Ever curious to know just how green your wardrobe is? Well, here’s a start. Colour Connections Ltd has an online calculator which allows consumers to take a look at the environmental impact of their clothing purchase, care and disposal decisions.
The “Household Textile Environmental Impact Calculator” asks the user to answer a series or questions, using drop-down menus, to gather data on the purchase, disposal and care habits of the user. The user is asked to choose from a list of common clothing and household textile items, inputting how many of each item they buy and how they are disposed of in a twelve month period. Finally, the users are asked how these items are washed, dried and ironed in a typical week. Push the magic button and Badda Bing, your score, or EDU’s (Environmental Damage Units)-a complex, mathematical environmental measure based on water and energy use, the use of non-renewable resources and the resulting pollution-is calculated. The overall EDU’s for each item of clothing depends on each individual consumer’s buying preferences, how they care for their garments and ultimately how they dispose of them.
The EDU scores range from the aptly named “Fashionably Obese, for those scoring 1500 EDU’s annually, to the less aptly named “Fashionably Unfashionable” (rest assured, its is in fact quite fashionable to have a minimal environmental impact), for those scoring 200 EDU’s or less. While educational, and sort of fun, the calculator is a little under inclusive, focusing on conventional textiles and their care and disposal without including more sustainable textile options.
For example, it compares cotton, wool, linen and silk items to polyester, nylon, and acrylic. While linen, wool, silk and certain viscose fibers are often environmentally superior to synthetics, the calculator does offer organic cotton as opposed to conventional cotton, or organic wool as oppsed to conventional wool, as options, nor does it list other sustainable textiles such as hemp, soy, recycled fibers and the like. Including these latter options would strengthen the tool’s advocacy appeal and educational value by allowing consumers to see how much impact they can have by making a few simple changes in their clothing purchases.
Despite the lack of sustainable fiber options (yes, there are a few in there, linen for one), the tool is a useful demonstration in how each of our choices can have a positive impact. “You may be surprised at how much impact your personal or family clothing preferences have on the environment,” said Phil Patterson, managing director of Colour Connections. “Doing one fewer tumble drying cycle per week saves 170 EDU’s, which is enough to make the fabric for 50 pairs of underpants.” That’s a lot of skivvies!
Source: Ecotextile News
Read More