Billie Eilish has acknowledged that drawing attention to the climate crisis while selling merch and putting her name on products may seem like a contradiction.
“I shouldn’t be making any products. I shouldn’t be selling anything,” Eilish told Vogue in an interview last November that was published on Wednesday. “It’s just more s**t to go into the landfill one day. I know that.
“But no one’s going to stop wearing clothes. No one’s going to stop making stuff. So I just do it in the best way I possibly can.”
Her official website peddles a collection of apparel and a plethora of goods including jewelry, keychains, notebooks, ornaments, blankets, cookie cutters and a door mat – and her albums are available on vinyl and CD.
Eilish also has a fragrance and previously launched a vegan chocolate bar, a children's clothing line and sneakers. But, she makes an effort to use sustainable materials and, in 2021, convinced Oscar de la Renta to stop using fur and PETA honoured her as its Person of the Year.
Elish said she has made it a mission “not to be in people’s faces about” the environment even though it is something she is passionate about.
“People don’t respond well to that,” the 21-year-old singer said. “It makes the causes that you believe in look bad, because you’re, like, annoying the s**t out of everybody.”
During her Happier Than Ever world tour last year, Eilish partnered with the nonprofit Reverb to give fans the opportunity to refill their water bottles for free and learn how to support environmental causes. “I’m still not shoving information down people’s throats,” she said. “I’m more like, 'I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’m just going to tell you why I do this.'"
With a laugh, she added: “But you’re also a bad person if you don’t do it.”
Eilish considers the environment in everything she does but is said she doesn’t want to be “parading around like, ‘Look at me! I’m making a difference.’" She explained: “I just want to be making the difference and shutting the f**k up about it.”