Works Cited
Consumers, this means YOU!
Now the question
remains, what can you,
the consumer, do to try
and get more organic
made clothing produced?
Well the solution to that
is quite simple, if
companies sell product
based off of what sells
well and what does not,
then the simple solution
is to buy clothing that is
made organically!
Many companies will openly mark when
their product is made of organic cotton or
even a more “eco-friendly” version of the
current production of cotton. Your job is to
look for those tags that display on the
garments proud or simply look for the
recycle symbol displayed above.
Organic Cotton
Organic cotton is one of
the most rapidly growing
Information in text from following: fabrics in the apparel
Brown, P., & Rice, J. (2001). Ready-To-Wear
industry because of the
Apparel Analysis. New Jersey: Prentice- big push for “going
Hall. green” that has been
seen almost worldwide
Dunn, C. (2007, August 21). Organic Cotton.
Retrieved 12 3, 2010 from TreeHuggers: today.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/
green-basics-organic-cotton.php
Keiser, S., & Garner, M. (2008). Beyond Design:
The Synergy of Apparel Product
Development. New York: Fairchild
Publications.
There are many benefits
to using organic cotton
Pictures taken from the following websites and are and drawbacks to using
numbered beginning with front page and ending in regular cotton that are
back: listed inside. Please
1) http://www.iexclaim.com/why_organic.php read for more
information on how you
2) http://blog.airdye.com/goodforbusiness/tag/airdye can make a difference
3) http://www.iexclaim.com/why_organic.php by purchasing organic
materials and clothing!
4)http://thegloss.com/fashion/alternative-earth-
launches-organic-cotton-clothing-line/

Pollution from dyeing of non-organic
materials.
Drawbacks of Non-
Organic Cotton.
The drawbacks that are present from the
production and growth of non-organic
cotton are plentiful and here are just a few
of them:
 Many pesticides and toxic fertilizers
are used in order to expedite growth.
 Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, is
used to prevent wrinkling in non-
organic material.
 Non-organic cotton goes through
multiple dyeing processes in order to
ensure that color stays, resulting in
massive amounts of pollution (see
picture above).
 Cotton consumes over six pints of
water to produce one bud. This
consumption rate has, in places,
severely reduced water supply due to
heavy irrigation for cotton.
 According to the World Health
Organization over 20,000 deaths per
year occur in developing countries
from pesticide use.
While these are only a few reasons that non-
organic cotton production is hazardous to
not only us but the environment, it is very
easy to see how the effect is detrimental
across all facets of production.
Benefits of Organic
Cotton
While organic cotton tends to be more
expensive to grow and produce, it has
many more benefits than that of non-
organic cotton. Some of these benefits are
as follows:
 Zero run-off into ecosystems from
pesticides and fertilizers. Natural
compost is used in replacement of
synthetic fertilizers, while natural
predators are used to keep pests away.
 Lack of pesticides benefits
developing countries where hand
picking is still used, preventing
farmers from inhaling such chemicals.
 Organic cotton is more accepting of
dye making the process much cleaner
on the environment by lessening the
amount of chemicals and dye needed
to apply color.
 The fields used are self-sustaining,
meaning that farmers are able to use
the crop into the following season
instead of killing the crop off before
the winter season.
An Organic Cotton field.
What can apparel
manufacturers and
cotton farmers do?
Unfortunately apparel manufacturers are
very limited to what they can physically do
beyond buying the organic cotton itself for
the production of their clothing. Many
large brands such as H&M as well as
Levi’s have launched many eco-friendly
lines that are made from organic cotton,
which have both sold relatively well.
As far as farmers are concerned it is a very
large investment to switch their current
cotton field to produce organic cotton
instead. Starting with the soil steps need to
be done in order to ensure that the cotton
can grow naturally and composting takes
more time in comparison to fertilizer.
The federal government in the United
States has passed multiple laws to try to
slow the pollution rate of the production of
cotton, but that does not cover cotton that
comes from foreign areas such as India.
To gain more information on how
organic cotton can benefit both
the environment and yourself, as
well as what is being done to
ensure protection, visit the
following websites:
 www.epa.gov
 www.treehugger.com
 www.ejfoundation.org