The Life Cycle of A T-SHIRT

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We all have owned a basic white T-shirt. They are quite cheap to be honest, do we actually know why they are so cheap? Let us answer that question with just 1 word; BULK.

Basic clothing items are made in very large quantities which what determines the price to be so cheap. Consider the classic white t-shirt. Annually, we sell and buy 2 billion t-shirts globally, making it one of the most common garments in the world. But how and where is the average t-shirt made, and what’s its environmental impact?

According to a study published in 2009 in the UK, the material, production and transport phases of one t-shirt weighing approximately 6 ounces produced in India uses: 700 gallons of water, .22 pounds of fertilizers, .01 pounds of pesticides and 1.2 pounds of fossil fuels! THIS IS ALL TO JUST MAKE 1 SHIRT! Lets walk through the steps of how a piece of fabric is actually made. Once the cotton is grown and harvested, the production process really begins. It takes spinning, kinniting, bleaching, dyeing, cutting and sewing. All these processes use much water and lots and lots of energy. Considering this process is made in bulk, we can assume commercial factories use very large amount of water and energy.