Buy fewer clothes and wash them less

Lifecycle assessments show—taking cotton production, manufacture, transport and washing into account— it takes 3,781 litres of water to make one pair of jeans. The process equates to around 33.4 kilogrammes of carbon equivalent emitted, like driving 111 kilometres or watching 246 hours of TV on a big screen.

The environmental cost of our clothes is adding up.
Even just washing our clothes releases plastic microfibres and other pollutants into the environment, contaminating our oceans and drinking water. Around 20 per cent of global industrial water pollution is from dyeing and textile treatment.

As consumers, this means buying less. Some studies estimate that the average garment is worn ten times before being discarded. Demand for clothing is projected to rise two per cent a year—but the number of times we wear them has dropped one third compared to the early 2000s.

This waste costs money and the value of natural resources. Of the total fibre input used for clothing, 87 per cent is incinerated or sent to landfill. Overall, one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second.

Reducing the amount of clothes we buy, reusing and buying second hand items and recycling. Wash them less and smarter: use concentrated liquid soap rather than powdered detergent, which is abrasive and washes more fibers into water.

Collectively, on a large scale, reducing our environmental footprint requires cutting resource consumption and designing pollution out of clothing altogether.

We should all consider buying less clothes and washing them less. more  

View all 11 comments Below 11 comments
All these issues are arising because of Population Explosion in India. This should be controlled. more  
Really good info summarized by Ms. Vinita. Keep it up. more  
As quality of all products is being gradually diluted almost all products of everyday use are becoming use and throw this process not only increases Carbon footprints add to enviornment hazards , increase cost of living , increase garbage and hazardous materials to unlimited propoprtion. This was not case a two decades ago where re-use of any material was socially acceptable which is not the case , chidlrens were given their siblings books , clothings and other items by now consumerism has added a social stigma to re-use , repaired , old items more  
Consumption is going up because we continue to add more than 1 crore to our population every year. They need clothes, land etc etc. But no environmentalist ever talks about the impact of huge demographic increase on environment in our context. They all repeat what the western environmentalists are saying where population increase is not a problem. Think Indian please!! more  
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