How eco-friendly is your winter wardrobe?
It’s winter and it’s been getting colder everyday so you may have to pack your summer clothes back in your luggage and take some pretty winter clothes out. I am a person who loves buying T-shirts, so I have quite a lot of them with me at uni, but now unfortunately I can’t really use them as the weather’s been chilly and it seems like the temperature is going to be like this for many more months. If you also have a lot of old T-shirts, I hope you might find this article quite useful.
Have you ever bought some clothes and then worn them only once and never again after? That also happens to me sometimes. Particularly when your fashion style changes, too many clothes get left in the wardrobe that you don’t feel like giving to charity, while you keep buying new clothes, especially in the “sale” season. Before you throw them away, to be friendly to our environment, let us try to transform them into something a bit different and interesting. I personally think having a reason to do something makes the results and the process of doing it better. Therefore, we should understand first why we actually should attempt to reuse an old shirt by transforming it into something different.
According to the WWF, it requires approximately 20,000 litres of water to produce a T-shirt and pair of jeans. This is obviously damaging the environment and the Earth, especially when thinking about people in African countries who do not have enough water to drink. Moreover, it is found by the WWF that, to plant cotton, farmers use large amounts of insecticide and pesticides, which ultimately ruins the ecosystem as animals and insects living in the farms are killed or move elsewhere; in other words the ecosystem is no longer balanced. It is then suggested that to produce cotton, rivers become contaminated by chemical products and fish, which may be caught by human beings to eat, are harmed. Therefore people living close to farming areas could be ruined in terms of their health and wellbeing. The use of T-shirts not only affects the environment in terms of the production process, but also the cleaning process as Better Cotton Initiative emphasises that one load of washing requires 40 gallons of water and drying them also consumes high levels of electricity. Furthermore, it is suggested that, although water is the biggest part of the Earth, 97% is salty and 2% is ice or snow which cannot be used in domestic work, and so only 1% is left for us and other creatures to use. Sadly, the WWF reports ‘73% of global cotton harvest comes from irrigated land.’ I cannot imagine how many trees have been deforested and how many animals have been killed. As you might have realised, a T-shirt can really harm the planet. Let us now see how we could help the Earth a bit more.
Huge environmental costs lie behind the production of cotton
There are ways to make the best of your T-shirt before throwing it in the bin or just saving it in your wardrobe. Lots of charity shops always welcome your T-shirts that you don’t use anymore and you could also donate them to shops such as Oxfam Boutique, which is located by Elvet Bridge, and the charity shops on North Road. They are always happy to take your “new” and clean clothes. Besides, if you do not really have time to take your things there, just check this online charity out: “Donate Clothes for Charity Online“. There are choices of which charity you want to help or support and you can specify which region you live in, such as the North East. You could choose to donate clothes to a charity called the Northumberland Wildlife Trust Ltd., which, as you may already know, works with the environment and does a lot of activities such as giving education on the environment to thousands of people each year. You can just register and request a bag from whichever charity you prefer and it will be sent to your address. After packing up all your items in the bag, go back to the website and pick the date of collection, then just wait for them to collect it. An email to thank you will be sent to you when the charity has received your donation.
However, sometimes it is quite hard to say goodbye to your beloved clothes or T-shirts, in particular. There is a great way to make it a bit more interesting. If you have packed your T-shirt already, you might need to get them out NOW! or ask your dad if you could take one from his wardrobe. Scissors, measuring tape, pins and a sewing machine (or sewing materials instead if this is not convenient) are needed. I strongly recommend you use a very old one if you have never done sewing or cut cloth before. just in case. If you are now ready, click the link below and watch the video. Have fun making it and good luck!!