First off I'm super thankful to have met and learned from amazing people who've helped broaden my horizons and sparked my interest in the other two pillars of sustainability - the economic and social. It's high time my mind was opened to encompass other fundamental fields into my vision of sustainability besides just the environmental one. I think it'd be most appropriate for me now to talk about circular economies and my new steer away from fast fashion.
In a nutshell of what I took away from a business-focused sustainability conference I attended last month, for the longest time the economy we live in has been very much Linear: raw materials are used to make things (resources & energy are used up) -> we buy these things -> things wear out (sometimes too quickly) -> we discard its waste (landfills get bigger, oceans get dirtier). Whereas in a Circular Economy that we strive towards, items are produced using renewable energy and non-toxic inputs, distributed using renewable energy, used by consumers ideally through leasing or sharing rather than ownership, reused/repaired at the end of their lifetime, and only then recycled. The design of new products would then incorporate these recycled materials, with a lesser need for raw materials. To illustrate:
