Sustainability

Hi everyone! Emily here. One of the most important considerations I had when deciding to release merch is how to make this as sustainable and ethical as possible. No clothing is truly sustainable. Everything takes energy to produce. But there are some ways in which we can reduce harm to the environment and ensure that the labor used to create those garments is ethical.

Here are some of the decisions I made to work toward those goals. 

All clothing is sourced from wholesalers that have ethical labor practices which are independently verified by a 3rd party organization. Companies that work to reduce their carbon footprint in their own operations were prioritized as well.

Secondly, I worked to find product options that contain no (or very limited) polyester. Here’s why.

Polyester is bad for 3 main reasons: 

(1) Production - Polyester is a type of plastic made from fossil fuels like crude oil. Because of this, it is more CO2 intensive to create than something like cotton.

(2) Care - Everytime we wash something with polyester, plastic microfibers are released into our waterways which can eventually end up polluting our oceans.

(3) End of life - Once your clothes ultimately end up in a landfill, polyester products can take 20-200 years to biodegrade, while something that is made of cotton can biodegrade within six months when exposed to the elements.

For this reason, the vast majority of my products contain no polyester at all. For any product that does contain a small amount of polyester, $1 per item sold will be donated to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a bi-partisan 501(c)(3) non-profit that works to promote science-based policy solutions for climate change/energy/environmental challenges. You can learn more about this organization here.

 

In addition to this, all items come in 100% compostable and reusable mailers and the items will not come in a polybag (plastic bag) to reduce waste on the shipping side of things.

Thank you for your interest in sustainability when it comes to the clothing you purchase. We can all do a better job of only buying clothing we truly need, caring for the clothing we have, and recycling and donating them when we are done. I welcome any feedback on ways I can make this business even better. Please send any feedback to spacegalmerch@gmail.com.

Emily