Is rental fashion the future?

With a cost-of-living crisis and climate awareness sitting heavily at the forefront of our minds, many of us are having to make choices about what we【小题1】. Fashion is one of them. As of 2021, UK households【小题2】approximately 57.3 billion British pounds on clothing, significantly contributing to the very real effects of climate change that can be felt around the world.

Even the fastest of fashion retailers are taking note; this summer, BooHoo announced that they will be【小题3】 a returns fee to try and help customers reflect on overshopping habits. Meanwhile, Love Island teamed up with eBay as their official partner for 2022’s series, 【小题4】 avoiding their usual tie-ins.

However, there will still be times where a new item feels like a【小题5】treat: to attend a wedding, to suit the requirements of a job interview, for that much-needed; confidence【小题6】on a date. For those who love to shop, getting oneself completely out of retail seems a little like a punishment, taking away yet another source of joy during already-undesirable times.

So here comes rental fashion. The set-up is simple. Rent three, five or ten items and swap (替换) every month, with prices starting from £39 a month for a three-item. In the case of any accidents, do not fear 【小题7】and light damages (think broken zips and small stains) are accounted for in the pricing, as is laundry. If you fall in love, there are options to keep certain items longer, or if you’re not in the market for anything new, your 【小题8】can be easily paused or cancelled.

At the end of each cycle, you’ll receive an email reminding you to choose your next box. With a three-item return, items can be returned at a local drop-off point, whilst bigger parcels will be 【小题9】when the team make their next delivery. Think of it a kind of clothing library, where items are rotated in and out of your life instead of 【小题10】 dust.

Is climate change consuming your favorite foods?

Coffee: Whether or not you try to limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day, the effects of climate change on the world’s coffee-growing regions may leave you little choice. 【小题1】 America, Africa, Asia and Hawaii are all being threatened by rising air temperatures and unstable rainfall patterns, which invite disease and 【小题2】 species to live on the coffee plant and ripening beans. The result? Significant cuts in coffee yield and less coffee in your cup. It is estimated that, if current climate patterns continue, half of the areas 【小题3】 suitable for coffee production won't be by the year 2050.

Tea: When it comes to tea, warmer climates and erratic precipitation aren't only 【小题4】 the world's tea-growing regions, they're also messing with its distinct flavor. For example, in India, researchers have already discovered that the Indian Monsoon has brought more intense rainfall, making tea flavor weaker. Recent research coming out of the University of Southampton suggests that tea-producing areas in some places, 【小题5】 East Africa, could decline by as much as 55 percent by 2050 as precipitation and temperatures change. Tea pickers are also feeling the 【小题6】 of climate change. During harvest season, increased air temperatures are creating an increased risk of heatstroke for field workers.

Seafood: Climate change is affecting the world's aquaculture as much as its agriculture. As air temperatures rise, oceans and waterways absorb some of the heat and 【小题7】 warming of their own. The result is a decline in fish population, including in lobsters (who are cold-blooded creatures), and salmon (whose eggs find it hard to survive in higher water temps). Warmer waters also 【小题8】 toxic marine bacteria, like Vibrio, to grow and cause illness in humans whenever ingested with raw seafood, like oysters or sashimi.

And that 【小题9】 "crack" you get when eating crab and lobster? It could be silenced as shellfish struggle to build their calcium(碳) carbonate shells, a result of ocean acidification (absorb carbon dioxide from the air). According to a study, scientists predicted that if over-fishing and rising temperature trends continued at their present rate, the world's seafood 【小题10】 would run out by the year 2050.

The value of upcycling

Recycling is a well-known idea that refers to reusing waste materials in any way possible. But what about “upcycling”? It’s a new word, even though it’s something that has been going on since human 【小题1】 began. It means reusing waste materials so that they have greater value. Throughout history, people have always done creative things with “trash”. For example, they’ve used straw and dead leaves to make roofs, skin from dead animals to make leather goods, and wood from 【小题2】 trees to make boats. So why is there a new word for it now?

One answer to this question is that we reuse fewer and fewer things, and so have become a (n) “【小题3】” society. This has raised huge questions about waste: Where can we 【小题4】 it all? Will it pollute the environment? Could it be 【小题5】 to our health? The evidence is everywhere—even in the Pacific Ocean, where billions of bits of broken 【小题6】 float near the surface. Fish eat them, and then we eat the fish.

So upcyclers have adopted this new word to focus people’s attention on how waste cannot simply be reused, but be reused 【小题7】. In fact, upcyclers don’t like the idea of waste and prefer to call it an “asset”, something of value. Nowadays, there are lots of organizations that 【小题8】 products with upcycled material. Some artists and designers have upcycled things like denim from old jeans to make rugs, and wood from old houses to make furniture. Others have even used candy wrappers to make handbags! Sometimes they’ll add a(n) 【小题9】 element to their products, such as a beautiful mosaic (马赛克) made with broken dishes. With a (n) 【小题10】 supply of “assets”, it seems that upcycling has a great future.