Dallas-Fort Worth, North Central Texas
Clothing and Home/Office Furnishings
What We Wear Truly Matters in the Green Scheme of DFW

Since much of the clothing we buy today is manufactured in another country, it seems that clothing would not matter to DFW. 

But it certainly does.

Where we buy it, how we clean it, and where and how we dispose of it has an immediate effect on DFW and North Central Texas. In some cases, we are using resources of the planet which has an eventual effect on us. 

Nowhere does this quote of Dr. Clive Splash, an ecological economist, seem more appropriate than when it applies to clothing,  "People buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like."

Wearing Apparel

Much of the clothing we wear is highly toxic to the planet and all of its inhabitants. Yet how much do we know about this? And even if we have vague knowledge of it, how many times do we think of this when we buy clothing?

Let's look at the problems then some of the solutions, such as voting with your dollar!

Cotton

Cotton is one of the most pesticide intensive crops grown worldwide. When we buy cotton clothing or other cotton products, we support (vote for) a highly  toxic crop. Cotton uses more than 25% of all the insecticides in the world and 12% of all the pesticides. Cotton growers use 25% of all the pesticides used in the US. Yet cotton is farmed on only 3% of the world¹s farmland. More about cotton.

Nylon

Nylon is made from petrochemicals and its manufacture produces nitrous oxide. Since it is not biodegradable, our nylon jackets don't wear out but they do stay in the landfill forever.

Polyester

Polyester is also made from petrochemicals and uses immense amounts of fresh water to cool it. Also not biodegradable. so those out of style polyester clothes are also in the landfill forever. 

Leather

Tanning leather requires a host of toxic chemicals that pollute air & water as well endangering health. 

Precious Metals

Although most of us don't  buy many gold or silver items, mining precious metals uses toxic chemicals (cyanide, mercury) to leach the metals out of rock and these chemicals then pollute water and farmland. 

Fabric

Once the fabric is finished, it is usually bleached and dyed, often with chemicals that cause cancer and pollute our waterways. "Permanent Press" is often treated with formaldehyde, another carcinogen we do not want in our waterways. 

Natural fabrics are better, of course, but not always, such as the case of cotton.

Cleaning Clothes

Even keeping our clothes clean can be hard on air, water, and the health of the planet's inhabitants, particularly dry cleaning. Dry cleaning uses perchlorotehylene which has been linked to miscarriages, male infertility, cancer, and reproduction problems. If that is not bad enough, it has been linked to disorders of the central nervous system. Drycleaners use almost 60 million pounds of this chemical each year, releasing at least 12 million pounds into the atmosphere. We bring the chemical home, hang it in our closets, and expose ourselves and our families to all the potential harms of perchloroethylene also known as perc.

You can also use detergents for washing clothes that are pollutants, of course.

So, will DFW and North Central Texas need to become one big nudist colony with a few of us covered in dirty clothing?

Not when we have organic fabrics and clothing, home furnishings designers who use them. 

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