Day 3: Economic impact of clothing production
Billions of T-shirts are sold annually, the majority of these t shirts are made of 100% cotton or cotton-blends. Less than 1% of this cotton is made organically (without pesticides). To produce a single T-shirt, approximately 600 gallons of water is used; with this sort of production occurring at such a large scale environmental and economic issues are inevitable.
The Journey of a T-shirt:
Farming: Cotton is grown and harvested
Ginning: Machine separates cotton tufts from the seeds
Spinning: Cotton is turned into slivers of yarn
Knitting: Yarn is weaved into sheets of fabric
Finishing: Sheets are treated with heat/chemicals to be soft and white
Dyeing: Fabric is processed with bleach and dyes
Sewing: Factories use manual labourers to manufacture the T-shirts
Shipping: T-shirts are shipped internationally to retail companies
Positive impacts:
- Cotton is sustainable as it is a natural fibre (not a finite resource)
- Cotton is biodegradable
- Its a profitable industry
- As an industry there are low barriers to entry (as its easy to find an inexpensive producer)
- Provides millions of jobs
Negative impacts:
- Requires massive amounts of pesticides (which are pollutants and can be *carcinogenic)
- Pollutants damage environment and kill wildlife
- Dyes can contain toxic substances (like lead and mercury)
- Working conditions for field workers is dangerous due to chemicals and factory workers work in bad conditions receiving minimal pay
- Delivery process has a large carbon footprint
Many large fashion brands like the Swiss company Vetements made political statements against the overproduction of clothing.
“After the oil-industry, fashion is the second biggest polluting industry in the world and overproduction is one of the biggest environmental problems of today. Over 30 per cent of merchandise produced by fashion brands are never sold and end up in landfills,”- statement given by current Vetements CEO
Tracking the journey of a product of my choice:
Over 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown out annually. This makes up 25,000 tons of waste in landfills. Not only that, but once being disposed, the plastic from the toothbrushes end up in the ocean and can kill wildlife. This plastic and nylon used in these hygiene tools is non-renewable and is not biodegradable (will remain the environment indefinitely). The most damage is done in the delivery and distribution methods, which have a large carbon footprint and ecocosts of the manufacturing process.
Moulding: Plastic is headed to be shaped into the body of the toothbrush
Fastening: Bristles are attached to the head of the brush automatically
Trimming: Machine trims the bristles to a particular shape
Colouring: Plastic body is decorated
Distribution: Items are packaged and shipped internationally
*carcinogenic- cancer causing
