Community Engagement

Hi there,

The cotton that makes the T-Shirt could come from so many different supply chains. My research shows cotton can be grown in India or Turkey, it could be milled in Pakistan or Mexico, and end up being sewn in El Salvador or South Africa; looks like there is no way to know for sure what journey your T-Shirt might have taken. And the only thing we should care about is - it’s used a lot of energy to go the distance.

And that’s just a piece of the distribution – now that so many of us are ordering online, more energy is being used. Just as an aside, I ordered some seeds online via Amazon because I couldn’t seem to find them in the stores, you can imagine how small the packet of seeds was and it was shipped in a huge padded envelope that could have protected the hope diamond. As of today, I am going to exhaust all avenues before ordering online!!

OK, back to the T-Shirt!

I’m sure this will be hard to believe but – it takes 2700 litres of water to make the average T-Shirt. That includes the bleaching, dyeing, softening, and whatever else is required to create the T-Shirt. The reality is that’s enough drinking water for one person for 900 days. Let’s get that in perspective – that amounts to over 2 years of drinking water.  As of 2020, the fashion industry uses over 79 trillion liters of water every year.  We just don’t have enough water to sustain these practices.

The climate crisis is also becoming a water crisis!  We are experiencing too many droughts, flooding, wildfires, and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. All this is taking its toll on our lakes, forests, our animals and our crops.  How much water can we devote to the fashion industry?

CBC’s Marketplace on October, 2022 showed some pretty scary facts about the forever chemicals found in our clothing and the clothing we are putting on our children.

Out of 38 samples they found one in five items had elevated level of chemicals, including lead, PFAS and phthalates. We all know what lead is but PFAS is a class of manmade chemicals that makes clothing stain resistant and water resistant and they are toxic even at low levels. They are called ‘forever chemicals’ because they are nearly indestructible.

Now the almost good news is washing and drying the clothing will reduce the chemicals, the bad news is they will then be transferred into the environment.

Eco friendly clothing can be expensive but there is a truly inexpensive way around this issue:

BUY USED CLOTHING.

We have all heard the expression “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure”. Take a look around at some of your local second-hand clothing stores or consignment stores and you will surely find some treasures.

I hope you are enjoying these tid-bits of information. Drop me an email at: .

"An understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment." - David Attenborough

Until next time, stay green.