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The Carbon Footprint of A T-Shirt
In this day and age we are all being urged to be conscious of the size of our carbon footprint as fears that the way we live our lives in the modern world has a direct effect on global warming. Absolutely every move we make has some kind of effect on the Earth. A case in point is the humble t-shirt. Such a simple inoffensive looking item of apparel, yet this innocent garment could have the mother of all carbon footprints by the time it has ceased to be. When measuring the carbon footprint of a t-shirt, factors such as its manufacture, the materials used, transportation between factory and store, retail, wear and disposal will all play a part in its impact. Out of all of these factors, the single biggest contributor to the size of its overall carbon footprint (with a wapping 75% of the final footprint size) is wear. That’s right, that’s the part where you own it. So the biggest factor as to whether your t-shirt is going to have a large or small carbon footprint is up to you. We can narrow down even further where the greatest contributor to its overall carbon footprint comes from and that is the way and frequency the t-shirt is washed. Around 19 per cent of the life-cycle energy consumption is taken up on washing in a washing machine and 53 percent is on tumble drying. By simply hanging your t-shirt out on a clothesline every time you wash it, you will be cutting the carbon footprint over its lifespan by more than half. There is another area in which you can actively reduce the t-shirt’s carbon footprint and that is by increasing the number of times you wear the t-shirt in between washes. Now, I’m not talking about wearing the thing until the watering of your own eyes indicates that it’s due for a wash, just one extra wear before throwing it into the laundry will result in a sizable cut over the t-shirt’s life-cycle. Choosing a cotton t-shirt over a polyester t-shirt will help in this. It has been found that a polyester t-shirt is more prone to sweat odor than cotton, not to mention the fact that the carbon footprint to manufacture and dispose of a polyester t-shirt is higher. So when it comes down to tin tacks, the onus is on all of us to be aware that minor changes that really won’t affect our standard of living will make a difference in many other ways.
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