When I was 16 years old, I lost a lot of weight, which lead me to want to purchase a ton of new jeans. But, because I was only 16, I couldn’t afford anything more than a couple pairs of jeans that cost no more than $20 from a store in the mall.
I now know that I probably forced a group of underpaid factory workers to make a few pairs of jeans that I eventually didn’t fit into in another year’s time, and that those jeans became part of a landfill. On top of the 1,800 gallons of water used to make just one of those pairs of jeans, denim has an extremely harmful impact on the environment. The cotton crops are doused in pesticides and other harmful chemicals that poison the soil, which creates both air and water pollution.
And don’t even get me started on the dyeing process: denim is naturally off-white, but synthetic indigo, which is an extremely toxic material, is usually used to dye the fabric. The dyeing process includes the use of petrochemicals, indoxyl sulphate, caustic soda, formaldehyde and sodium phenyl glycinate — all of this just to make blue jeans. The denim-making and -dyeing processes also create immense amounts of waste and contaminated water, and around the globe, there are rivers turning blue due to all of the indigo-rinsing that takes places within them. The workers who dye the denim often wear little protection for their skin, eyes and lungs.
It’s hard to believe that this process is deemed to be normal. How can we treat our earth this way just to wear jeans? How can we put the people who make this fabric at risk and harm the ecosystem just for our new pants?
But every villain story has a hero, so let me introduce you to Etica Denim. Etica Denim is a low-impact denim company that offers full transparency into its production process. Etica values corporate social responsibility and allows its customers to see every step that their pair of jeans followed before getting into their hands.
Remember when I mentioned how much damage was done to create a single pair of jeans? Etica is known for using Jeanologia, a sustainable eco-technology equipment based in Spain. The use of Jeanologia’s equipment allows Etica to decrease its water usage by 90% and chemical usage by 70%, compared to industry average. That is a weight off my shoulders already.
For my Storytelling for Sustainability class, I went to the Coterie Show at the Javits Center and spoke with Michelle Marsh, the brand director at Etica Denim. Marsh explained the cleaning process of Etica’s denim: the water is converted into nanobubbles and then washed with a vapor that essentially saves gallons of water in every load.
Because of this process, the brand can clean and recycle the water used at the factory, then use that water for farmland in the region where it is located. Etica is aware that not every brand is perfect in its practices, and that’s why the brand uses Jeanologia’s Environmental Impact Measurement software to track its energy consumption, water and chemical usage. Through this software, the brand knows the impact made with every pair of jeans.
Etica’s efforts are paving the way for future companies, and that makes me feel hopeful. Sometimes the numbers are discouraging, and the need to slow down the fashion industry’s production is dire due to the impacts that creating mass-produced clothing has had on our earth. Etica is setting the example that it is possible to be transparent and still run a functioning business by making desirable, fashionable products responsibly.
If I could give the insight and knowledge that I have now to 16-year-old me when I first learned about cheap jeans, I think it would have sparked the conversation of my own climate change work sooner. I believe that this would have allowed me to explore brands that care, such as Etica, sooner. We’re all trying to fight this climate crisis, and with companies like Etica Denim, I see what is possible — and that is a big relief.
