“Faster than fast, quicker than quick. I am Lightning.” This quote is from the movie Cars, but it made me think about fast fashion. Its quick, its lightning fast and consumers don’t slow down to think about the people who make the clothing. A second wicked problem related to my fast fashion wicked problem is sweat shops. The U.S. is sourcing their apparel in other countries and paying them inadequately. The working conditions are not in good shape and the employees are working long hours for low pay. You may ask, “why do they work there if it’s so bad?” The answer is that there isn’t any other job for individuals to work at.

The sustainability office was interesting. It was pretty cool to see and learn that OSU thinks about what else instead of chucking it into the garbage. I learned that OSU started with simple changes like lights and computers and ended up saving LOTS of money. I thought that was pretty cool because that is something EVERYONE can do; it wasn’t something crazy. I think a lot of the time people think they can’t do sustainable things because its too hard. The recycling center showed us that we can do it! It’s a simple place to start. If everyone gave up when they tried to recycle, or the recycling center didn’t do what they did then OSU wouldn’t be as beautiful as it is. We would have a lot more waste sitting around, and we wouldn’t be able to maximize or exhaust all of our opportunities. 

Class, do you know who made your clothes? Do you know what factory it came from? Does your favorite store share these answers?