The life cycle of a T-shirt _Angel Chang
VIDEOSCRIPT:
Consider the classic white t-shirt. Annually, we sell and buy two billion t-shirts globally, making it one of the most common garments in the world. But how and where is the average t-shirt made, and what’s its environmental impact?
Clothing items can vary a lot, but a typical t-shirt begins its life on a farm in America, China, or India, where cotton seeds are sown, irrigated, and grown for the fluffy bolls they produce. Self-driving machines carefully harvest these puffs. An industrial cotton gin mechanically separates the fluffy bolls from the seeds, and the cotton lint is pressed into 225-kilogram bales.
The cotton plants require a huge quantity of water and pesticides. 2,700 liters of water are needed to produce the average t-shirt, enough to fill more than 30 bathtubs. Meanwhile, cotton uses more insecticides and pesticides than any other crop in the world. These pollutants can be carcinogenic, harm the health of field workers, and damage surrounding ecosystems.
Some t-shirts are made of organic cotton grown without pesticides and insecticides, but organic cotton makes up less than 1% of the 22.7 million metric tons of cotton produced worldwide. Once the cotton bales leave the farm, textile mills ship them to a spinning facility, usually in China or India, where high-tech machines blend, card, comb, pull, stretch, and, finally, twist the cotton into snowy ropes of yarn called slivers.
Then, yarns are sent to the mill, where huge circular knitting machines weave them into sheets of rough grayish fabric treated with heat and chemicals until they turn soft and white. Here, the fabric is dipped into commercial bleaches and azo dyes, which make up the vivid coloring in about 70% of textiles. Unfortunately, some of these contain cancer-causing cadmium, lead, chromium, and mercury. Other harmful compounds and chemicals can cause widespread contamination when released as toxic wastewater in rivers and oceans.
Technologies are now so advanced in some countries that the entire process of growing and producing fabric barely touches a human hand. But only up until this point. After the finished cloth travels to factories, often in Bangladesh, China, India, or Turkey, human labor is still required to stitch them into t-shirts—intricate work that machines just can’t do.
This process has its own problems. Bangladesh, for example, which has surpassed China as the world’s biggest exporter of cotton t-shirts, employs 4.5 million people in the t-shirt industry, but they typically face poor conditions and low wages. After manufacture, all those t-shirts travel by ship, train, and truck to be sold in high-income countries, a process that gives cotton an enormous carbon footprint.
Some countries produce their own clothing domestically, which cuts out this polluting stage, but generally, apparel production accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. And it’s escalating. Cheaper garments and the public’s willingness to buy boosted global production from 1994 to 2014 by 400% to around 80 billion garments each year.
Finally, in a consumer’s home, the t-shirt goes through one of the most resource-intensive phases of its lifetime. In America, for instance, the average household does nearly 400 loads of laundry per year, each using about 40 gallons of water. Washing machines and dryers both use energy, with dryers requiring five to six times more than washers.
This dramatic shift in clothing consumption over the last 20 years, driven by large corporations and the trend of fast fashion, has cost the environment, the health of farmers, and driven questionable human labor practices. It’s also turned fashion into the second-largest polluter in the world after oil.
But there are things we can do. Consider shopping secondhand. Try to look for textiles made from recycled or organic fabrics. Wash clothes less and line dry to save resources. Instead of throwing them away at the end of their life, donate, recycle, or reuse them as cleaning rags.
And, finally, you might ask yourself: how many t-shirts and articles of clothing will you consume over your lifetime?
VOCABULARY:
- garment /ˈɡɑːrmənt/ (n) – An item of clothing, often a single piece like a shirt or dress. SYN: clothing, apparel.
- environmental impact /ɪnˌvaɪrənˈmɛntəl ˈɪmpækt/ (n) – The effect an activity has on the natural world. SYN: ecological effect, environmental cost.
- sow /soʊ/ (v) – To plant seeds in soil for growth. SYN: plant, seed.
- irrigate /ˈɪrɪˌɡeɪt/ (v) – To supply water to crops or land to help plants grow. SYN: water, moisten.
- fluffy bolls /ˈflʌfi boʊlz/ (n) – Soft, round pods that hold cotton fibers and seeds. SYN: soft pods, light husks.
- puffs /pʌfs/ (n) – Light, soft masses of material, such as cotton fibers. SYN: bursts, clouds.
- industrial cotton gin /ɪnˈdʌstriəl ˈkɑtən dʒɪn/ (n) – A large-scale machine that removes seeds from cotton fibers. SYN: cotton processor, fiber separator.
- pesticides /ˈpɛstəˌsaɪdz/ (n) – Chemicals used to kill pests that harm crops. SYN: insect killers, chemicals.
- insecticide /ɪnˈsɛktɪˌsaɪd/ (n) – A chemical used specifically to kill insects. SYN: bug spray, pest control.
- pollutants /pəˈluːtənts/ (n) – Harmful substances that contaminate the environment. SYN: contaminants, impurities.
- carcinogenic /ˌkɑrsɪnəˈdʒɛnɪk/ (adj) – A substance that can cause cancer. SYN: cancer-causing, harmful.
- organic cotton /ɔrˈɡænɪk ˈkɑtən/ (n) – Cotton grown without synthetic chemicals or pesticides. SYN: natural cotton, eco-friendly cotton.
- cotton bale /ˈkɑtən beɪl/ (n) – A large, compact bundle of raw cotton. SYN: cotton bundle, cotton block.
- textile mills /ˈtɛkstaɪl mɪlz/ (n) – Factories where fibers like cotton are woven into fabric. SYN: fabric factories, weaving plants.
- spinning facility /ˈspɪnɪŋ fəˈsɪləti/ (n) – A place where fibers are spun into yarn. SYN: yarn factory, fiber processing center.
- high-tech machines /haɪ tɛk məˈʃinz/ (n) – Advanced, modern machinery used in manufacturing. SYN: advanced equipment, modern devices.
- slivers /ˈslɪvərz/ (n) – Thin, narrow pieces of material, often fibers. SYN: strands, thin pieces.
- yarns /jɑrnz/ (n) – Long, continuous threads of spun fibers, used in weaving or knitting. SYN: threads, fibers.
- huge circular knitting /hjuːdʒ ˈsɜrkjʊlər ˈnɪtɪŋ/ (n) – A large-scale process where fabric is knitted in a circular shape. SYN: large circular weaving, big round knitting.
- weave /wiːv/ (v) – To interlace threads to make fabric. SYN: knit, braid.
- dip /dɪp/ (v) – To immerse something briefly in a liquid. SYN: submerge, soak.
- bleaches /bliːʧɪz/ (n) – Chemicals used to whiten or remove color from fabric. SYN: whiteners, lighteners.
- azo dyes /ˈeɪzoʊ daɪz/ (n) – Synthetic dyes that can sometimes contain harmful chemicals. SYN: synthetic dyes, chemical colorants.
- cancer-causing cadmium /ˈkænsər ˈkɔzɪŋ ˈkædmiəm/ (n) – A toxic metal that can contribute to cancer. SYN: carcinogenic cadmium, harmful cadmium.
- contamination /kənˌtæmɪˈneɪʃən/ (n) – The presence of harmful substances in an area. SYN: pollution, impurity.
- human labor /ˈhjuːmən ˈleɪbər/ (n) – Physical work done by people rather than machines. SYN: manpower, workforce.
- stitch them into /stɪʧ ðɛm ˈɪntuː/ (v) To sew pieces together to make a finished product. SYN: sew together, assemble.
- surpass /sərˈpæs/ (v) – To exceed or go beyond in quality or performance. SYN: exceed, outdo.
- apparel production /əˈpærəl prəˈdʌkʃən/ (n) – The process of creating clothing. SYN: clothing manufacturing, garment production.
- carbon emissions /ˈkɑrbən ɪˈmɪʃənz/ (n) – The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, often from industrial processes. SYN: CO₂ emissions, greenhouse gases.
- escalating /ˈɛskəˌleɪtɪŋ/ (adj) – Increasing rapidly or intensifying. SYN: rising, growing.
- garments /ˈɡɑrmənts/ (n) – Articles of clothing. SYN: clothes, attire.
- boost global production /buːst ˈɡloʊbəl prəˈdʌkʃən/ (v) – To increase the worldwide manufacturing output. SYN: increase production, enhance output.
- resource-intensive phases /ˈriːsɔrs ɪnˈtɛnsɪv ˈfeɪzɪz/ (n) – Steps that require a large amount of resources like water or energy. SYN: high-resource stages, demanding phases.
- loads of laundry /loʊdz əv ˈlɔːndri/ (n) – Large amounts of clothing to be washed. SYN: piles of washing, many clothes to clean.
- The Environmental Impact of T-Shirt Production
- • The production process of a t-shirt involves farming cotton seeds, harvesting them, and pressing them into 225-kilogram bales.
- • Cotton plants require a significant amount of water and pesticides, which can be harmful to the environment and health of workers.
- • Organic cotton, while making up less than 1% of the 22.7 million metric tons of cotton produced worldwide, makes up less than 1% of the total.
- • The cotton is then shipped to a spinning facility where high-tech machines blend, card, comb, pull, stretch, and twist the cotton into yarn.
- • The fabric is then woven into sheets of rough grayish fabric, treated with heat and chemicals until it turns soft and white.
- • The fabric is then dipped into commercial bleaches and azo dyes, which can contain harmful compounds and chemicals.
- • Human labor is required to stitch the finished cloth into t-shirts, a process that machines cannot do.
- • The t-shirt industry in Bangladesh, for example, employs 4.5 million people but faces poor conditions and low wages.
- • After manufacture, the t-shirts travel by ship, train, and truck to be sold in high-income countries, causing an enormous carbon footprint.
- • Apparel production accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions.
- • The shift in clothing consumption over the last 20 years has cost the environment, the health of farmers, and driven questionable human labor practices.
- • Solutions include shopping secondhand, using recycled or organic fabrics, reducing washing and drying, and reusing clothes.
Related links:
- Next exercise: What happens if you don’t put your phone in airplane mode? – Lindsay DeMarchi
- Previous exercise: Do You Really Need 8 Hours of Sleep Every Night?