2- Blending

3- Spinning

4- Warping

5- Dieying

6- Beaming and sizing

7- Weaving

Water Usage: Cotton cultivation depends on massive amounts of water. It's necessary, almost 3.000 liters of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt. The high irrigation contributes to water scarcity and environmental degradation. 

Use of Chemicals: Cotton farming is strongly dependent on pesticides and chemicals. These substances lead to soil degradation, harm non-target organisms, and pollute the water, affecting marine life.

Soil Degradation: 

The usage of heavy machinery and the dependence on fertilizers disturb the soil structure and end its nutrients. This degradation weakens the soil's ability to support plant growth, increases susceptibility to erosion, and reduces the soil’s fertility.

USA main jeans brands; Levi Strauss & Co., Wrangler, and American Eagle Outfitters

Train: Diesel fuel

Boat: Bunker fuel/Diesel fuel

Airship:Petroleum based fuel

These methods of transportation are cheaper than most but present terrible consequences. Jeans manufacturers tend to choose to prioritize cutting corners and expenses instead of worrying and reflecting on the consequences.

They use the 4zero approach which includes:

a.) Zero manual work by increasingly adopting laser technology to create various levels of fades

b.) No PP spray is applied during washing process. Crystal International utilises environmentally friendly chemicals to partially remove the denim colour and oxidise the denim fabric

c.) No hypochlorite is applied to bleach and decolourise indigo from denim. Crystal International uses eco chemicals as the oxidising agents to create different oxidising effects. To assure the eco-friendliness, the chemical used in the 4Zero washing processes are ZDHC MRSL conformance level 3 chemicals, the highest level of ZDHC conformity

d.) Stones are abolished to eliminate the problem of environmental disposition of waste, wastewater, as well as the damage to machines resulting from stone washing process. Traditionally, washing stones are used to cause wear and tear of the fabric, and to generate stonewash look, where denim is required to be washed several times"

• 360i Research

This shows that a more sustainable jeans production is possible, but how due to most brand owners incessant search for profits, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Specifically the fast fashion business is linked to consumerism, globalization, capitalism, structural poverty, and oppression.

And, if that weren’t shocking on its own, keep in mind that we also buy 60% more clothes than in the year 2000.

This leads to ridiculous quantities of textile waste: 18.6 million tonnes of clothing being thrown away around the world… every year.

• Production of fibres by polymer extrusion or agriculture makes the largest contribution to the carbon footprint of clothing;

• The greatest quantity of water is used during the growing and production of fibres;

• Choice of synthetic fibre and design of garments can result in significant differences in the emission of plastic microfibres to the environment;

• The best opportunity within the clothing lifecycle to increase longevity is at the design stage, as changes to design practices can have a significant impact on how long items remain wearable.

Textile production is a major contributor to climate change. It produces an estimated 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per year - more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. It is estimated that across the full lifecycle of clothing globally, the industry has an annual carbon footprint of 3.3 billion tonnes CO2e. That figure is close to the combined carbon footprint of all 28 current members of the EU (3.5 billion tonnes). The total carbon footprint of clothing in the UK is growing - rising from 24 million tonnes to 26.2 million tonnes per year in 2016, according to WRAP. If fashion continues on its current path, it could use more than 26% of the global carbon budget associated with a 2°C pathway by 2050, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

A single pair of cotton jeans consumes between 10,000 and 20,000 liters (2,600-5,300 gallons) of water along its supply chain. Add to that large doses of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, dyes and other chemicals that pollute soils and waterbodies, impacting wildlife and people, plus major energy expenditures that generate high greenhouse gas emissions.

Acids and heavy bleaches are also used. Many dyes and treatments contain highly toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium; azo nitrogen-compound dyes contain carcinogenic amines.

In the developing world, these dangerous substances are often handled by factory workers, who inhale fumes and dust due to a lack of proper protective equipment. Wider environmental contamination also occurs: In 2010, a Greenpeace investigation revealed cadmium levels of up to 128 times above the safe limit in the Chinese city of Xintang, where thousands of denim factories are based."

• Mongabay News

The water scarcity exacerbated by cotton production in arid regions has an impact on local communities - especially in low income countries. Major cotton producing countries such as China and India are already suffering from medium to high levels of water stress in certain areas.The Pulse of Fashion report warns that as water scarcity worsens in the future some cotton growing nations ‘may face the dilemma of choosing between cotton production and securing clean drinking water’.

The life cycle analysis data tell us [the UK Parliament] that the fibres that have the biggest environmental impact, because of the way they are grown, are cotton fibres [...] There are significant challenges in the use of highly toxic pesticides and overuse of fertilisers. There are issues of health and safety for workers, water consumption, carbon footprints."

• UK Parliament

• 80% of people stated that jeans are an essential wardrobe item

• 87% believe that this is fashion’s most needed item.

• Women represent the group that most consumes jeans.

• The age group is broader: 64% of consumers are aged between 25 and 44 years.

https://texbrasil.com.br

Located mostly in semiarid Uzbekistan, one of the world’s top 10 cotton producers, the Aral Sea has suffered from escalating desertification since the 1950s, when it was the world’s fourth-largest lake. From then on, the Soviet Union began aggressively diverting the rivers feeding the huge inland waterbody to irrigate pesticide-soaked crops, ultimately including 1.47 million hectares (3.63 million acres) of cultivated cotton."

• Mongabay News

It's one of the main reasons for the huge consumption and waste of clothes that happens every year. After the trend is over, in about two to four months, the clothing item becomes obsolete, or useless, since it's not trendy anymore.

This can be seen in several examples during recent trends, such as the low rise jeans, or ultra high rise jeans, in contradicting trends. After the trend is over, these items are traded for newer, trendier models, even when they're still as good as new.

Planned Obsolescence is one of the main contributors towards the very short lifespan of a pair of Jeans, and to their great consumption. This has a very large impact on the environment and leads to over consumption of clothes.