It's Almost 2020. When Will We Have Reusable Socks?

By Ronald Ehrlich—The last few decades have shown unbelievable advances in technology. Nearly every adult in the U.S. now has a small handheld device that outpowers the best supercomputers of just 50 years ago, for example. In my lifetime, we have put a man on the moon, we have dived to depths never before imagined by our fathers, we've detected gravitational waves, and we've put Starbucks on every corner of every street in the nation. Truly, it seems that there are no bounds to what humanity can do.

It is in contrast with these accomplishments that I inquire openly to all of humanity about what seems like should be the most basic of all concepts: basic foot coverings. Specifically, I am shocked an appalled that in this modern age, with all of our conveniences and advances, we still have not invented a reusable sock. In the last year alone, I have spent no less than $380 on various pairs of socks, which I will wear a single time, and then discard. How is this sustainable? I cringe to think of all of the cotton that I have thrown into the garbage each year for my entire adult life, just because they were a little sweaty.

Just think of all of the work and energy that goes into making a single pair of socks. The growing of the cotton itself, in addition to the processing and dying of the fabrics for various colors—it is bizarre to me that so much effort would be expended for an item that will be worn for about 16 hours and then never used again.

Is there truly no better solution? Is there no possible material or procedure that would allow for a sock to be usable more than one time? Surely, we have methods of recycling plastics and metals, and yet my socks go from package to my foot to the landfill every day, unceasingly for my entire life? How is this right and just? Not only is it economically burdensome of those of us whose feet are grotesque to point of making sandals or flip flops an embarrassment, but it is irresponsible to leave our children a world that is buried in oceans of slightly used socks.

I plead with scientists, lawmakers, and consumers everywhere to end this madness. There simply must be a solution, and it is up to us to find it.