with Aja Barber, Author of Consumed
Ep. #233 of The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast
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Do you ever wonder where old clothes end up? We see so many ads for unlimited types of clothing, the shops are full of people… When they’re worn out or just tired of a style, do most people donate items? Repurpose them? Recycle? The simple answer: most of them go into a trash wasteland and end up contributing to climate change.
Aja Barber is an eco-conscious fashion consultant, personal stylist, speaker, and author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism. Her line of work focuses on sustainability and its intersection with ethics, feminism, and racism, particularly in the fashion industry.
As a sustainable fashion consultant, Aja makes sure to educate the general public about sustainable and ethical manufacturing, specifically with garments in the fashion industry, in the hope of creating a better and safer planet.
She has written for online publications such as Eco-Age, The Guardian, and CNN. Still, she is most active in opening up conversations and informing people about sustainable and ethical fashion on her Instagram.
During the conversation, Cory and Aja talk about the impact of the fashion industry on our climate crisis, how fast fashion contributes to colonial waste, the core of consumer culture, and what role we can play to creatively solve these problems. Aja also shares her journey in writing her first book and gives her advice on how to stop consumerism.
The full transcript for this episode and more can be found at SocialEntrepreneurship.FM/233
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“One of the things that clothing waste can be used for is housing insulation. Every minute, a dump truck of clothing waste goes to landfill. What are we doing? That is an untapped resource. If you actually tax these big, multinational billion dollar companies that can definitely afford to pay for it, we could actually create jobs; we could have textile recycling. Currently, we only have 1% of textiles being recycled. That should not be the case – no textiles should go to landfill. And they certainly shouldn’t be being dumped on the global South, which is what’s happening.”
— Aja Barber
Watch/Listen:
Links & Resources Mentioned
- Aja Barber on Instagram, Patreon
- Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism by Aja Barber
- NHS (National Health Service)
- RUDE
- Insulate Britain
- The Or Foundation
- Guppy bags (US site)
- All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Katharine K Wilkinson
- The Better World Weekly Newsletter
- Become a Sponsor
- Cory Ames on LinkedIn and Twitter
Related & Recommended
If you liked this interview, you might like these articles/interviews as well:
- (Series) The Impact of Fashion
- (Podcast) Conscious Consumerism: What It is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself
- (Buy Ensemble) Ethical & Sustainable Clothing Brands
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About the Host
Cory Ames
Co-Founder & CEO, Grow Ensemble
Cory is the host of The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, where he’s interviewed well over 150 leaders in the space of better business, social impact, and innovation. Prior to Grow Ensemble, Cory was the CEO of a digital marketing agency, a position he earned at the age of 22. There, he became an expert on all things digital marketing & SEO.
Cory Co-Founded Grow Ensemble as a vehicle to raise awareness of and inspire action around some of the world’s biggest problems and problem solvers.
He blogs, podcasts, and publishes video on all things leaving the world a better, more just, equitable, and habitable place for all.
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