The environmental cost of a new pair of jeans could be enough to make a shopper blue.
Brand new jeans can have an environmental footprint that is 180 times higher than pre-loved ones, according to new research.
The data from Planetary Accounting Network uses a dashboard to calculate the environmental costs of everyday purchases, breaking down environmental data for a product, such as the amount of carbon produced, water used and waste created.
Planetary Accounting Network says by 2030, carbon needs to be limited to six kilograms per person per day – and waste to 2kg.
Secondhand jeans far more eco-friendly than new pair – research
Recycling champions Wanaka WasteBusters commissioned the research and general manager Gina Dempster told RNZ they wanted the data to figure out a number for the environmental benefits of second hand jeans over new ones.
“And what they found is that if you look at your average per-capita budget for a healthy planet, buying a second hand pair of jeans from WasteBusters uses about three percent of my daily budget, whereas just the fabric for a new pair of jeans could use up to five full days of my planetary budget, which would leave me nothing for food, transport and all the other things I have to do every day.”
She said the environmental cost of denim came from the water usage, the deforestation, and the use of nitrogen fertilisers in producing the denim.
“The reality is that if you buy a pair of jeans from an opshop, that pair of jeans has already been made, and then the environmental cost of just bringing those jeans into an opshop and running the shop and selling them is extremely low.
“So essentially they are kind of free for the environment.”
Gina Dempster from Wastebusters.
Wastebusters
She said it was well known that jeans used thousands of litres of water in their production, but knowing the footprint was 180 times higher “really makes you think about every pair of jeans that you’ve ever owned”.
Wanaka WasteBusters receives a “massive” amount of jeans with a huge rack of available pants, mostly selling for about $10-$15, according to Dempster.
“If it was a really high quality pair of jeans in new condition you might be paying up to $30, but that would be a pair of jeans that you might be paying $300-$500 for new.”
Dempster said it was hard for people to get a feel for the sheer amount of textile products that were going on to the second hand market.
“That’s one thing for our team, working at the drop-off every day, we see the amount of textiles that come through one opshop in one small town in New Zealand, and it’s honestly overwhelming.
“And you can’t solve this problem with reuse and recycling, we need to really think about the amount of textiles that we’re making, and change the way we are buying, and so for us, that is a very real problem because we see it every day.”