Clothes & Shoes
Looking good without costing the earth
Clothing
How do most of us buy clothes at the moment? Do we look for items which are cool yet cheap? Will we go for the some Boohoo magic? In general, the majority of our attire is probably (and quite naturally) a ‘fashion choice’ – which most often means that they are short-life, single season outfits. Whilst they may be ‘cheap’ for us, they are far from inexpensive in terms of the environmental and human toll.
Being more eco-friendly with our clothing choices is not always as straightforward as we might first imagine. For instance, although natural fibres should (on paper) be more sustainable, things are not necessarily quite so unambiguous – that’s why we’re here to help you! So, let’s take a look at the problems, and then some possible solutions to help us.
The majority of the bargain basement gear (and even some of the less ethical yet more expensive stuff) is made in the poorer areas of the world, where wages are low, working conditions are bad and consideration for the planet is nowhere to be found on the priority list. We don’t normally consider the impact of garment manufacture on the planet, yet it’s almost certain to be way higher than we imagine. Let’s take a pair of jeans for example…
They are made from cotton, so we probably think that, as a natural product, it’s automatically environmentally sound. Sadly, the converse is usually true – cotton is known as a dirty crop due to the massive amount of pesticide use – despite accounting for only around 2.5% of global land use, it accounts for over 6% of overall pesticide consumption. As ‘pests’ become resistant, farmers end up spraying more frequently and the already heavy toll on the local ecology worsens. But that is just the first part of the ‘cotton problem’….
Making that new pair of jeans will have cost about 4,000 litres of water and released over 13kg CO2, not to mention all the dyes and bleaches used to colour (and then fade!) them. Whilst the average T-shirt may only require about 1/5 of that (a mere 800 litres of water!!), we need to remember that we buy far more of them.
Sustainable fashion choices for a better future
Perhaps you might usually consider buying items made from wool, mohair, angora, cashmere or silk, etc. because they are ‘natural’ fibres. On the face of it, this may appear to be a better choice than synthetics, because it’s ‘natural’ and biodegrades nicely and isn’t plastic – however it is not necessarily quite so clear cut….
“Like all animal derived products, there is a definite (and often sizeable) environmental price to be paid, and one which is effectively underestimated or even hidden.”
The creatures from whom these materials are taken from all need to be bred, reared, fed and watered; even those which spend most of their time grazing receive supplementary feed, much of which comes from crops such as corn, wheat, barley, oats and soya. Just like cows, they belch methane, which is around 80 times more potent than CO2 in terms of global warming. In countries like Australia, the introduction of vast herds of sheep saw the destruction of masses of indigenous flora and fauna.
Some will argue that (in places like England and Wales) the land used for sheep grazing couldn’t be used for anything else. By this they mean large scale cropping. However, there are in fact a variety of other uses that the land could be put to, especially with grants and support to generate the change. Sheep farmers already receive grants, without which their operations would cease to be viable, so why not pay them to rewild and look after the land? They could incorporate leisure facilities and activities for tourists – areas like the Lake District are perfect for this kind of project. But I digress…. The bottom line is that from an ecological standpoint, these “natural” fibres are nowhere near the best option.
The sheep, alpacas, rabbits and other animals involved are not kept on until they die naturally – that is simply uneconomical. They all await the same fate; after they’ve had their hair/fur removed enough times, they stop growing it in sufficient quantity and/or quality and are no longer viewed as being ‘productive’. At this point they are shipped off to be killed for their flesh and perhaps their skin. Aside from the welfare side of the discussion (for the animals and the workers), the slaughter process has its own environmental consequences.
“You might think that Angora is gently combed from the rabbits, but in most factories, the fur is simply ripped from the their backs – it’s no surprise then, that they scream in pain.”
Lastly, we need to consider how the yarn is obtained from the animals concerned. Each one has its issues. Shearing may seem harmless, like getting your hair cut, but for the shearers, more fleeces means more money; the concomitant increased speed and lack of compassion results in very high injury rates. You might think that Angora is gently combed from the rabbits, but in most factories, the fur is simply ripped from the their backs – it’s no surprise then, that they scream in pain. This process is repeated many times during their miserable existences. For a real appreciation of just how these ‘natural’ materials are obtained, take a look here:
As with most things, the cheaper the garment, the shorter the lifespan; it may simply wear out faster, or it could be that, being so cheap, you just throw them away after only a few months. Either way, that’s a massive dent in our planet’s future. So, how can we become more earth-savvy with our clothing?
Clearly, buying new clothes produced using man-made fibres is resource-intensive and mainly carbon-heavy, due to the reliance on crude oil as the raw material source. The kind of materials we might want to avoid therefore are:
nylon, polyester, tercel, dacron, terylene, acrilan, courtelle, nomex and kevlar, to name just a few.
Of course, clothes made from recycled synthetics, or second hand items are a different game.
Although it may appear to be a big ask, perhaps the first step is to purchase from more eco-friendly and sustainable brands. Whilst the items may initially be more expensive, with a little care, they can last for many years and thus in the end, save you money; cost per wear, as we like to say! You might argue that you don’t have the money for the more expensive stuff, there are some simple ways to help; there are often interest-free monthly payment options, which could bring the better quality items within reach.
Alternatively, you could open a savings account or an ISA (not instant access!!) and put a small amount aside each month. Before you know it, there’s more than enough to get something which before, you could only wish for – this is a technique that has worked for us. Another good option may be to keep an eye on the ‘pre-loved’ websites and grab a bargain. Here’s some which have fared well in recent reviews:
Vinted • Depop • eBay • Facebook Marketplace • ASOS Marketplace • Thrift Plus • Shpock • Rokit
If you’re buying new, then a good place to start is stuff made in your home country – in our case, the UK. For children’s clothes:
Kite Clothing
“The earth is not ours, we are just renting it from our children!”
As always, the less new clothing we buy, the smaller our footprint and thus the more assured we are of handing the planet to the next generation in good order; after all, the earth is not ours, we are just renting it from our children!
If you would like to explore this topic further, a great place to increase our awareness is:
Consider the full lifecycle of your footwear
Footware
The issues here are to a fair degree mirror those for clothing, although most of us tend to keep our shoes for quite a bit longer. The main problems are in the areas of human costs and the environmental footprint. Ironically, the natural material which is used in the majority of shoes (i.e. leather) actually has a greater environmental cost than the synthetic alternatives. I’m sure that many of you reading this, maybe even the majority of you, will find this hard to believe, but a lifecycle analysis of the most common construction materials revealed that leather is worse for the fate of the planet than most faux leather materials. Although the bulk of PU leather is derived from petrochemicals, the overall environmental impact appears to be lower than bovine leather. Also, the percentage of PU produced from non-fossil feedstock sources is increasing rapidly.
“The leather industry always refers to its product as ‘natural’ and ‘biodegradable’, ‘renewable’ and quite disingenuously as a ‘food industry by-product’….”
The leather industry always refers to its product as ‘natural’ and ‘biodegradable’, ‘renewable’ and quite disingenuously as a ‘food industry by-product’…. If we take the last point first, this is simply not true. There is an entire sector of the ‘cow raising’ industry, whose sole purpose is to produce animals for their skins – it is the meat which is the by-product!
When reading industry website information about the tanning process and toxic chemicals, notice the examples they use – European operations, with tightly regulated safety and effluent standards and high employment standards. So, what about the thousands of tons of hides which are processed in unregulated tanneries in countries like India, Bangladesh and even Brazil? Here, the workers are directly exposed to the cocktail of toxic chemicals used. These reagents (most particularly Chromium salts) flow, like a heavy metal soup, unchecked into surrounding waterways. Yet these very rivers are the main/only water resource for the locals; they use it for washing, for laundry and even for cooking and drinking. Little wonder then, that the rates of skin conditions, cancer and other diseases are always high in these areas.
Perhaps the term ‘renewable’ when referring to leather also requires some mendacity on the part of the leather industry. The environmental footprint underlying the raising of cattle seems to be either overlooked or severely underplayed. Whether for beef or for skin, cows consume more food and more water and produce more CO2 equivalent tons than any other farmed animal. Simply rearing a cow costs nearly 4 tonnes of CO2, not to mention the thousands of litres of water and the damage from the thousands of tons of faeces and urine entering the ecosystem.
We might imagine that leather, being skin, would rot fairly fast – but, for various reasons, it doesn’t. The industry quotes figures between ten and fifty years for an item to degrade, but that may not be entirely accurate. Consider for a moment the number of leather items, such as shoes and pouches/bags discovered after hundreds of years. Also think of the amount of chromium and other pollutants which leach into the earth (and thence the groundwater) annually from the billions of discarded shoes.
Finally, no account is taken of the welfare aspect of taking the skin of an animal which has no inherent desire to die. I have reviewed several of these considerations in Chapter 6 of “The Rainbow Cure”.
Ultimately, whatever you choose as the material for your shoes, as with clothes, the most environmentally sound solution is to buy better quality (or preloved) and keep them for longer — get them resoled or repaired and enjoy your favourite pair that little bit more!