“Why washing your jeans can cost the Earth” was an article in today’s Guardian newspaper. It was reporting a study done in France about the environmental impact one pair of denims made, worn and washed over a four year lifespan.
It concluded that a French jeans wearer would damage the environment the least by buying denims made of cotton from a country not too far from Europe with strict anti-pollution laws. Machine washing, tumble drying, and ironing caused 47% of the eco damage the jeans caused - 240kWh of energy a year, equal to using 4,000 lightbulbs, each of 60 watts, for an hour. Dry cleaning was "an environmental disaster".
Another great set of thought-provoking challenges about how we act as faithful stewards of the planet… oh and another great excuse to shop at howies…
You live in your jeans. Sixteen hours a day. Yet most normal denim has so many chemical residues it's kinda scary. That's why we have introduced our new organic denim. But a low impact jean like this still has to be plenty strong. That's why our denim weighs in at a heavy 12 ounces and is woven in a 3x1 construction, making it a nice comfortable all season weight, but very tough. It is woven using ring spun yarns that are dyed with a similar indigo to the colour of vintage American jeans and then eco-ball washed. Little things can add up.
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