Fashion and Water

That must-have T-shirt you love costs more than you think.

Most of us are aware we should save resources by using cloth grocery bags instead of plastic or paper. That we should buy foods produced locally to reduce the carbon footprint connected to long-distance transportation. That we should drive cars with excellent gas mileage. But I’m guessing few of us look at our closet and think we can make fashion decisions that conserve resources. We can and we should.

First, the should.

Cotton makes up about one-third of the fibers in textiles. Think towels and jeans. Think corduroy and seersucker. Think blended fabrics, like linen, rayon, and even polyester. Think socks, underwear, T-shirts, sheets. Cotton is everywhere…..everywhere there is water.

It takes over 713 gallons of water to make one cotton shirt—about the same amount of water to fill a pool 10’ x 5’ x 2’.

Remember, we’re talking about one cotton shirt.  Multiply that by the number of cotton garments in your wardrobe and you begin to get a sense of the environmental impact of cotton fiber.

One example of its environmental impact is the Aral Sea, a fresh water lake in Central Asia. Cotton farmers in the region irrigate the plants with water from the two rivers that flow into the lake. The impact? Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea is now 10% of its size in the 1970s. People living in the surrounding communities have lost livelihoods and food sources. The face of the whole region has changed, and not for the better. Cotton grown in the far West and parts of Texas face similar threats.

What you can you do?

• Treat your cotton garments so they last longer: Wash them less often. Dry them in the air, not the dryer.
• Buy fewer cotton garments. (How many t-shirts does a person need?)
• Look for garments made from fibers such as flax, bamboo, and linen instead of cotton.
• Use your purchasing power to support manufacturers that have signed the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2017, Global Fashion Agenda, which is a circular or regenerative fashion system in which clothing is recycled in a variety of ways. Some of the signatories are listed here.

adidas          dk company             Eileen Fisher            Guess

H&M             Hugo Boss                Lacoste                       Tommy Hilfiger

Stella McCartney and Leanne Marshall are among the designers committed to the sustainability of their creations.

As consumers, we have a role in nudging the fashion industry toward a sustainable future. Let’s embrace it.