You love fashion, but you love our planet more. Finding eco-friendly companies to keep you looking great and feeling guilt-free isn’t easy. That’s why we’re here to help you in your mission to keep our playground as green as possible.
30A Dumpster Diver shirts have caught on for a reason. They look cool and they’re made out of recycled plastic bottles. Every bottle that’s used to make one of 30A’s t-shirts is one less bottle that could someday end up polluting our oceans. And for each shirt you buy, it takes 8 water bottles out of circulation.
The 30A Company recently announced it has reached 1 million plastic bottles recycled through its eco-friendly apparel.
These shirts make great gifts for any environmentally conscious people in your life.
While you’ll feel good emotionally about wearing these shirts, you’ll also notice how good they feel physically because of their super soft material. And the fun beach themes can help you feel more relaxed wherever you are, even if there isn’t any sand between your toes.
If responsibly-crafted shoes are your green kryptonite, you might want to check out Rothy’s. Like 30A, they make their products out of recycled water bottles.
These shoes are easy to keep clean – simply remove the insole and pop them in the washing machine whenever you need to.
Even the packaging for these shoes is 100 percent recyclable. When your shoes have seen better days and you’re contemplating tossing them, they can also be recycled.
40cean has cleaned up 360,630 pounds of trash so far. And with every bracelet that’s bought, another pound gets picked up from along the coastlines or in the ocean.
But the bracelet is for more than just a good cause – it’s also a fashionable piece of jewelry and can be a real conversation starter.
It’s made out of recycled materials and is unisex. You can also adjust it to fit most sizes of wrists.
Patagonia has been turning garbage into fashionable clothing for more than two decades. In 1993, it became the first outdoor clothing manufacturer to jump onto the eco-friendly bandwagon.
These days, it continues with that mission, using bottles, manufacturing waste, and old garments to make polyester fibres for its clothes.
You can buy base layers, board shorts, and shell jackets and feel as awesome as you look.
Green Thumb Yoga Legging from Botanica Collection by Yoga Democracy
Yoga Democracy is a brand that uses recycled fibres for its pants – currently, 95 percent of their products are made from recycled fibres. In addition to that, they look for suppliers who focus on sustainability when it comes to using water and emitting greenhouse gases.
Their leggings have a high waist that will stay in place even during your fiercest activity so you won’t spend more time tugging up your pants than enjoying yourself.
OceanZen was founded by Steph Gabriel, who has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Marine Science. After spending time in Ecuador studying humpback whales and the Galapagos Islands researching sharks, climate change, coral reefs, and sea lions, Gabriel saw firsthand what humans were doing to the ocean. And she felt compelled to do something about it.
That passion led to the creation of OceanZen, a company which recreates waste like plastic bottles into swimwear.
If you like to show some skin while you’re at the beach, you’ll find a wide selection of bikinis at OceanZen. If you prefer a little more modesty, you can opt for one-piece swimsuits as well.
SHANNON SERPETTE is an award-winning journalist, having received 10 Illinois Press Association writing awards across a wide variety of categories. An avid metal detectorist, Shannon spends most of her vacations at the beach searching for buried treasure. Follow her daily adventures on Twitter.
