Cotton accounts for 40 percent of all textile products made each year and carries a heavy water footprint. It’s a fiber we haven’t yet been able to replace. There’s quite a bit of talk about organic cotton, but that’s far from being widely available, much less affordable. And the fact is, organic cotton still uses quite a bit of water for growing and just as much water as conventional cotton for production.

We thought it was worthwhile to take a look at just how much water it takes to produce this season’s fashionable jeans and the rest of the cotton textiles consumed each year.

The best study on the water footprint of cotton consumption we’ve found was conducted in 2005 by the UNESCO Institute for Water Education [download the report as a pdf]. The researchers take a look at the entire lifecycle of cotton and make very interesting points. We wanted to share some of them with you:

1. The Aral Sea lost 80 percent of it’s volume due to water being diverted for cotton upstream.
2. Nearly 70 percent of the all cotton is grown in China (25 percent), USA (17.8 percent), India (10.2 percent), Pakistan (9.5 percent), and Uzbekistan (6.1 percent).
3. Cotton crops in China rely completely on irrigation–severely depleting and polluting fresh water supplies.
4. Cotton is planted on 2.4 percent of the planet’s arable land, but accounts for 24 percent of all insecticides and 11 percent of global pesticides.
5. While 60 percent of the nitrogen applied to cotton fields is removed via harvested seed cotton, 40 percent of it remains behind, mostly in the local fresh water supply.
6. 2.6 percent of the global water footprint is used to grow and process cotton each year.
7. 44 percent of the water used for growing and processing cotton is exported.

What does this all mean to you and me? Well, it means that, with the movement of the cotton around the world, the people who bear the brunt of the water consumption are not benefiting from the products. And you don’t need a study to tell you that the cotton jeans you just bought for $38.95 at the GAP didn’t account for the costs to process the contaminated water downstream or for communities to find new sources of fresh water.

It’s likely that one day we will have to pay for the entire water footprint of that pair of jeans or cotton sheets. We sure hope that by then, we’ve found a sustainable substitute for cotton.

photo credit: Martin Labar / flickr

Hopefully you recall our story last fall about the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) taking action against four retailers for falsely advertising their garments as bamboo. After the FTC had litigated several specific cases, they decided everyone must stop the deception.

In late January, 78 retailers received notice from the FTC to immediately cease labeling any clothing or other textiles, such as sheets or towels, as bamboo. Why? Because the fiber is actually rayon and no different than rayon made with other cellulose sources, such as wood pulp.

Who were some of these companies sited for selling mislabeled products? They range from little retailers such as Bambooya, to big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target, to high-end establishments such as Nordstrom and Barney’s New York. Even Zappos and Amazon.com received notice. You can download the full list from the FTC.

So what does the FTC want companies to do? Easy, label the garments and textiles for what they are. Here’s an excerpt from the letter sent to the retailers:

The term ‘bamboo,’ therefore, may be used in labeling or advertising a textile product (e.g., ‘bamboo shirt’) only to describe textile fibers taken directly from the bamboo plant without the type of chemical processing necessary to make rayon. Rayon, even if manufactured using cellulose from bamboo, must be described by an appropriate term recognized under the FTC Textile Rules. If rayon is manufactured using bamboo as the cellulose source, then you also may include that information in the textile label, for example, by describing the fiber as ‘rayon made from bamboo.’

As a team who’s trying to help bring sustainable practices to the textile industry, we’re pleased that the truth about bamboo is being discussed and it’s eco-friendly image is tarnished. There’s no dispute that bamboo is a great resource for the wood products like flooring or cutting boards. But the expensive, toxic, and wasteful process needed to take course bamboo and make it into a soft fabric is anything but good for the planet.

So, you can help, first, don’t buy bamboo rayon products. Or any kind of rayon product, not only is the process toxic, rayon is not very durable and requires dry cleaning (a topic for another post!). And if you happen to see a retailer claiming their product as bamboo, the FTC would like to know about it. You can report the company online or by phone. 1-877-382-4357. Companies found mislabeling their products face a $16,000 fine per violation.

photo credit: MikeLowe / Flickr

Mass-market retailer H&M made the news last weekend when the New York Times reported that the 34th Street H&M store threw away clothing that went unsold. But they don’t just throw it in the trash, which was bad enough; employees were slashing the garments to make them unwearable. Between the massive amounts of waste and the fact that these perfectly good items could be recycled make this entire practice shameful.

As a result of the article, H&M quickly came out and said that they would stop mutilating and throwing away unsold items at the New York store. The store said their policy is to donate the clothing to charity.

affordable sustainability

With all the news about the slashed clothing, not much attention was paid to another bit of H&M news. Last week they announced that with their spring line they would introduce items made from sustainable fabrics. The company’s new eco-friendly Garden Collection will have dresses, shirts, and other offerings made from organic cotton or linen, recycled plastic bottles and Tencel.

Clothing made from sustainable fabrics is often quite expensive, but H&M’s Garden Collection is keeping in line with the store’s “affordable fashion” pricing. The most expensive item are two spring dresses that go for $49.95. Many of the items are under $20.00. For example, the tunic above is only $14.95.

We think this is a great start–a major retailer offering eco-friendly fashion for a great price. Of course, we’d like to see H&M review the entire life cycle of their clothing to ensure they are only making as many garments as will sell, implementing water- and energy-saving processes, and then properly managing unsold inventory to ensure it’s reused or recycled.

While we’re at it, the entire fashion industry should consider their sustainability practices.  And as consumers, we must vote with our checkbook and buy from retailers who are making an effort to create a more sustainable world.

Will you buy any of H&M’s Garden Collection?

photo credit: h&m

Since the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged four companies last month with deceptive labeling and advertising, there has been quite a bit of attention paid to so-called “eco-friendly” bamboo fabrics. We just came across a new article from the AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorist) that clearly lays out how the fabric we see in stores and online is far from “green.”

Natural bamboo stalk that’s been separated into fibers is a course fabric, similar to linen. But the soft garments offered are not made that way. The truth is that the bamboo’s cellulose is used to create rayon. And that is what is being sold to us, often with the label of “organic bamboo.” You may wonder if the rayon is still bamboo? As a matter of fact, tests do not show any differences between rayon made from bamboo and other types of plants once they’ve been processed.

On top of that, does this sound like an eco-friendly product to you…?

Strong chemicals are used to break down the cellulose. After the polymer forms, the chemicals need to be removed by multiple washes. Like most industrial manufacturing, the process requires high water and energy use, and produces air and water pollution.

Naturally, we doubt this will be the last word and we’ll probably hear from proponents that the FTC has it all wrong. But, the facts are clear to us. Bamboo rayon is marketing greenwash and not an eco-friendly product.

What do you think about bamboo in light of these facts?

While there are seemingly endless choices for sustainable fabrics, from organic cotton to bamboo to hemp, recycled PET is arguably the most sustainable—but may be the most misunderstood as well. Today’s glossary entry is dedicated to giving this rising star its due and clarifying misconceptions about the process from bottle to your closet.

Most plastic bottles we consume are made from a material called PET (polyethylene terephthalate). You likely have several iterations of PET in your home now: from water and soda bottles to detergent containers. In fact, any bottle marked “1” for recycling is PET, making it the most recycled plastic in the world.

Given the abundance and cost effectiveness of raw materials, using recycled PET for clothing is becoming increasingly popular in the green textile industry. But how do old bottles become clothing? The process is relatively simple: Once a PET bottle is recycled, it’s sent to a processing plant where it’s washed and shredded into flakes. The cleaned flakes are melted down and shaped into long, thin fibers. The fiber is then spun into yarn. The end product is 100 percent recycled polyester. By using recycled polyester instead of new petroleum, energy consumption is reduced by 60 percent, without causing additional harm to the environment.

No other fabric in the world is produced with less environmental impact.

Recycled polyester can be manufactured into a myriad of different fabrics, but because of its antimicrobial properties, wicking power, and breathability, recycled PET is most often made into active wear or t-shirts. Patagonia and Nau are leading the charge in recycled PET active wear. Our friends at A Lot to Say proudly adopted recycled PET for their all of t-shirts, and added AirDye to the process to further reduce their environmental impact.

photo credit: holeymoon/flickr