The Environmental Impact of a T-shirt
Environmental efforts and sustainability have been two large trends of the 21st century as scientists realize our levels of consumption and patterns of growth are causing extreme environmental damage. Many of the environmental analysis that occur center around carbon emissions, climate change, etc. The environmental impact of more everyday items and consumption patterns slips away as many continue to focus on solving the larger scale issues. As sustainability scientists, we have learned that this narrow mindset is actually exacerbating problems because by only focusing on the big environmental problems, you are not looking beneath the surface to analyze true causes of mass-scale environmental damage.
One huge contributor to environmental issue that is often ignored or not thought of is the fashion industry. The fashion industry, while often not thought of as such, is a huge contributor to many environmental issues. As Rinaldi (2015) notes, there are five factors of the apparel industry which greatly contribute to its negative environmental impacts—textiles, production, retail, use and disposal, and transport.
Fabrics and Textiles:
The different fabrics and textiles used to produce clothing have many environmental consequences. These environmental impacts include water usage, energy consumption, the use of non-renewables, and harmful air and water emissions. For example, Polyester uses enormous amounts of energy and also emits chemicals into the air (Fletcher 2014). The byproducts of polyester also are often emitted into the wastewater from plants and pollute local waterways (Claudio 2007). Nylon, another common fabric used for clothing production, produces even more energy than polyester, uses raw materials, and produces nitrous oxide emissions (Fletcher 2014).
While polyester and nylon are important fabrics for the clothing industry, the most commonly used fabric worldwide is cotton. In 2010 alone, 25 million tons of cotton were produced worldwide, and the cultivation of cotton makes up 80% of the global production of natural fibers (Fletcher 2014; Rinaldi 2015). Cotton is one of the largest consumers of pesticides and fertilizers, which both lead to air emissions and water pollution (Rinaldi 2015; Zhang 2015). Additionally, cotton is a major contributor to the water use problem because it uses up to 3,800 liters per kilogram of cotton produced (Fletcher 2014).
The other four steps of the apparel process also contribute greatly to its environmental issues. Dyeing and bleaching are both chemical heavy and produce large amounts of wastewater which is often discharged into local waterways (Anguelov 2016; Zhang 2015). Additionally, the dyeing process requires large amounts of water, energy, and chemicals (Fletcher 2014). Retail of the clothing produces a lot of waste, especially in the packaging, construction, and refitting parts (Rinaldi 2015). The simple disposal of clothing also contributes largely to the environmental impact of the clothing industry. In the U.S. alone, around 9.3 million tons of textiles and clothing, 40% of which is deemed reusable, is discarded annually (Fletcher 2014). Of this discarded clothing, most goes to landfills where it further contributes to methane emissions and groundwater pollution (Fletcher 2014). Finally, the transportation of clothing results in carbon dioxide emissions and pollution (Rinaldi 2015). Fashion factories are often remotely located, so transportation of the good relies heavily on trucks, boats, and planes.
How T-shirts contribute to the overall environmental impact of the clothing industry…
Within there the larger clothing industry, each clothing item contributes its own environmental impacts. T-shirts have a substantial environmental impact due to the fabric they’re made of, their production, and their usage and disposal. Cotton seems to be the dominant fabric for T-shirt production, and as mentioned, cotton contributes greatly to the environmental impact of clothing. It requires fertilizers, pesticides, water, and energy to cultivate.
In their study on the life cycle of a t-shirt, Zhang et al (2015) concluded that there are 3 main phases of a cotton T-shirt’s life cycle that contribute the most to its environmental impact—cotton cultivation, textiles manufacturing, and distribution and consumer use. The cotton cultivation and fiber production require energy, irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides. Zhang et al estimates that cotton cultivation contributes 80% of the t-shirt’s water requirements. Manufacturing the textiles requires large amount of energy, chemicals, and water. Finally, distributing the T-shirts and using them requires electricity, detergent, and water, and it produces a great deal of waste. As mentioned above, dyeing is an environmentally-taxing part of the production process, and dying T-shirts consumes large amounts of coal, steam, water, and dyes. It also produces SO2 and nitrous oxide emissions and wastewater. Wearing and washing the t-shirts also requires water and electricity as well. Finally, characteristic of the clothing industry, many t-shirts each year are disposed of and turned into waste.