where did your trousers grow?

8/4/2019 Where did your trousers grow?

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Where did your trousers grow?

Textile production and eco-labelling o clothing



Trousers don’t grow on trees

Te abric in most trousers comes rom plants. Hal o ourclothing is made rom cotton, which is a plant.

Some abrics are made o a blend o cotton and articial bres, which are producedrom a type o so plastic. Te plastic is made rom oil. Nylon, acrylic and polyester areall examples o abrics made rom articial bres.

Linen comes rom the ax plant. It can be grown in Sweden, but today only linseed oilis made rom the ax grown here. Rayon abrics come rom trees. Tey are made rompaper pulp. Wool abrics are made rom sheep’s wool.

Cotton boll . Hal o all clothing is made rom cotton.

Cotton beore being cleaned and carded, and an alpaca in Peru. Alpaca wool is sot and fne, with long fbres.

CUT OFF

SEW ON NEW POCKETS



Prickles in your trousers?

Long ago, abric was made rom stinging nettles! Nettles have long, strong bres in theirstalks, which can be used to weave abric. Fortunately, the nettles’ small, stinging hairsare removed rom the abric.

When producing cotton, uy balls as big as eggs are collected rom the plants. Teuy part is actually seed hairs, which protect the plant’s seeds and help to spread themin the wind.

The long voyage of fabrics

Many people around the world work with the production o clothing and abrics. Temost commonly used natural cloth bre is cotton. Cotton is a plant grown in many countries. India, China and the USA grow the majority o the world’s cotton. But cottonis also an important product or many smaller and poorer countries, which export to

wealthier countries. Te cultivation o cotton alone provides employment or more than100 million people. Millions more work to handle cotton, produce yarn, weave yarn intoabrics, bleach, dye and sew abrics into clothing, towels, sheets and other textile goods.

To produce one kilo o cotton abric,roughly one kilo o chemicals and 350litres o water are needed rom fbre toabric!

Cotton is:• grown and harvested• carded and spun into yarn• woven into abric or knitted• bleached, cleaned, dyed and printed•

sewn, transported and sold

TURN TWO

INTO ONE



Tere are many diferent stages in textile manuacturing that requirewater and chemicals. Fibres and abrics are cleaned several times.Dierent chemicals are added to help retain colours and dyes. Cot

ton is the abric that causes the most environmental problems.Te path rom a eld o cotton to a pair o trousers sold in Sweden is a long journey with many stops along the way – and many hazardous chemicals ollow in its tracks.

A story of water systems

Until the middle o the 1900s, almost all o our clothing was produced in actories inSweden. When abrics were dyed, their colours could be seen in the water o the streamsand rivers surrounding the textile actories where our clothing, sheets and towels wereproduced.

Tis production has now been moved abroad, where it is cheaper to run actories.Workers earn less money there, and the work is difcult and oen dangerous to theirhealth. Unlike wealthier countries such as Sweden, these countries have ewer regula-tions regarding protective equipment, working standards and waste treatment. Alongwith the actories, the environmental problems have moved abroad, too.We get cheaper clothing, but poor cotton armers and actory workers pay a high pricethrough environmental destruction and health problems.

The manuacturing o abrics and clothing aects the environment. The photo to the lower right shows a riverbed inIndia, where many textile actories are located. The dyeing o abrics can destroy the groundwater i waste watergoes untreated.

R E U S E M O M ́S

O L D S T O C K I N

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C A P



Fertilized and sprayed

Because we buy more and more abrics and clothing every year, more land or growingcotton is also needed. Increasingly, people are starting to grow in areas where the soil isactually too poor or dry or cotton plantations. In these places, extra water and ertili-zers are needed. Oen, articial ertilizers are used.

A lot o energy is used to produce articial ertilizers,

which can also contain hazardous substances that remainin the soil. Even more energy is used to run machines at

the plantations, in actories, and or the transport o abrics and clothing around the world.

Insects and diseases spread easily in large planta-tions with only a single kind o plant. Tis is why

such large amounts o chemicals are used. Te planta-tions are oen sprayed by workers without protectiveequipment. Tey inhale hazardous substances and get

chemicals on their hands and bodies while working.

A cotton plantation in India is sprayed with insect-killing chemicals. M I X P A I R S O F S O C K S

C U T O F F A R M

S,

M O V E T H E H

O O D



Eco-labels you can trust

Organic cotton is widely available. It is grown without chemical pesticides or articialertilizers, most oen along with other plants on smaller plantations. Certain types o cotton have a naturally unique colour, so the abric doesn’t even need to be dyed. Cotton

that is grown organically can be marked with an eco-label. Te label can also mean thatthe product has been produced in an environmentally riendly actory. Tese are themost common eco-labels or textile goods:

What can you do?

• Ask for eco-labelled clothing and

textile products when you shop.

• Buy eco-labelled products.

• Buy less clothing and trade withriends. Sew and reuse your clothes.

• Buy second-hand clothing.

• Take good care of your clothes, andrepair them when they get worn out.

• Don’t do laundry unnecessarily.Remove spots and stains when pos-sible.

• Choose eco-labelled laundry deter-

gent, use smaller doses, and ll thelaundry machine completely.

• Don’t do laundry at unnecessarily high temperatures – 40 degrees is usu-ally enough.

C U T A N E W N

E C K L I N E.

S E W O N N E W

W R I S T L E T S

P R I N T A N E W P A T T E R N .



What does the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation do?

Te Swedish Society or Nature Conservation works to ensure that companies who importcotton and other textile goods to Sweden place demands on cultivation and manuacturingin order to guarantee that the environments within and outside actories are avourable toboth people and nature.

We have our own eco-label, Bra Miljöval, which certies that the textile has been manu-actured in way that is as environmentally riendly as possible. Eco-labels help everyonechoose the right products to purchase.

We collaborate with organisations in the countries where many products are grown andmanuactured. Tey help us to identiy local challenges and gather inormation, which wethen can spread to companies, adults, and children in Sweden. We suggest solutions thatare better or people and nature. We aim to prove that everyone can help by contributing to

eorts towards a better environment.

This pile contains 24kilos o clothing.

• On average, each per-son in Swedenpurchases 24 kilos o clothing and textileproducts every year.

• 10 years ago, wepurchased 15 kilos perperson.

Children o organic cotton armers in Peru.



Produced with economic support from Sida. Sida has not participated in the production of the publication and has not evaluated the

facts or opinions that are expressed.

Illustrations: Eva-Lena Neiman/Natursk yddsföreningen.Photos: Kentaroo Tryman (cover), Emelie Envall, Jeorg Boethling/StillPictures. Pauli Kuitunen/LO-TCO Biståndsnämnd,Curt Carnemark/World Bank, Birgitta Nilsson, Jessica Andréason/Natursky ddsföreningen, Matthew Chadwick, Sara Örberg Huss/Natursk yddföreningen.

N a t u r s

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f ö r e n i n g e n 2 0 0 9 .

How much do you know about cotton, trousers,and eco-labels?

01. Which materials can be used to make abrics?

02. Which is the most common abric in our clothing?

03. Why is most clothing now produced in countries other than Sweden?

04. Why do people need to use extra water and ertilizers in order togrow cotton?

05. Why are abrics and clothing eco-labelled?

06. What amount o chemicals is necessary to produce one kilo o abric

rom cotton fbres?07. How many people in the world work in cotton arming?

08. What can be done to improve the health o people who work intextile actories?

09. What is the name o our eco-label?

10. What can you do to reduce the environmental eects o clothing and abrics?

Were there any questions you were unable to answer?

All answers can be found in this brochure. Good luck!

You can fnd eco-labelled clothing and textile products at: www.naturskyddsoreningen.se/ekotextil

Naturskyddsöreningen. Box 4625, 11691 Stockholm.Phone + 46 8 702 65 00. [email protected]

The Swedish Society or Nature Conservation is an environ-mental organisation with power to bring about change. Wespread knowledge, map environmental threats, create solutions, and infuence politicians and public authorities, at both national and international levels. Moreover, we are behind one o the world’s most challenging ecolabellings.

“Bra Miljöval”(Good Environmental Choice). Climate, the oceans, orests, environmental toxins, and agriculture are our main areas o involvement.

www.naturskyddsoreningen.se

where did your trousers grow?

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