The Lifecycle Of A T-shirt: Linear Vs. Circular

In order to create new t-shirts, more cotton must be produced. Cotton plants are grown on a farm, and require large amounts of water and pesticides. It takes 2,400 gallons of water to produce one pound of cotton. Cotton farming uses more pesticides that any other crop. On average six pounds of pesticides are applied to every acre of farmland in the US. These toxic pesticides can contaminate the air and soil, negatively impacting ecosystems surrounding the farm. Cotton production is only increasing as the world demands more fashion items like t-shirts. Thousands of fossil fuel emitting trucks, then ships, transport the raw cotton from the farm to a factory.

In a factory the cotton goes through several machines that spin it into yarn. Then the yearn is woven into a sheet by yet another machine and is treated with chemicals to achieve softness and a bright white color, later to be colored with toxic dyes. These factories create air pollution, use substantial amounts of water and energy, release high amounts of chemicals, and produce solid waste, all of which negatively impact surrounding ecosystems. Water usage at textile mills can generate millions of gallons of dye wastewater daily. Around 20% of wastewater worldwide comes from fabric dyeing and treatment. After they are sown, the finished t-shirts are transported to stores and warehouses by trains, trucks, and ships. In total the production of t-shirts and other clothing contributes to 10% of global CO2 emissions.

With demand for new trendy clothing only increasing and getting new pieces - more frequent, us consumers are contributing to growing the environmental effects of clothing production. People are buying more and more clothes as time progresses and the average person throws a garment away after wearing it just seven times to switch it out for the latest trendy item. Ultimately, the garment ends up in a landfill where it can stay for up to 200 years, emitting harmful greenhouse gasses like methane, and contaminating soil and eventually waterways with toxic chemicals. The vast majority of clothing items like t-shirts, end up getting incinerated or end up in landfills instead of being recycled. Of the material used for clothing, 87% is incinerated or disposed of in a landfill while less than 1% is recycled into new clothing.

The t-shirt, or any garment is designed to ensure that it does not become harmful waste. Production factors are carefully considered, especially decisions on what design would result in less environmental damages like greenhouse gas emissions and chemical wastewater. It can be designed so that it returns to the industry as quality material to be reused in making new products. It can be compostable, to avoid landfills. Choosing the right materials, including fibers, and cleaner dyes and process chemicals can allow the t-shirt to eventually be safely composted or reused by the industry, and reduce the amount of water and energy required to make it.

Most t-shirts now are not compostable or designed to be reused in industry, so, recirculation is really the key area for consumers to make an impact. Recirculating a t-shirt could be through repurposing, reselling, or donating it when you no longer want it, keeping it useful and in circulation between people instead of it becoming harmful waste at a landfill. In addition this reduces the demand for the production of new t-shirts, since people are buying fewer, and instead use them longer or acquire used ones. Less production means fewer negative environmental impacts associated with production such as: chemical wastewater, excess solid waste, and CO2 emissions from factories and transporting of new shirts.

Purposefully designed t-shirts can be reused as material for creating a new shirt. This cuts back or even eliminates the water and pesticide intensive cultivation stage of cotton or other type of fiber. Recycling is just another stage in the recirculation process; recycling an item that is no longer in usable condition, to make a “new item” always keeps the material in use, thus ensuring that it does not become solid waste. Though it does not become solid waste, factories converting the used t-shirt into material for a new one, still require energy, but another key component of a circular economy is shifting to renewable energy, so this could reduce factory emissions.