PRODUCT LIFE

CYCLE
ASSESSMENT
REALISED BY :
GRIGORIEV ALEXANDRA,CON-194
FOR START :
• Think of the classic white t-shirt, with short sleeves. Annually, we sell and buy 2 billion t-shirts
worldwide, making them some of the most common items of clothing in the world. Garments
vary widely, but a typical T-shirt begins life on a farm in America, China or India, where cotton
is sown, irrigated and grown for its fluffy balls.
• Automated machines carefully pick the clods, a processing machine mechanically separates the
fluff from the seeds, and then the fibers are pressed into 225-kilogram bales. Once the bales of
cotton leave the farm, they are sent to spinning mills, usually in China or India, where
advanced machinery blend, card, comb, pull, stretch and finally they twist the cotton into
snow-white threads, called "strands." The threads are then sent to the spinning mill, where
huge, circular knitting machines weave them into sheets of rough, gray material, which, when
heat- and chemically-treated, becomes soft and white. Here, the material is dipped in bleaches
and azo dyes, 70% of which are used to dye textiles
• After the fabric reaches the factories, usually in Bangladesh, China, India or Turkey, human
labor is still used when tailoring t-shirts, an operation too complicated to be done automatically.
After production, the shirts are sent by ship, train or truck to be sold in developed countries.
Finally in the consumer's home, the t-shirt goes through one of the most demanding phases in
its life. In America, for example, the average family does their laundry nearly 400 times a year,
using about 150 liters of water for each wash.
• Washing machines and juicers use energy, with juicers needing five to six times more energy.
This growth of the clothing industry over the past 20 years, driven by large corporations and
fast-changing fashion, has harmed the environment, the health of farmers, and promoted
questionable work methods. It has also turned fashion into the second biggest polluter after oil.
But there are solutions. Consider second-hand clothes. Look for clothes made from recycled or
organic materials. Save resources by washing less often and drying your clothes naturally.
Instead of throwing them away when they become worn, donate them, recycle them or use
them as rags.
THE END