions from incineration: mechanisms and control. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 19(2), 145-185.

McKay, G. (2002). Dioxin characterisation, formation and minimisation during municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration: review. Chemical Engineering Journal, 86(3), 343-368.

Storyofstuffproject. (2009, April 22). Story of Stuff (2007, OFFICIAL Version) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

TEDx Talks. (2015, May 25). Why I live a zero waste life | Lauren Singer | TEDxTeen [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF72px2R3Hg