Fast Fashion is the third biggest pollutant in the world, not only in terms of carbon emissions, river pollution & consumption of water, but also in terms of the increase in microplastics that wash off clothes and and amount of cheap clothes that end up in landfill.
A Fun Solution
To try and combat a few of these problems in a way that is both enjoyable and of financial benefit to the consumer, the Sustainable Living in Fethiye team have been running regular Clothes Exchange events since November 2018. The idea behind each event is that you bring along unwanted clothes and are given tokens in return which you can then ‘spend’ on items others have brought along.
Even though these events are successful in their own right, the team wanted to do more and a decision was made to support the Dalyan Sea Turtle Foundation as turtles are one of the biggest victims of the negative environmental impact humans are having on the planet. The events are now geared to raise money in the form of raffles, cake sales and the Foundation’s merchandise sales.
A Visit from Kaptan June
To show their support for this initiative the legendary Kaptan June and her team travelled from Dalyan to take part in the most recent Clothes Exchange event which took place at Cafe Pazar in Calis last weekend. The Kaptan chatted with visitors, signed books, posed for photographs and, of course, had a good rummage through the clothes.
Word Is Getting Around
Cafe Pazar also arranged for a local journalist to come down and interview the Kaptan, along with SLF’s joint founder and fellow Fethiye Times contributor, Sian. Subsequently a newspaper article and TV news coverage appeared on FRT TV shortly after.
Sian shared her thoughts with Fethiye Times after the event saying ‘It’s fantastic that so many people are now coming to these events and really enjoying the experience. Also, with so many charity shops in the area, the monthly second hand market, the new Preloved 20/20 pop up stores and tailors on every corner happy to make adjustments to clothes for the fraction of the price of buying new ones, there really is no need to go out and buy a new t-shirt, just for the sake of it, that will be thrown away after just a few outings.’
Next Event
The next Clothes Exchange will take place on Saturday 29th February at Cafe Pazar. Full details will be published nearer the time on the Sustainable Living in Fethiye Facebook page.
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