June 25, 2007
This is from a guest writer. My 13 year old daughter, Madison.
The Life of Jeans
Jeans, something just about everybody wears at least once in their lifetime. Have you ever wondered how jeans are made, how much energy is used to make them? Well, I investigated that very thing. There are many things that go into the making of jeans. Energy (human and machine), pesticides, countries, land, water, and petroleum. Let’ s start with finding out about the countries.
Some countries involved in making jeans
• Tunisia
• Italy
• Germany
• France
• Northern Ireland
• Pakistan
• Turkey
• Japan
• Korea
• Namibia
• Benin
• Australia
• Hungary
Now, the process of making jeans starts even before you see them. So where do jeans come from in the beginning? Well, look at the label on your jeans, what does it say? My jeans say, 98% cotton 2% spandex
Cotton
So, How do we make Cotton?
They start in a big field, in a warm climate, such as, the 14 of the major cotton producing states,
1. Alabama
2. Arizona
3. Arkansas
4. California
5. Georgia
6. Louisiana
7. Mississippi
8. Missouri
9. New Mexico
10. North Carolina
11. Oklahoma
12. South Carolina
13. Tennessee
14. Texas
Additional cotton is grown in Florida, Kansas, and Virginia.
So, what happens in these warm places? Well, They plant the seeds. So much energy is used in completing this simple task. A large tractor-like machine called a cultivator. It needs plenty of gas to run.
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Cultivator
You also need lots of water to grow cotton. One cotton T-shirt takes a mere 7,000 liters of water. That’s only one T-shirt.. Look in your closet, how many shirts do you have hanging in there? I have 35. That’s 245,000 liters of water, in my closet!
After they are planted, and watered, “the soil is fumigated with aldicarb, one of the most toxic pesticides applied in the U.S. After that, the wind carries some of the soil, and some of the pesticides into nearby streams.”
“Did you know cotton accounts for 10% of the world’s annual pesticides consumption.”
“The Farmer then drives his tractor and doused the field with a soil sterilant to kill off everything that might compete with or eat, young cotton plants. It can take 5 years for the pesticide to wear out.”
“To prevent the leaves from staining the white cotton balls, a crop duster sprays the field with Parquet just before harvesting. About half missed and went into the nearby streams.”
“When sent to a factory, a cotton gin separates the fibers from the seeds. The seeds were pressed to make cooking oil and livestock feed.”
Later on, it’s dyed, “Workers wash out the oils and bleached, dyed, and finished the fabric with chemicals. Cotton resists coloring, so one-third of the dyes did not adhere and were carried off in the wastewater stream”
What about the spandex? Well, Spandex is a synthetic fiber made of at least 85%polymer polyurethane. And also made from several chemicals that are sensitizers.
After this, the cotton is sent to a factory in UK, The factory employs 500 women to spend all day adding zippers, sewing pockets, sewing hems or seams. Each production line produces about 2000 pairs of jeans a day at a super fast pace.
Jeans factory
The workday is from 7:15 until 12:00, then 1:00-5:45. The women are barely paid anything - only minimum wage. After the jeans are packed in cardboard boxes, and shipped to a state in the U.S, in my case, Minnesota.
The jeans are put in a store, that takes up oil to heat, cool, and light. Even more energy used even after the jeans are made. You drive to the store, using gas, which is pumped up from the ground using water, and lots of energy. You walk into the store pick out the jeans, try them on, and drive home. As soon as you get there, the jeans are thrown into the wash, and then the dryer, which takes up even MORE energy. So, when you pick out jeans again, think about how they’re made, how much energy is used, and how many jeans you already have. Keep in mind that the more you buy of something, the more orders they put in of that thing, and the more they make it. It’s the law of supply and demand. So, don’t shop too much!
June 25, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Good to see someone looking at the big picture! Thanks for this report. Don’t forget that you can make a difference by buying jeans made in the U.S.A. too! (I noticed the US isn’t on your list, but we do make jeans here… in fact, I’m wearing some now!)
June 25, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Great job, Madison. I had an inkling of some of this stuff, but I was shocked at how much water and pesticide is used to grow cotton. You’ve convinced me to spend the extra bucks and buy only organic cotton from now on. Thanks!
June 25, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Good Article!
Thank you for that information. All the more reason to pick up jeans at the thrift store or yard sales.
June 25, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Madison,
Good job on the article. I didn’t know it took 7000 liters of water to make a cotton t-shirt.
Kim
June 25, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Good work Madison! You organized your points very well and added interesting illustrations and facts to keep people reading. Nice conclusion!
June 25, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Awesome job, Madison! When I think of how some companies buy cotton grown in the USA only to ship it overseas to be made into clothes and then shipped back to sell—it drives me crazy! I guess that’s why buying local/USA grown/made products can be so very important. I can tell you put a lot of research and thought into your article! Way to go!!!
June 25, 2007 at 5:23 pm
That was really interesting. You’ll be pleased to know I’ve never owned a pair
June 25, 2007 at 6:46 pm
This is a wonderfully written article. Very insightful, great research!
June 25, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Great post! I’m very impressed!
June 25, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Great post! I grew up near cotton country in Texas and can remember driving through West Texas with it’s multitudes of irrigated fields. One cost you didn’t factor in that isn’t actually energy consumption, but a hidden cost nonetheless is crop insurance. Cotton farmers receive a tremendous amount of money in insurance for failed/damaged crops.
June 26, 2007 at 6:30 am
Well done, lots of good information.
June 26, 2007 at 8:29 am
Interesting article. As a Brit I thought I’d just clarify a couple of points about factory workers here if I may. Minimum wage for adults is £5.85 per hour. At latest exchange rate that’s $12. By law workers also have a morning and afternoon break of about 15-20 minutes and weekend and evening work is not compulsory.
a pair, as they are in the UK at present, perhaps it’s more economical for their ‘bottom line’.
Seems crazy to me to send the fabric here to be madeup but as businesses are not charities,and people demand jeans at £4 ($
June 26, 2007 at 9:50 am
Chris,
From your figures, it seems like it would be more expensive to have the jeans made in the UK. The current min wage in the US is $5.85 set to increase to $7.25 by summer of 2009. This is currently less than half of the exchange rate you posted. Plus there’s the shipping cost of sending to the UK & back. And basic jeans here cost about $20.
However, the operations were probably set up that way when the exchange rate was about opposite of what it is now. Plus it would cost money to set up factories here for constructing the jeans. So the jean companies are probably praying for the exchange rate to switch around again.
June 26, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hi - Nice job, Chris.!
I think you made one mistake, however. I think that the ‘UK’ location is a mistake. The UK is United Kingdom - that is, Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and North Ireland), and doesn’t fit the description at all.
Nevertheless, nice job!
35 shirts! Wow.
A lot of shirts. Must be difficult to decide which one to wear.
Pat
June 26, 2007 at 10:53 am
A plus writing!! Your writing skiils impressed a school teacher who deals with high school students! Thank you for opening my eyes to the pair of jeans I have on right now.
June 26, 2007 at 11:37 am
You know, the reason I wear this brand of jeans is for their style and fashion; to my indebtedness, your well researched article has shown me more important reasons. The highlighted blue banner line,
prompted a little research of my own. This is an interesting article about “Organic Cotton and Growing” on the plains of West Texas. Thanks to your insightful findings, I am going to take my shopping dollars (and style sense) to companies who support my values.
June 26, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Excellent research and despite the appallling facts, enjoyed your writing. I’ve always felt kind of special when in my jeans, no matter my weight, and now I think I begin to see why! Talk about a privileged existence.
I live on the edge in more ways than one, and could do with a minder, but who’d be crazy enough to opt to live in a castle in Ireland with a 60 year old very forgetful vegetarian without electricity, very little cash flow, 6 dogs and a cat (plus visitors) and a deep desire to desist from harming anything at all.
Plus points are that I’m a poet/writer/researcher of sorts but unpublished — how do you make that practical step without selling your soul!?! — and do descend from several lines of successful merchants/artisans/musicians/printers. But now I wonder if my squirrelling Scorpio habits are at least partly an unconscious realisation of the ‘value’ of what is here, no matter how old or neglected it might seem. Thanks for multiple lessons. Love, Liz
June 26, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Great article! I second the comment about thrift store jeans … and as an added plus, if you shop at the thrift store you don’t have to choose styles that are current now — you have a wiiiide selection for less even than $8. The water statistic is mind-boggling.
June 26, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Excellent! This helps me value organic/minimal shopping. Keep up the great work!
June 26, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Great post!
As a bit of an aside, when you look at a pair of jeans you will usually see that the fabric looks like there are lots of little diagonal lines- this is becuase jean fabric is woven with a 2/2 twill which uses less yarn in the warp and weft while still wearing well. A “regular” weave instead of a twill would take more yarn but would wear better and probably last longer. Of course, most people see jeans as being disposable items, sadly.
June 28, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Does this mean that you are no longer interested in learning the bike route to Apache Mall?
June 28, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Madison says: All of my friends go there to hang out. So, I would want to go hang out. Doesn’t mean I will shop.
June 29, 2007 at 1:55 am
Great post. However, you forget one of the largest companies in the jean industry: Spain’s Tavex, former Algodonera San Antonio.
Your post takes us back to the fact that we seat in a throne, while others (be it low wage workers, farmers, Mother Earth) work for us and suffer.
On the other side, it is dammedly complicated to set things right: we made Africa and America and Asia dependent on monoculture, so that they are slaves to international markets, because their only income source is coffee or cocoa or cotton. Now, corporations take their factories there just for the low salaries, making them dependent on corporation whims. If we plan to buy green produced goods or locally produced goods we can also harm those people, who only want to make a living.
This is becoming, more and more a moral and political issue. Thank god, I found an eco friendly cotton company called Gossypium (http://www.gossypium.co.uk) who work with a locally owned cotton company in India (agrocell)
June 29, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I loved your post. I don’t often stop to think about all that is involved in making the products I use on a daily basis. I’m a bit ashamed to even mention how many pairs of jeans I own. Thanks for the food for thought.
July 2, 2007 at 3:45 am
Your research is really impressive and well presented, as others have noted.
You are right that jeans are made in the UK eg Alpha Textiles though often these companies also have manufacturing facilities in other cheaper-labour countries too. The minimum wage in Britain at the moment is UK £ 5.35, about $10.80, going up to £ 5.52 in October. Full-time on these wages you could get by but wouldn’t have many luxuries in life (other than 4 weeks paid holiday, if employed and not piece-meal paid).
One point you didn’t make about cotton growing is the huge subsidies paid to US cotton farmers, who are then incentivized to over-produce. Excess cotton is then dumped at artificailly low prices on the world markets threatening the livelihoods of growers in developing countries. These often peasant farmers are then at danger of having to sell BELOW production costs. The EU used also to subsidise growers on quantity but that has now ended, thankfully.
So, just as important as buying organically grown cotton is buying fair trade cotton.
Thanks again… it was a good read.
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