August Newsletter
Post Fire Recovery through Creativity
While the smoke has lifted from our city, the effects will remain with us for years to come. Nothing can replace objects with personal history or the feeling of having created a home with all the creature comforts. If you are one of the hundreds of people who lost everything, know that we here at SZW and others in the community will do our best to wrap around you and provide as we can for the long haul.
We're creating craft kits for kids and you can help. While it’s not going to solve all the problems, we know being engaged in a creative activity is healing. Having a project to focus on takes one's mind away from stress and anxiety, something families navigating recovery are likely experiencing, particularly children. Any parent is grateful for some free time knowing their kiddo is involved in something fun and creative. If you'd like to help bring a little light to families, help us assemble scrappy doll kits. email us at info@spokanezerowaste.org
If you're not able to help physically, please donate so we can make as many kits as possible and get them into the hands of those that will benefit from them the most.
Do you know a family that would like a scrappy doll kit? email us at info@spokanezerowaste.org and we’ll be sure they get one.
Comfort for fur friends too!
Inspired by Scarlett, owner of Evergreen Refillery in Cheney, and genuinely awesome person, we got folks together and made pet beds during August’s Community Craft Night. SZW is working with the Spokane Humane Society to distribute the hand-made, and sometimes humorous, beds to families with fur friends in need. We’ll continue this work through the Fall. email to join in info@spokanezerowaste.org
Fur Friend Support: for information about pets rescued during the fires, food and supplies
Spokanimal
Volunteers, menders and SZW education coordinator Tori Thurman, craft cute and humorous pet beds from rescued clothing and textiles during Community Craft Night at the SZW classroom in the Logan district.
Join us for a Community Craft Night 2nd Wednesday of the month 5:30-7:30p.m.
Avoid the Fall Fast Fashion Trap
August arrives with a quiet shift in the light, followed closely by the first of many calls to consume more and more cheap stuff as we head towards the end of the year. The relentless flood of back to school sales fills our inboxes while clearance banners and racks of cheap new clothes tempt us to fill our carts and feel the quick satisfaction of a bargain.
It is so easy to get swept up in the seasonal rush. But when we pause to look past the price tag, another reality emerges. Most of those garments are designed to barely survive a season, and somewhere down the line, someone else is carrying the real cost.
Textile waste has become a crisis of modern living, with the fashion industry being one of the world's heaviest polluters and most egregious violator of labor standards and rights. Increased production and heavy pressure to continually release new styles is to blame.
The good news is that we do not have to belong to that system. A far richer path begins right here in our own community. Online marketplaces like Buy Nothing Groups have become incredible spaces of everyday abundance. These sites help neighbors freely pass along sturdy coats, boots, sweaters and more. You can easily outfit a growing kid in pre-loved, high quality pieces without spending a dime.
Exploring local thrift shops across Spokane offers a similar joy, turning fall shopping into a treasure hunt where kids and parents find clothes with real personality rather than mass produced uniformity.
Tips for shopping waste-free this Fall
Quality over quantity
This is the heart of slow fashion. Buy better and buy less. It’s also a far kinder strategy for your household budget, your health and the environment. One pair of well constructed jeans made from quality fabric that holds its shape, retains a working zipper and can be passed down through two siblings costs far less per wear than three pairs of paper thin pants that split at the knees in a month.
Sew it Don’t Throw it
When a tear or a popped button does happen, there’s Spokane Zero Waste’s Mend-It Cafe where SZW menders stitch and transform damaged items into unique treasures.
Learn to Sew!
Level up your self-sufficiency skills in one of our Sustainable Sewing Lab classes. Learn how to use a sewing machine, do visible mending and much more.
Fact Check Brands
When buying new is the only option, take five minutes to check the Good On You Directory before handing over your hard earned dollars. It rates thousands of fashion brands on their environmental impact and labor ethics, showing which companies actually care about workers and the planet while clueing you in on who’s engaged in greenwashing.
Every time you choose secondhand or reach for a needle and thread you are standing up for environmental and social justice, we applaud your bravery and thank you. This season let’s skip the commercial hype and focus on what’s important, our relationships to each other, land air and water.
Collaboration Builds Community
We need more bags!
Please bring your empties to
the Community Building
donation bin at 35 W. Main Ave.
Lasting progress is best made in collaboration. Riverkeeper has a need. They want to start separating recycling from the garbage collected during river clean-ups. They came to us because they wanted to keep it local and keep it sustainable. We assessed the need, considered materials and came up with a cross body collection bag made from empty pet food bags and post promotional scrim from the 50 year anniversary of Expo. That’s a win for all of Spokane!
