Where do our unwanted clothes end up…..Landfill?

Tuesday, March 14, 2017 0 Bamboo Monkey, Fighting Climate Change, Global Warming Permalink 0

When people ask me what I do, I say I design clothes made from bamboo, I get the craziest reactions.

But realising how much the global fashion apparel industry is contributing to the toxic pollution and landfill garbage, they start to understand.

You see, roughly 50% of all fibres used in garment production are synthetic.

Scientists now tell us these fibres will take anywhere from 20 – 200 years to breakdown in landfill.

This map details the solid waste production per kg per person per day – Australia is the second highest producer of waste!!:

Currently researchers predict by 2025 the world will be producing enough global waste to fill a line of garbage trucks stretching 5000 kms – every single day.

Now that is crazy!

The other scary fact is the natural fibre we all rely on, wearing day in day out, is one of the worst polluters in the industry…

Some little known facts about cotton:

While cotton is makes up almost 50% of all fibres used in making clothes, only 1% of it is grown organically.
4% of the world’s arable land is under cotton cultivation, yet the industry is responsible for 15-25% of the world’s use of toxic pesticides and insecticides.
to harvest, the whole crop including its roots is removed, leaving vast tracks of barren land, causing soil degradation and the leeching of toxic chemicals into underlying water tables.
Cotton requires 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton – roughly a t-shirt & pair of jeans. This is equal to 80,000 standard glasses of water. With only 1% of water on the earth’s surface is drinkable – this is crazy!

We need to do more to counteract the effects of the world’s pollution.

That’s why I chose to work with Bamboo. We use it as our main material because:

Bamboo grows naturally organically, requiring minimal rainfall as its water source.
As it grows it takes in 5 x the amount of greenhouse gases, and produces 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees.
It has a naturally occurring antibacterial agent “kun” which naturally repels insects & predators, negating the need for toxic chemicals.
When harvested, it is removed at its base, leaving it’s root system intact to naturally regenerate, thus protecting the soil from erosion.