The Green Clothing Craze
December 15th, 2009 Posted in Green Living & News
The idea of being green has flooded the United States and most of the western world. It was only a matter of time before this craze made it to the clothing industry as well.
Eco-friendly pants, tee-shirts, shorts, dresses, and more, you name it, they’ve made it. Some companies are out to make profit in a strong and emerging market, while others are looking to make an impact on the environment and spread awareness.
Want to learn more?
The History Of Green Clothing
Organic clothing is when the clothing is produced naturally and without waste, while also being made out of natural materials like hemp, wool, or organic cotton. Organic hemp farming originated in 28th century B.C. throughout China’s developing provinces. Chinese nomads crafted the hemp, wove it, spun it, and made sacs and clothing from it.
Once the season was over, the Chinese would collect the hemp seeds. These practices lead to the spread of the industry throughout the rest of the country. This farming technique made it to the United States around 1629 during the American Revolution.
The slave trade increased the cotton market and vice versa, spreading the popularity of the markets throughout the southern United States. Kentucky produced all different types of rope from their hemp farming operation, selling their ropes worldwide. The United States military also used organic clothing for many of their uniforms during the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th century. Today, the trend to go green and organic has greatly improved the demand for organic clothing worldwide.
The Benefits Of Green Clothing
Organic cotton is exactly the same as regular cotton, the only difference is it isn’t grown with harmful pesticides or chemical fertilizers. This is harmful for the environment, the person picking it, and the person wearing the clothes. This is an important fact because cotton provides half of the world’s fiber needs.
Cotton is normally one of the most chemically dependent crops, using 10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of all harmful pesticides. That means 1/3 of a pound of chemicals could be on your cotton made t-shirt. Some companies and farms use natural pesticides, but most use nothing to maintain the vitality of the crops.
20,000 deaths occur every year in many third world countries due to harmful pesticide poisoning, according to the World Health Organization. It is much safer for workers to hand pick organic cotton because they don’t have to handle cotton exposed to harmful chemicals, that they could possibly inhale.
Where To Get Green Clothing
The only downside with organic clothing today is that it is still expensive to produce and subsequently purchase. It doesn’t have a large enough market to help bring down prices, but it is worth the extra money. The best place to go to find organic clothing is to get them on green clothing websites.
Many major retailers are starting to jump on the go green train and sell limited organic clothing, but for the most part sell conventional clothing. Walmart and Target have both picked up limited lines of green clothing to appeal to this new market, but it is still in its infancy.
Still growing and expanding, the organic clothing industry has long to go before coming a staple in every home, but until then the industry is doing its part to help with sustainability worldwide.
1 Comment | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!
By Tara @ Eco Living Tips on Dec 15, 2009
I have been buying what we call Green Clothes since the late 90’s before it was all the rage.