I’m tired

Was not sure how to tag this as I don’t think the question has an answer, but hey ho.

I’m so tired of trying to do the “right thing” while our efforts are wasted by the government’s failure to take net 0 seriously, the prevalence of fast fashion even now that we know how damaging it is, etc.

I knit and crochet, and am in need of some nice sweaters for fall/winter/early spring as my wardrobe is pretty much just t-shirts and hoodies and I’d like to have some nicer looking outfits and generally dress better, especially as I’ve lost some weight and am swimming in some of my clothes. I went online looking for natural fiber yarns to make some, thinking I was doing a great thing. Some lovely folks over on the Yarn Addicts sub have been giving me recommendations for good fiber blends, what to avoid, etc.

Turns out, not being made of plastic isn’t enough. Superwash wool (which most widely available wool yarns are) is coated in plastic and chemicals as part of the process for smoothing the fiber. The dyes are apparently also not eco friendly. Cotton, bamboo, etc are apparently also terrible due to water consumed during their growing and making. And to top it off, when I do find a fiber I can use, it’s sourced from Peru, or the US or Canada, so even if the yarn was insanely carbon-negative and could cure world pollution if you used enough, it then has to be shipped to where I live (UK), by plane, which is a huge carbon footprint.

I thought of buying secondhand, which I do for lots of clothes anyway. The apps I use are full of people selling plastic crap clothes from grocery stores, Temu, SHEIN, Primark, etc. And so brings a second conundrum—do I buy a sweater secondhand so that it can be shipped to me via a delivery van belching out gas fumes and shed microplastics into the earth every time I wear or wash it, or do I pass on it knowing that the exact amount of plastic will end up in a landfill anyway because it will inevitably be thrown out (or donated and then thrown out)?

Do I NEED new sweaters? Probably not; I’m not going to die if my clothes are too big and I look like a slob, and the 2 cardigans I do have are functional even if they’ve seen better days. But man is it frustrating to try your hardest to fill a gap in your wardrobe the best way you can, and to know that whatever you do short of laying down and dying, you’re putting another nail in the coffin of the earth.

How do you guys do this without genuinely getting depressed? I get the perfect is the enemy of good but it also feels like none of the choices are good? How are we making 100% sustainable choices in this kind of environment?

Submitted September 18, 2025 at 10:27AM by Nyanet https://ift.tt/M6VbLvd