WITH nearly 4,000 litres of water and 65,000km travelled for an average lifespan of just four years, the figures relating to the environmental impact of manufacturing and using a single pair of jeans are striking, especially considering that some 2.3 billion models are sold each year worldwide.
Jeans are an essential part of everyone’s wardrobe, but, from an environmental perspective, they require special attention because of their extremely polluting nature, from the beginning to the end of their lifespan.
For some time now, jeans have (finally) begun their transformation to a more sustainable future, driven by companies and brands committed to making them greener.
Alternatives to cotton
Making jeans more sustainable often means finding fibres that are less polluting than cotton, the material synonymous with traditional denim.
Some brands have made considerable progress on the matter by using recycled cotton — most of the time mixed with conventional cotton — as well as organic cotton, which requires less water and toxic substances, and has a smaller carbon footprint than conventional cotton.
A French brand,called 1083, has gone even further by, for the first time, proposing a pair of jeans made from French cotton.
Not content with working to relocate all expertise, and therefore all manufacturing stages of its jeans, to France, the label has now presented the first 100 per cent French cotton fibre, sourced both from the land and from the recycling of old jeans.
Other, more or less widely known alternatives to cotton are now being used to varying extents in jeans.
Linen and hemp, two long-lasting and resistant materials, grown with very little water, and even less pesticides, are increasingly present in the denim department.
And for good reason, since their impact on the environment is generally much lower than that of cotton. The same is true for kapok, a natural, vegetable fibre that could soon become an essential alternative to cotton.
Making jeans from waste
Just like second hand shopping, upcycling is a booming eco-responsible practice. By adding value to pre-used objects and materials, it has, in recent months, notably turned all kinds of waste into highly desirable — and essential — raw materials.
And jeans are no exception.
Fashion companies started by collecting old models to give them a second life, but now they’re also recycling — or rather upcycling — all kinds of waste to turn it into slim, bootcut, flared or straight-cut jeans.
Plastic bottles, wherever they are collected, can play a part in this, after being crushed and then transformed into threads and woven.
But while this material may be less harmful to the planet, it generally only makes up a small part of these jeans, for reasons of quality and resistance.
Note that Le Gaulois, Atelier Tuffery, Hast, 1083, Ecclo, Dao and Green Lion are among the brands that are already working to make jeans more environmentally friendly.
Some are going even further with initiatives that are as surprising as they are eco-responsible.
In 2022, for example, the Japanese brewery Sapporo Breweries, based in Hokkaido, presented the first jeans made from malt and hop waste.
This was achieved in collaboration with Shima Denim Works, a company that already makes clothes from bagasse, a leftover product from sugarcane processing.
The two companies turned the beer brewing waste into washi, a traditional Japanese paper, which then serves as the basis for spinning and weaving this new kind of denim.
Currently, production is limited to just a few dozen pairs of jeans, but it shows the potential of some waste products in the production of denim clothing.
From rental to repair
More and more brands are working to make jeans greener and more sustainable, but consumers have a role to play too, and they’re increasingly adopting new uses.
Resale is one of these new consumer behaviours that’s currently booming, the lifespan of clothing being a major concern. This also involves repairing clothes, whether through professionals or DIY.
Some online services now offer to repair jeans in just a few clicks, while others offer advice on how to mend them at home. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, repair services have been making a comeback all over the world, and are adapting to modern lifestyles with the possibility, for example, of having clothes to repair picked up and returned by courier.
And if that’s not enough, it’s possible to take things to the next level by not owning any jeans at all, instead relying solely on rental.
The brand Mud Jeans lets shoppers buy or rent models for almost the same amount of money, with the possibility — or not — of becoming the outright owner of a rented garment after 12 months of use.
The idea is simple — you just have to choose the jeans and sign up, then commit to a 12-month rental period.
Then, you’ll have to decide whether to keep them or send them back for exchange or recycling. A process that helps to fight against overproduction and waste, and which could gradually become the norm. – ETXDailyUp
