Textiles
Fabric
What have the fabrics we buy got to do with climate change?
Where was energy used?
Cotton
If it is cotton
Cotton
Producing fertilizers and pesticides
Using machines on the farm /plantation
Transporting
Processing into thread
Cotton
Weaving
Dyeing and making dyes
Transporting
Making clothes and other textile products
Transporting them
Synthetics
If it is a plastic based fabric
Synthetics
Processes to turn it into something such a polyester
Spinning into thread
Weaving
Dyeing and making dyes
Synthetics
Transporting
Making clothes and other textile products
Transporting them
Washing
There is energy used during the life of the garment. The washing machine, tumble dryer and iron all use heat which is produced by using electricity.
Washing
Washing machines usually heat the water up with electricity which is less efficient than gas so you can save about 40% of the energy used by washing at 30 instead of higher. Try it – they still come out clean.
Washing
Also, always wash a full load. Your family could also reduce the energy used in washing clothes by a third by getting a new energy efficient washing machine
Drying
Do you always use a tumble dryer even when it’s nice and dry outside? Wind and sun dry clothes really well.
Ironing
How can you cut down the amount of ironing you have to do?
Water
Are we taking other people’s water?
Cotton needs a lot of water to grow and its processing pollutes a lot of water.2700 litres of water are used to produce one cotton shirt
Water
Much of it is grown in places where rainfall is low and getting lower as a result of climate change. The Aral sea has shrunk in size largely as a result of water being used to irrigate cotton.
Aral Sea
1977
Aral Sea
1989
Aral Sea
2006
Water
Access to enough clean water is essential for people’s health.
Activities
Discussion
Overheard in a large, new High St clothes store in South Wales –
‘These t-shirts only cost £1.99. I’ll buy 3 and I won’t have to bother to wash them. I’ll just throw them away and buy some more next week.’
Discussion
In Britain the price of women’s clothing has fallen by a third in 10 years.
How can that happen?
What does it mean?
Who is losing out?
Activity
Look at a t-shirt or a pair of jeans
Go through with your group the lifecycle of the garment
The t-shirt is a shorter list of stages because the jeans have all sorts of extra ‘bits’
T-shirt
cotton fabric
dye
thread
labels
Jeans
denim (cotton)
dye
thread
zip
buttons / press studs