As I worked this past month on the 20th anniversary celebration of the Basel Convention - a global environmental agreement on waste - I found myself questioning sustainability in a materialistic world. The convention deals with hazardous wastes, such as chemicals, and more recently the increasing issue of e-waste as everyone clamors for the newest generation of gadget. Many experts emphasised the need for sustainable development projects. Admittedly my own pondering starts with perhaps a more superficial issue but one that is, nonetheless, grounds for much wastage: fashion.

One person showing us that fashion can be sustainable is Sheena Matheiken of the Uniform Project. She has pledged to wear the same dress (of which she has 7 copies!) every day for a year, but each day creating a new and unique outfit. At the same time as a project in sustainable fashion, UP is raising money for Akanksha’s School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children in the slums in India.

I have to admit it has become a daily fix for me to see what twist Sheena has come up with to keep her ‘uniform’ looking like she has walked straight out of the pages of a magazine, but more than this it has helped me calm my unhealthy and wasteful shopping bug! I have always been one for a hand-me-down, a rediscovered accessory from my mum’s old jewelry box, a charity shop find but I was also known to head to a shop for a cheap and cheerful ‘pick-me-up’ that I might wear a handful of times before I got bored or it fell apart. Not only do cheap clothes leave me wondering by whom, where and how my new purchase was produced for such a low price, this habit is also incredibly wasteful. This is similar to the fashion waste of some ‘label junkies’ who just have to have the newest version of a certain item of clothing, the hottest pair of trainers, the hippest mark. What happens to the old ones they have collected over the months or years?

The Uniform Project has made me resolve to try harder to stick to the more sustainable lifecycle of fashion. Being ‘up to date’ needn’t necessarily mean having the latest item but more that subtle tweak here, an eye-catching accessory there… and what better way than re-using and recycling. I find myself putting two things together that I never would have thought of before, and with an increased urge to visit thrift stores and charity shops. For years now I have taken great pleasure in trawling through my friends’ wardrobe clear-outs, and likewise my nearest and dearest are my first of port of call when I spring clean my wardrobe - then it’s the charity shop. What better than to imagine someone else benefitting from something I once loved, but don’t use anymore? Granted, I still have more clothes than you can shake a stick at, but I like to think I am aware of the responsibility to be sustainable in a materialistic society.

I think that this attitude can be applied to other aspects of waste in our day-to-day life. Do you really need that new gadget? And if you do what are you going to do with the old one? I urge you to recycle it, pass it on to a less gadget-driven friend or relative, or indeed, make like Sheena and accessorize it!