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Loading...Tips for More Eco-Friendly Clothing
- The Nature Conservancy
- May 3, 2012
- 10:36 am
- 47 comments
By Jon Fisher, The Nature Conservancy
Finding “eco-friendly” clothing can be tough, especially trying to sort out which of the many “green” claims on labels hold up. For consumers looking to make greener clothing choices, there’s some good news and bad news.
Let’s start with the bad news first: there are few if any really clear easy wins for which types of clothes are the best. Organic cotton, hemp, bamboo all represent some positive change, but also have drawbacks to them (I’ll explain further down).
On the bright side, there are things you can do. Regardless of what kinds of clothes you buy, the way you use them makes an enormous environmental difference; in some cases the way we use clothes has a bigger impact than how they’re produced.
Here are some easy things you can do that have an enormous impact:
- Keep using old clothes: This includes not ditching your wardrobe every year (obviously), as well as things like buying used clothes and repairing damaged clothes rather than throwing them out. Since all clothes have a fairly hefty impact, using them longer is one of the best and easiest things you can do to make your clothing more eco-friendly.
- Laundry: An analysis of the energy used in the various stages of a cotton T-shirt’s “life” (material, production, transportation, use, and disposal) found that the use phase used 50 percent more energy than all of the other phases combined! Here are some tips on drastically improving the environmental cost of your clothes at home:
- Wash on cold rather than hot or warm water. Modern detergents and washing machines do a great job even with cold water.
- Hang-dry when possible. I have a collapsible metal rack I use indoors, since I live in a condo where outdoor lines are banned. Skipping tumble drying cuts out 60% of the total energy used for laundry.
- Use phosphate-free detergent to reduce the impact on aquatic life. Traditional phosphate-based detergents can cause “dead zones” in the water where nothing can live due to oxygen depletion.
- Use a front-loading washer and/or ventless dryer. Front loading washers can remove much more water than top-loading ones, which means shorter dryer times no matter what the method is. Ventless dryers directly use about the same amount of energy as comparable new vented dryers, but can offer energy savings through lower heating/cooling costs. I calculated that to dry a single load with my old vented dryer, I vented the entire volume of my condo outside, which meant that I had to re-heat or re-cool that vented air. I now have a ventless combination front-loading washer-dryer, and I use the dryer for clothes that get too wrinkly when hang-dried or when it’s too humid in my condo.
- Recycle: It takes 10 times as much energy to produce a ton of textiles as it does to make a ton of glass. But, while most of us recycle glass, recycling clothes is less common. When your clothes are truly worn out, find a place that will recycle them (many thrift shops and charities that accept used clothes sell the damaged ones to be recycled) or get crafty by making new stuff out of them.
But what about how your choices of what type of clothing to buy affects the planet?
Read more: Beauty, Eco-friendly tips, Fashion, Green, bamboo, clothesline, cotton, eco-friendly clothing, front-loading washer, Gaiam, Global Organic Textile Standards, green clothes, green wardrobe, hemp, Jon Fisher, organic cotton, phosphate-free detergent, rayon, The Nature Conservancy, toxic chemicals, used clothing, ventless dryer
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
people are talking
very useful
Awww, I got 9 out of 10 but still good :) I got Number 6 wrong :( :) .
tyvm...
My place has become so cluttered I feel overwhelmed looking at it. It really does drain one's energ…
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Those interested in this topic might want to read about a new labeling scheme that measures how green various clothing options are: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443570904577547610634945308.html
Tips for More Eco-Friendly Clothing
Beauty and Fashion
Eco Fashion World
http://www.ecofashionworld.com/
The washing machine doesn't have to be a front-loader these days, but it should be energy star complaint. Buying an energy efficient washer does help. Drying racks also are more gentle on clothes than dryers are, so you get two energy savings with them - you don't use a dryer and your clothes need replacing less often.
Thank you what a great article. I will use your tips wisely :)
Side loaders aren't that great and can cost you more money to repair in the long run, side loaders are known to break down, and a rotten fungus grows inside the machine making your clothes stink.. the other tips are good :)
Thanks for this article. Seems like it's a no win situation when it comes to clothing. Fashion dictates how we should dress, which is the trend etc. Again, it points to excessive consumerism. It is possible to do without a clothes dryer- I've done it for decades ,so do some friends who have limited space. The younger generation are growing up with a pile of clothes, a lot more than they really need.what message do they get from this custom?
use soapnuts to wash! they work great (although not in cold water) and are completely natural (although they are grown overseas and must be shipped - still less harmful for mother earth than synthetic detergents)
Choose sustainable materials for one's clothing such as Bamboo and Hemp and re-purpose old clothing in to new re-useable items when clothing has become worn. Great suggestions though
Thanks for sharing!
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