Sustainable Threadz!

Krystal Kees & J’La Kent

Presentation OverviewProduction of Clothing

The Recycling Option

Cleaning the Clothes You Own

Clothing Disposal

CONSUMER TRENDS

Sweatshops

Although sweatshops could lead to inexpensive clothing on the end of the consumer, the practices of such places are detrimental to the lives of the workers. Common working conditions include unpaid overtime, no bathroom breaks or sick leave, and retaliating against workers who want better treatment (Borkowski).

http://www.veganpeace.com/

Sweatshops Cont.’d

There are a plethora of ways to boycott the practice of sweatshops. Consumers can choose to buy less clothing overall, considering, before they make a purchase, whether they really need the clothing article or not (Borkowski).

When they do buy clothing, they can go to secondhand shops or clothing swaps. Furthermore, consumers could buy Fair Trade clothing. Fair Trade means that “…artisans sell directly to wholesalers or retailers and earn fair payment for their products” (Borkowski).

What Can We Do to Help?• Consumers can research their favorite clothing companies

and see whether or not they operate responsibly. They can also take it one step further and contact these companies and questions their codes of conduct (Borkowski).

• If companies know that consumers are concerned with their labor practices, there is a pressure to address these concerns and instill fairer labor conditions, which means there is also a chance that sweatshops could, one day, become a thing of the past (Borkowski).

Sustainable MaterialsCotton is often called “the fabric of our lives.” In fact, there is some truth to this claim. See, cotton makes up 50 percent of the entire globe’s fiber needs. However, growing this enormous amount of cotton also requires an enormous amount of toxic pesticides. These chemicals not only negatively affect those who work closely with cotton in the fields, but also each and every person who comes in contact with cotton-made materials (Baldwin).

http://informedfarmers.com/

Organic = BetterThe Organic Trade Association defines organic cotton as that which is

grown without using harmful pesticides or fertilizers. This is a good thing, since health risks associated with exposure to such chemicals include reproductive disorders, birth defects, and weaker immune systems. And 25% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of its pesticides are used on cotton crops (Baldwin).

There are so many benefits that can be reaped from using organic cotton products. First of all, the working environments are far safer. Secondly, farmers can save a large chunk of money by not having to buy great amounts of pesticides. Lastly, consumers benefit because organic products tend to be softer and easier on the skin (Baldwin).

Raising the awareness of organic cotton and its benefits is directly related to an increased demand for such products. When the demand is increased, so is the cost, and so when organic cotton wins, everybody wins (Baldwin).

Hemp & NettleHemp these days is often frowned upon. And why not? It is, after all, associated with the cannabis plant. It is not allowed to be legally grown (without a Home Office license) even though it is entirely free of narcotic effect. However, this poor treatment of the fabric was not always the case. Under the rule of King Henry VIII, it was illegal not to grow it (Flintoff).

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Hemp & Nettle Cont.’d

Along with hemp, the nettle plant is another sustainable alternative to cotton fibers in clothing. However, unlike hemp, nettle is a perennial plant; it only needs to be planted once and it will come back year after year (Flintoff).

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Hemp & Nettle Cont.’d

What’s more, after harvesting a hectare of nettle for three or four years, the harvest could be up to four tons, or 4,000 kilograms. It takes approximately 40 kilograms of nettles to make one shirt, so the entire harvest could provide enough fiber for 100 shirts (Flintoff).

As well as the high product yield, there are many other useful by-products of nettle. Some of these include sugar, starch, protein and ethyl alcohol, and leaves used in fancy restaurants and at home in teas (Flintoff).

Clothing Clean-UpIn today’s world people wash clothing articles to simply refresh them as much as they do to remove dirt and stains from them. Using a modern-

day detergent takes advantage of very little water and energy in a front-loading washing machine; doing laundry is as easy as dumping

the detergent in and pressing a button. However, even though there is a range of detergents available today, some have as many as 20 or

more chemical ingredients (Emsley).

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Clothing Clean-Up Cont.’d

Luckily laundry detergents have become much more environmentally friendly over the last century. For instance, one approach is to only use chemicals from sustainable resources (Emsley).

Another sustainable route is to provide traditional detergents in a concentrated form to save on packaging and transport. And finally, companies can provide detergents that clean clothes even in cold water to save energy (Emsley).

Dry CleaningWhen clothes cannot be cleaned at home, they are oftentimes taken to the dry-cleaners. However, the processes used to get clothes clean and the chemicals in these processes are unhealthy for both the workers, the customers, and the environment. The main culprit is the liquid solvent used most commonly for dry cleaning: perchloroethylene (perc) (Priebe).

http://www.cleangreenrevolution.com/

The Effects of PercPerc can be absorbed in many ways, such as:

inhalation, drinking water, prenatal exposure, breast milk, and contact with the skin. It causes minor health conditions, including irritation to the skin, eyes, and respiratory system, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, and fatigue. Long-term exposure, however, can lead to miscarriages, cancer, and neurological disorders (Priebe).

Luckily, there are alternatives to dry-cleaning clothes and, therefore, alternatives to Perc.

Alternatives to Dry-CleaningOne alternative to dry-cleaning

is simply wearing clothes longer. We could choose to only make a trip to the cleaners when clothes are soiled or smelly, and airing out the clothes after wearing them and treating the stains at home can also help.

Instead of going to the dry-cleaner’s, check the label of a garment before you buy it; if you stay away from clothing that needs to be dry-cleaned, you cut down on the need to do it (Priebe).

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More Alternatives to Dry-Cleaning

In order to avoid the cleaners, clothes could also be hand-washed at home, or put through the gentle/delicates cycle of the washing machine. Or, lightly steaming clothes is an easy way to help remove stains, odors, and wrinkles. And, if need be, at-home DIY dry-cleaning kits, although they contain chemicals, do not contain Perc (Priebe).

Disposal of Clothing

Fact: the average American throws out 68 pounds worth of clothing each year. The reason? Well, ever-changing fashion puts a pressure on the consumer to constantly go out and buy new clothing; this means that the old clothing has got to go somewhere, and that place is usually the trash. However, there are tons of alternatives to tossing out all of these textiles (Eisenberg).

Sustainable Clothing Disposal Unwanted clothes that have been kept in good shape can be sold to

consignment shops or online on websites such as eBay (Eisenberg).

Swapping clothing is free of charge, when performed among friends.

For a small fee, you can bring your clothes to a public swap and come home with a new wardrobe (Eisenberg).

***Donations

Resell

Swap

Sustainable Clothing for Kids

Children, in the course of their growth and development, go through a lot of clothing in not a lot of time. For this reason, many parents have a difficult choice to make: do they splurge on eco-savvy clothing for their kids or do they try to save a little bit of pocket change and opt for cheaper style options? Luckily, in today’s society they can have the best of both worlds.

Sustainable Kids’ Clothing: The Benefits

Organic fabrics like bamboo tend to be softer than traditional textiles (great for children!). Furthermore, there are fewer chemicals involved in the processing of sustainable fabrics (Kupka). And imagine: if you combined the idea of hand-me-downs with that of eco-friendly clothes, not only would you be saving money, but the environment as well.

http://www.greendeals.org/

Better than Disposing: RecyclingClothing, when it is not disposed of altogether, can find a second life through the process of recycling. One of the most well-known and widely spread forms of recycling clothing is donations. The Salvation Army offers the choice of either dropping off clothing donations at one of its locations or a convenient clothing pick-up, which can be scheduled online. And of course shoppers of the store locations can give old clothes a new home. And what’s more, the donated goods in these stores, clothes and the like, are what fund the charity’s Adult Rehabilitation Centers (Donate Goods).

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Goodwill’s Environmental Impact

For nearly 110 years, Goodwill has been preaching the “Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose” mantra. Every year, it saves more than 2 billions pounds of clothing from landfills and creates many job-training opportunities and skilled green-collar jobs for those in need of work (Environmental Impact).

“In 2010, Goodwill launched the Donate Movement, a corporate social responsibility platform and public awareness movement that focuses on the positive impact donating has on the people and planet” (Environmental Impact).

“In 2010, Goodwill Industries International signed a two-year green electricity purchase agreement with Constellation NewEnergy to supply renewable energy certificates (RECs) sourced from wind-renewable resources to offset 100-percent of its energy use” (Environmental Impact).

Plato’s ClosetPlato’s Closet accepts gently used and recently fashionable clothing and accessories. Buyers in the store will appraise your donations and offer you money for them (either in cash form or store credit). It is a hip alternative to the usual thrift store suspects, as it offers many mall clothing brands at up to 70% off the retail value (How it works…).

http://usagainblog.files.wordpress.com/

Soles4Souls

Soles4Souls is an organization that collects new shoes and gives them to relief victims; it also collects used shoes in order to support small-business efforts to end poverty (Soles4Souls).The organization’s founder and CEO, Wayne Elsey, was inspired by the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, and again in 2005 when Hurrican Katrina struck New Orleans. He even developed a mission statement: changing the world one pair [of shoes] at a time (Soles4Souls).

Green Soles“Last year alone, Americans discarded

more than 300 million pairs of shoes. When these shoes break down in our landfills, the toxic glue that holds the shoes together can leak into our water supply and atmosphere” (Soles4Souls).

Soles4Souls cleans your shoes and ships them to needy people around the world; since its inception, it’s handed out more than 17 millions pairs of shoes in 127 countries (Soles4Souls).

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Shoes

Good Marketing:The appeal of TOMS shoes is

very knight-in-shining-armor; people feel good about buying the product and believe that they are helping those in desperate need. The company raises awareness about the plight of not having shoes to wear (TOMS…).

Bad Aid:Instead of doing things with the

people of impoverished nations, TOMS shoes is doing thins for them. Unfortunately, there are many more ways to get shoes on the feet of the poor that are both better and cheaper. For instance, if the shoes in the program were actually made locally (instead of in China), local jobs would be created and would actually empower these nations and their peoples far longer than the lifetime of a pair of shoes (TOMS…).

http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/

Textile RecyclingFacilities that recover used textiles (like thrift stores) separate the overly worn or stained clothing. In 2009 alone, an estimated 1.3 million tons of clothing textiles was recovered for recycling in this fashion.The cotton textiles can be fashioned into rags or become an ingredient of high-quality paper. Knitted or woven wool and like materials are pulled apart into fibers and re-used in the textile industry as car insulation. Other textiles go on to become wiping cloths.Buttons and zippers are removed from the clothing and saved for reuse. The remaining materials from the recycling process can be composted (Textiles).

***You can crochet clothes from strips of old plastic bags; it acts like yarn (Stephenson).

Before & After

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/

http://www.menucoverman.com/

http://psdtohtmlguide.com/

http://www.carinsulation.com/

Consumer TrendsRecent data is suggesting a strong interest among the people in environmentally-sustainable apparel. In fact, according to the 2012 Styling Sustainability Survey, approximately 69% of people would consider sustainability when purchasing clothing in the year 2011. However, ¼ of the respondents did not even know where they could go to purchase eco-friendly clothing (Consumers…). Clothing stores need to advertise more for their sustainable threads. After all, when more people know about them, there is more of a demand and the price drops, which could mean that sustainability is an achievable goal in all of our futures.

Works Cited (MLA)• Baldwin, Peyton. "Why Organic Cotton Is Better." Mother Earth News. 3 June 2008. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.• Borkowski, Liz. "Sweatshop-Free Clothing." Green America. May-June 2006. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.• "Consumers Would Buy More Sustainable Clothing, If They Could Find It."Greenconduct.com. 10 Feb. 2012.

Web. 21 Mar. 2012. • "Donate Goods." Adult Rehabilitation Center. The Salvation Army, 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.• Eisenberg, Sheryl. "Clothes Disposal." National Resources Defense Council. Aug. 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.• Emsley, John. A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010. Print.• "Environmental Impact." Goodwill Industries International. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. • Flintoff, John-Paul. "Second Skin: Why Wearing Nettles Is the next Big Thing." The Ecologist. 20 Aug. 2009. Web.

21 Mar. 2012.• "How It Works at Plato's Closet." Plato's Closet. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. • Kupka, Sue. "Green Parenting: Sustainable Clothing for Kids." Going Green Today. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. • Priebe, Maryruth B. "Overview of Eco-Friendly Dry Cleaning." Ecolife: A Guide to Green Living. 2011. Web. 21

Mar. 2012. • Soles4Souls. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.• Stephenson, D.R. "Clothes Made From Recycled Items." Green Living on National Geographic. 2012. Web. 21

Mar. 2012. • "Textiles." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. • "TOMS Shoes: Good Marketing - Bad Aid." Good Intentions Are Not Enough. 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.• Cover Slide Image: http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4eBDJ-9Wn7FmvUdLXyyleCsVGm-

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