The Lesser Evil:

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Why going half-naked can save the ocean

HK is a city 'blessed' with subtropical monsoon weather that's constantly warm all year around. So it makes 0 sense when it comes to the choice of fabric - 🔥polyester🔥, as we are casually strolling down the streets of endless 🌞hot air, rain and sweat💦.


Did you know?

POLYESTER is a type of synthetic fibre 〰〰made with coal/petroleum, no difference from plastic used in making plastic bottles. It is extremely common in clothes we find in fast fashion store such as H&M, Zara, etc. It often comes in a blend with other fibres to make fabric.

  • It’s very strong, resistant to abrasion.

  • It is also NON-absorbent so it dries easily!
  • It doesn't shrink either. No wonder it is a fabric perfect for active wear ⚽️🏋🏻‍♀️🎾🏐

However, imagine wearing plastic on your body - it is just quite stuffy, as it's not very breathable vs cotton. Wonder why your sports bra starts to stink? Because polyester also holds onto odour with increasing wear.

BUT the MAIN reason I don't like polyester is because it releases microplastics during washes, contaminating the ocean . So EVERY TIME we do our laundry after working out, we are indirectly polluting the ocean!!!!!!

Since polyester really has its edge in active wear, let's NOT try to reinvent the wheel (unless there is a better wheel!).

  1. When we make our next purchase, can we STOP buying polyester in our daily wear?
  2. I have recently been exposed to Rumi x Feelgood that makes active wear out of ♻️recycled plastic and ☕️coffee grounds! Don't know if it still sheds microplastic but at least we're reusing plastic wastes! 

Here comes my grand finale -🥁🥁🥁

Instead of wearing a sports bra👙, a top👚, and long leggings👖, how about let's just wear LESS, lose the top and wear shorts so we all shed LESS plastic into the ocean! (I've seen most of the guys in gym half naked anyway, better keep the other half on!!)


🌍香港又熱又焗🔥,但係香港人就偏偏唔介意貼錢買難受😦,着住一件100% polyester 喺條街度個焗汗😅

⚡️Polyester⚡️係一種用石油/煤整出嚟嘅物料,同整膠樽嘅膠係一樣架。好多fast fashion公司例如H&M, Zara買到嘅衫都係用polyester

佢嘅好處係強韌;唔係好吸水,所以好快乾;亦都唔會縮水,所以好多運動🏋🏻‍♀️🤸🏼‍♂️🏐🏀衫都係用呢種物料做。

唔好處就係佢係比綿焗,唔透氣,亦都會因為着耐咗容易吸味。

但係!呢個物料⚡️最唔好⚡️嘅地方,係
你⚡️每一次⚡️洗佢,佢都會甩好多好細粒肉眼睇唔到嘅嘅膠粒出嚟,所以你⚡️每一次⚡️洗運動衫其實你都係間接污染緊個大海!

所以,我嘅解決方法好簡單:🥁🥁🥁不如着少件背心做運動👙,咁咪洗少啲,順便保護環境(大部份係gym嘅男仔我見過都已經係上身赤裸裸咁🤷🏻‍♀️,唔⋯⋯都係keep返着住下身衫比較好😂)

 

(*Note - this is an adaptation of my Instagram post dated July 26, 2017. Thank you Kate for remembering this piece and encouraging me to put this back onto my blog!)