Weekend Reading: Did Nike Not Get the Plastic Beads Memo?

Hi readers,

It was a quiet week over here at EcoCult.  I traveled to Germany to participate in an expert workshop to future-cast sustainable fashion. It was cool the way they set it up: we were asked our opinions on various sustainable and ethical future scenarios, whether they would improve the industry, and what would help us get there, or potentially hold us back. Then we voted on each others opinions, and in each subsequent session, dove deeper into the pieces we found the most interesting or important. For the final session, I was paired up with a guy from B Corp Brazil, and we explored how a true circular economy and extended producer responsibility could come about. I’ll link you to the report so you can explore the results when it comes out in September.

I also was deep into planning my Burning Man fashion swap, which happened last night. Wow. When I said ready, set, swap, the surge of humanity into the racks of sparkly and colorful festival fashion was intense! I’ll post the photos when I get them back from our friend who photographed it.

We’ll be back to our regular programming next week. In the meantime, I interviewed a textile scientist on the science of “washless” clothing for Vox and now I’m more into merino wool clothing than ever. (But not so keen on nanosilver.)

Sustainable Fashion

“Greenwashing sends its greetings.” Ohhhh, BURN! (On the sustainable sneaker industry.) | Sportswear International

Microfibers: TERRIFYING. | Seeker / YouTube

How fashion is helping suppliers fight climate change. | Vogue Business

Nike apparently didn’t get the memo on plastic beads. | Gizmodo

Can we really remove plastic from all of our clothes? | The Guardian 

Avocado dye is, naturally, millennial pink. (YOU WIN FOR THAT TITLE!) | NY Times

Saint Laurent’s fashion show illegally plunked down on a fragile beach ecosystem shows how ridiculous fashion shows are. | Vogue Business

Festival fashion is the worst kind of fast fashion. | WWD

#sustainablefashion is so in right now. (And also very watered down.) | Sourcing Journal

An ethical crocodile handbag? | WSJ

Travel

Flights have a plastic problem. | Vox

I saw this crazy story played out all over the world, from Peru to Prague. A must read. | Vox

The hipster vegan tech economy is not sustainable. | Al Jazeera

Apartment

The budget furniture dilemma. |  Curbed

Plastic Watch

Are bio-plastics better for the environment than regular plastics? Well… | Ensia

Carbon offsets aren’t working. | Propublica

Good to Know

The less people understand science, the more likely they are to believe wrong things and think that they’re right. | NY Times