Cotton T-Shirt Production
Anna S.
Materials
Cotton
Equipment has to be used to prepare soil to plant the cotton, plant the cotton seeds, harvest the cotton, and to remove weeds that compete with the cotton. All of this equipment burns fossil fuels. Fertilizer and pesticides are often used, unless the cotton is farmed organically. Then cotton is pressed into bales to be shipped and processed into cloth.
Tags
Tags are typically made up of paper and attached to the shirt for sale. They are made up of paper, which comes from harvested trees. The tags that come attached to the shirt are often made of other cloth materials.
Dyes
Natural dyes, which are sometimes used, come from plants and organic matter. This is not highly damaging to the environment to produce, because it is all natural. Other dyes are created with chemicals.
Cardboard
In order to ship the t-shirts, they must be placed in boxes, which are typically made of cardboard. Cardboard is created from paper materials obtained through harvesting of trees.
Plastic
Plastic is used sometimes to attach tags to the shirt, and is also used for packaging. The primary resource used to make plastic is fossil fuels, and if not disposed of properly plastics are highly pollutive.
The Process
Cotton is grown
Then the cotton is processed into fabrics and threads
Then the fabrics (and sometimes threads) are dyed
Once the materials are brought together at a factory the process is highly automatic. The fabrics are cut certain ways and stitched together to form the shirt.
Once produced the shirts are either packaged in plastic bags, sometimes wrapped around cardboard, and then placed in boxes to be distributed.
- The t-shirts are distributed and sold to consumers
Product Use
Disposal
Reuse
The Three R's
Sources
"How Products Are Made." How T-shirt Is Made. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
"Surprisingly Compostable Textiles." Hearts Surprisingly Compostable Textiles Comments.
Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
"TeeTreeDesigns." Tee Tree Designs. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
"The Story of Cotton- How Cotton Is Grown." The Story of Cotton- How Cotton Is Grown.
Web. 26 Apr. 2015.