In all the Poison Ivy-related ecological googling I've done over the past few years, this is the conclusion I've come to on a personal and practical level: just use stuff for as long as you possibly can before throwing it out. Getting more granular will drive you nuts - ThreadSky

gwillow.me • 80 days ago

In all the Poison Ivy-related ecological googling I've done over the past few years, this is the conclusion I've come to on a personal and practical level: just use stuff for as long as you possibly can before throwing it out. Getting more granular will drive you nuts

Reposted from Nick Wester, PI

Broadly speaking the way to be ecologically responsible doesn't really matter what materials you use. It matters how often you're replacing things. It takes a lot of water to make denim jeans, but if you wear that pair 20 years it's nothing!

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shaenon.bsky.social•79 days ago

That settles it: Poison Ivy should wear ratty denim jeans.

gwillow.me•79 days ago

Love this

calicodad.bsky.social•79 days ago

This . . . presses some buttons.

gwillow.me•80 days ago

Also, circular economies (like a local swap meet, thrift shop, Buy Nothing group etc) are fantastic at both saving you money and reducing your carbon footprint. Because even stuff you don't want anymore can be reused, and someone else has something they can't use but you can

kamosemills.bsky.social•80 days ago

We don’t shop at the thrift store but we’ve donated to it frequently the last few years as my family members have moved away.

wehavesnacks.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yup! I think about the Levi's museum in San Francisco where you can see a pair worn by a miner for 40+ years and they look like they could be worn today!

bevismusson.bsky.social•80 days ago

Christmas trees are a good case in point. A decent fake tree can last five, ten, even twenty years whereas most real trees can't be replanted or processed so the environmental impact of both is roughly as bad as each other (broadly speaking, of course).

sielulintu.bsky.social•80 days ago

What do you mean, real trees can't be processed? You can grind them into mulch. Also, there's an argument to be made that tree farming provides a lot of habitat for wildlife. I'm not sure if the upside outweighs the downside, but it's not all downside.

widedamnawake.bsky.social•80 days ago

We use them on the coast to shore up the dunes, help negate erosion.

vaguepariah.bsky.social•80 days ago

Been hitting up the CL free section lately bc I don't need to spend money on things like steel shelves and filing cabinets for our new workshop. Plus as a bonus I happened upon a free brick listing and I now have about 200 sqft of brick pavers. There's a lot of embodied carbon in those bricks.

widedamnawake.bsky.social•80 days ago

Being honest. Some of my most prized possessions came from thrift stores, the trash or off the side of a road. I have a 10-volume set of Poe printed in 1894 someone threw in a dumpster. 😱 You better believe I dove in after them. Wire rack they fit in perfectly found in trash 20 years before.

ruuubs.bsky.social•80 days ago

There's a reason why it's *REDUCE*, reuse, recycle!

venice-bitch-mm.bsky.social•80 days ago

When I buy leather it’s always second hand. I like leather a lot bc it’s so durable and lasts so long. Most of what I buy is secondhand or things I bought so long ago.

sokudoningyou.bsky.social•80 days ago

I don't buy it second hand really, but I do try to avoid buying things like shoes made out of plastic.

vaguepariah.bsky.social•80 days ago

Leather is also an industrial byproduct.

venice-bitch-mm.bsky.social•80 days ago

True and I’m also a huge carnivore so I know I’m also adding towards the meat industry but I can’t give it up 😭

vaguepariah.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's tough.

sarahkorse.bsky.social•80 days ago

I have a leather jacket that my mother bought in the early 70s. Had to replace the lining, but the jacket is probably going to be passed onto a third generation.

raantuva.fyi•80 days ago

This is the way

diskgrinder.bsky.social•79 days ago

If you can’t afford to buy expensive shoes, you buy cheap shoes that last twelve times less than the high priced shoes, and you’ve had a capitalism done on you

gwillow.me•79 days ago

Yup, the system wants to grind up you and the earth in the name of chasing a few extra dollars. In situations like that you just buy the cheap shoes because what else can you do.

diskgrinder.bsky.social•79 days ago

Sad but true. In an alternate universe, where good things happen, I have a dog called Ernie, and everyone has a shed. Money wasn’t invented there

comradebullski.bsky.social•80 days ago

My major is actually in ecology (specifically systems ecology) and yeah, this is pretty much the main issue. The rate of replacement/consumption has increased to the point where systems can't handle it. There are other factors too, but this is a very big one. Like there are focused problems too

gwillow.me•80 days ago

Good to know. Yeah everything I read (I'm not any kind of expert) seemed to suggest the biggest problems are A) Scalability (things that are harmless @ subsistence level become ecologically terrible when scaled up to supply a whole population) and B) rate of replacement.

comradebullski.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yeah, absolutely. There's a very "think only at most five years into the future" mentality with a lot of products (and consumers) which is really unfortunate. We are seeing a handful of major corporations contribute a disproportionate amount as well recently. Real capitalism endgame stuff.

joshcrewsreally.bsky.social•80 days ago

You might say I'm a hero working at home in the same clothes for 3 days.

gwillow.me•80 days ago

absolutely

clairejane5.bsky.social•80 days ago

Almost everything I'm wearing (layers for warmth and a not-going-anywhere-day) is 15-20 years old and was another family member's first. 😇

kateywumpus.bsky.social•80 days ago

Unfortunately we run into the Sam Vimes boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness which makes it hard to afford things that last.

antonomasia.bsky.social•80 days ago

In some cases, depends how you treat stuff. People often say that cheap clothes get holes in them in no time. This has practically never happened to me, including with stuff from H&M, Primark, Peacocks etc. I never tumble-dry clothes.

superhiero.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yep. I always think about, say, a new car that is more "environmentally friendly" than an older model. But how much of the world's limited resources went into making that new model?

vaguepariah.bsky.social•80 days ago

I welcome our GATTACA future with classic cars that have been converted to EV.

(A future with abundant transit and bike lanes as well)

rolandguiscard.bsky.social•80 days ago

Buy the nicest durable goods you can, use/fix them as long as you can, and own as few as you can.

That's about it really.

iangrant25.bsky.social•80 days ago

All good. Also, try figuring out the cost per use when comparing prices of something you have to have.

raantuva.fyi•80 days ago

Correct

ryogarocket.bsky.social•80 days ago

Next time my wife asks why I keep wearing socks that are more hole than sock, I’m showing her this post

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