Product Range Distribution: Life Cycle of a T Shirt

The lifecycle of a cotton T shirt

There are 5 main stages in a T shirts life: material, production, shipping, use and disposal. 

The lifecycle of a T shirt begins with materials. This stage involves multiple processes  - farming, irrigating, fertilizing, harvesting and ginning.

China, India and the US are the three largest producers of cotton in the world, and the US is the world’s largest exporter of cotton. Commercial cotton farming uses an immense amount of water, and the use of pesticides is rampant across the globe, especially when it comes to cotton farming. According to the EPA, studies have shown that farmers spend an average of $4.1 billion on pesticides annually. Furthermore, 25% of all pesticides used in the United States are used on cotton crops. - (source)

Even before the T shirt is made, the materials used to create it are taking a toll on the environment. To make one cotton T shirt, 2700 litres of water are used, or 3 years worth of drinking water. Cotton farms take up only 2.4% of the worlds cropland but the amount of chemicals used to farm wash into ecosystems and affect developing countries. So not only does the fashion industry consume excessive water, but also pollutes existing water sources using toxic chemicals.

The Aral Sea in central Asia used to be 4th largest lake in the world, but due to unsustainable cotton farming, the lake has shrunk to just 10% of its size. Below shows the shrinking of the lake from 1977 - 2013, and you can see the lake is almost all depleted. Also the communities that depended on it have suffered losses to their livelihoods, as most fish and food sources have disappeared as a result. It is covered in carcinogenic dust, from this unsustainable farming and excessive use of toxic chemicals.

The production phase is not much better - spinning, knitting, wet process, bleaching, dyeing, confection, cutting and sewing. These processes use up vast amounts of energy and water. The dyes and bleaches especially can be toxic and pollute groundwater - further adding to the already wasteful water use in the farming stage. 

It’s estimated that around 20% of industrial water pollution in the world comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles, and about 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used to turn raw materials into textiles. It’s estimated that a single mill can use 200 tons of fresh water per ton of dyed fabric. - (source)

Transportation is the next stage in a T shirts life cycle. Many clothes are produced in China and India and so need to be shipped and distributed overseas using planes, ships, etc. This inevitably produces CO2 emissions, and uses up fossil fuels and increases pollution. 

When in retail, the T shirt seems harmless enough, but once the T shirt is bought and in use, the amount of water needed to wash the T shirt as well as energy to dry it, the environmental impact is still ongoing. The average American household does 400 wash loads per year and with each wash using 40 gallons of water on average, again the water use adds up.

Disposal is the final stage of a T shirts life. Once the consumer has had enough of the T shirt it is disposed. This can be via incineration (again producing harmful emissions), or in landfill. Just 15% of clothing in the US is recycled meaning 85% of clothing is left to rot in landfill - cotton takes years to degrade.

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Researching into the life cycle of just 1 cotton T shirt was shocking, especially in terms of the water usage. Discovering that just 1 cotton T shirt's water consumption is 2700 litres shows how bad the fashion industry is for the environment. Also the amount of chemicals used (insecticides, pesticides, bleaches, dyes) and the resulting pollution on the surrounding environment is abysmal. 

Ways to reduce the environmental impact 
- buying organically produced cotton products counteracts the chemical effect on the environment, however the water use is still excessive.
- extending the lifecycle of garments (especially cotton garments) by nine months. This can reduce the water footprint of clothing by about 5-10%

Even more shocking is the fact that cotton is a fairly natural material and other synthetic materials are even more damaging to the environment. 

Polyester is one of the world’s most common fibres and it uses the same material found in plastic bottles. But when we wash our polyester clothes, thousands of microplastic fibres are washed into the waterways. In fact, it’s estimated that a single polyester garment releases 1,9000 individual plastic microfibers. And guess where these microfibers end up? In our oceans where they threaten ecosystems and end up in our food chain. - (source)