STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Elizabeth Jeffrey is aghast when she considers the fashion industry and the vast number of clothing items manufactured each year.
“We’ve made twice as many clothing items in the first quarter of the 21st century than we made in the entire 20th century, and it’s not slowing down,” said Jeffrey. “Right now, a lot of clothes that are produced wind up in landfill before even reaching retailers.
“When I was a kid, there were four seasons in the year. Now, there are 167 seasons in a year so displays are changing every two to three weeks instead of every three months. A garbage truck load of clothes is burnt or buried in a landfill every second, and we’re on pace to generate 148 million tons of fashion waste by 2030.”
Jeffrey and other members of the local Climate Action Coalition are trying to keep things from going to the landfill with an expanded Earth Fest on Saturday that will include a large Trunk Sale, thrift store pop-ups and fix-it clinics.
The fifth annual Earth Fest will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. near the Hailey Public Library.
Thirteen trunk shows will sprout up like daffodils between the Hailey Public Library and The Barkin’. It’s a true trunk sale in that sellers will be showcasing their items out of the backs of their cars with trunks facing toward the center so people can walk past and get a good view of what’s for sale. If the weather’s nice, sellers may put tarps and tables out to showcase the merchandise.
The trunk sales will be augmented by sidewalk sales curated by The Barkin’, The Advocates Attic and The Gold Mine, said Gretchen Basen, a member of the Climate Action Coalition.
“It will provide the first, much loved yard sale of the season,” added Jeffrey.
Additionally, the Earth Fest will have an expanded Fix-It Clinic with more fixes than ever thanks to 12 volunteers who can repair clothing, small appliances, outer wear, tents and backpacks, ski clothing, lamps, broken wooden items to keep them out of the landfill.
Sue Baker, who has a Patagonia and outdoor gear repair store above Sturtevants, can mend everything but horse blankets. There will also be volunteers on hand to sharpen garden tools and dull knives.
The day will kick off with the Earth Day 5K fun run that will take those wishing to shake the winter cobwebs off this running shoes down Main to River Street, ending back at Hailey Town Center. Registration takes place from 9 to 10 a.m. The race starts at 10 a.m.
The 12 winners in various age categories will receive T-shirts that Wood River High School senior and WATER Club co-president Rowen Star, has gotten from The Barkin’ and The Attic and overlaid with an Earth Fest design using silkscreen.
A local woodworker, who designed coasters for 5K winners last year is rethinking the trophies for this year, Jeffrey said.
There’ll be 13 local non-profits and businesses offering tips on circularity. (Circularity is the them of this year’s Earth Fest: Circularity=Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Repair, Reimagine.)
The Sun Valley Institute of Resilience will show attendees how to make seed bombs that can be thrown, growing into wildflowers where they land. Another vendor will make jewelry out of bicycle parts, and Winn Compost will bring some of its equipment for kids to view.
There also will be music, games and food vendors. Among them, The Hunger Coalition’s Bloom Truck,; Pulpo Peru desserts and drinks, and Lago Azul, which will be making pupusas.
“Our hope is for community building,” said Jeffrey. “We realized that resilience and sustainability depends on us knowing where are those people who can help us. We hope we can broaden our sense of depending and relying on our neighbors and having them rely on us kind of thing during hard times.
“How do we reuse things, reduce purchases, reuse what we have, repurpose what we have repair? We all want to be good stewards and I hope this can teach us ways to be better stewards.”
This year’s event is triple the size of last year’s, in part because of young people who have brought new ideas to the event, Jeffrey said.
“The City of Hailey and, specifically, their Sustainability/Resiliency staff Emily Williams and Emily Rodrigue—have been an invaluable partner. Creative knowledgeable, hard-working and fun. They’re doing great things for Hailey every day, and then they added to this and made it great.”
WORRIED ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF LONG-DISTANCE TRAVEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE?
The carbon footprint of the fashion industry is greater than all the cargo shipping and international flights in the world, said Elizabeth Jeffrey.
“We have enough clothing manufactured already to meet the needs of the next six generations. We really need to wear what have. If we went four years wearing just what we already own it, would be an incredible benefit to the earth,” she says.