Conserving Resources

The raw material production and manufacturing of new clothes is a resource and energy intensive process. Every item of clothing saved represents a big benefit for the planet.

Since 1980, textile consumption in the U.S. has increased five-fold. This means that every man, woman and child now buys more than 81 pounds of textiles every year. This includes 66 pounds of clothes, footwear, towels, sheets and pillowcases, of which about 10 pounds will be reused or recycled, leaving 56 pounds to be thrown in the trash.

Not only is there more clothing going to waste today than just a few years ago, Many of the resources that are used to make the clothing are becoming scarcer.

At every step in the process from fiber to finished clothing item, resources are consumed. First the raw-material for the fiber is either grown and harvested, if it is a natural fiber; or extracted and manufactured, if it is a petroleum based synthetic fiber. The fiber is spun into thread that is dyed and woven into cloth by textile mills. The cloth is cut and sown by clothing manufacturers and eventually the finished piece of clothing enters the supply chain of a retailer and shows up on a rack in a retail store near you.

You can classify clothing by the type of fiber used to make it. For a long time the most common clothing fiber was cotton, but today synthetic fibers such as polyester split the market in half with cotton. Small quantities of clothing are made with fibers from plant material such as hemp, wood, or bamboo, and some are even made from recycled plastics, but these are small quantities. The big players are still cotton and synthetic fibers.

Cotton

Cotton is grown in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. Conventional cotton is considered to be the world's most pesticide-intensive crop. In the US, an estimated one-third pound of agricultural chemicals are used to produce a single cotton T-shirt. The various chemicals used to treat conventional cotton can harm beneficial insects and soil micro-organisms, pollute ground and surface water, and adversely affect the health of humans and wildlife-including fish, birds, and livestock.

The farming of cotton is also water-intensive. Approximately 400 gallons of water are required to produce enough cotton for a single cotton T-shirt. Buying secondhand means that no additional cotton had to be grown to produce your clothes, keeping harmful chemicals out of the environment and saving water.

Synthetic Fiber

Synthetic clothes can be made of petroleum-based products like nylon or polyester, or wood-based fabrics like rayon and acetone. The search for and procurement of petroleum has had major detrimental impacts on the soil, ground water, surface water, and ecosystems of the US and around the world. Petroleum refineries release toxic, hazardous air pollutants, such as BTEX compounds, and criteria air pollutants, like sulfur dioxide. Wood-based synthetic clothes eat up a lot of water and chemicals during the extraction process. By choosing secondhand clothes, no additional resources, chemicals, or pollutants are required to manufacture what you wear.

Manufacturing Process

To manufacture 1 kg of dyed, knit fabric it takes:

• 100 liters of water
• 0.74 kg of chemical solids
• 1.34 liters of oil
• and 6 kWh of energy

Transportation

The U.S. is the largest cotton exporter in the world, and China is the largest clothing exporter. Much of the cotton from the U.S. is shipped to China where the clothes are manufactured and then shipped back to the U.S. to be consumed. The transportation of raw material and finished products results in resources, mainly petroleum, being used at every step in the product life-cycle of clothing.

Read more about the environmental impact of cotton in this interesting article by Michael Bloch of Green Living Tips.com.