Everyone who gives a flying feck about the planet in general has a part to play in their own role in our continued survival on the earth, and so in this article I’m going to make five really simple and basic suggestions of how you can make ethical, environmentally friendly choices as a Goth when it comes to your behaviour as a consumer.
It doesn’t have to be hard to make just a few basic changes to your day to day life, which should have not only a positive impact on your own carbon footprint and consumer choices, but also, are highly unlikely to cause you any hardship, and may also improve your life too. Win: Win!
Reuse and repurpose
Goth is a fairly accessory-heavy style, as well as involving lots of layers, accoutrements and different individual pieces of clothing to make up the average look. When something in your closet is beginning to look a bit moth-eaten or past its best, don’t chuck it out; look at it with a view to how you can alter it or repurpose it into something else rather than binning it, or consider organising a swap-meet with your mates to give your cupboard a new lease of life.
Food
What you put into your pie hole has implications not just for you, but for the animals and land used to generate your food, and the environment as a whole. If you’re not sure how to best go about making better consumer choices when shopping, start simple; buy only free range eggs, organic vegetables, and look for locally sourced meat and fresh produce.
Consider vegetarian footwear
Whether you’re a veggie or not, you might want to consider buying vegetarian footwear, which is, footwear that is not made out of leather or animal by-products. Synthetic footwear has come on a lot in the last ten years or so, so if you had a nasty scare some time back with synthetic footwear that was uncomfortable, sweaty and fell apart fast, now is the time to rethink and try again.
If you don’t want to commit the big bucks to a pair of giant boots until you’ve had a trial run, check out these awesome Demonia Bat platforms at under £50.
Hair, skin and makeup
When it comes to what you put on your face and hair, less is always more and natural is always better. This applies not only to how your choices impact on the environment, but on you too; chemical shit and potions are never going to be as good for you as simple, natural products. Look at how you can minimise the amount of crap you do to your hair and face by buying natural products or making your own, and when it comes to dying your hair, think about mixing up your own henna paste instead of a bleach and radioactive-smelling dye compound next time around.
Getting around
Work in your hot new veggie shoes by walking to your mate’s house, getting off the bus a stop earlier than usual, or parking at the far side of the supermarket carpark. Don’t think that you have to drive everywhere; go outside once in a while! Carry a parasol and use sunscreen, what’s the worst that can happen? Oh.
