• Clothing

    • A T-shirt is not just a T-shirt. Most clothes are made from cotton and cotton is one of the dirtiest industries in the world. When you buy cotton products, you risk taking part in some really bad stuff!

    • Clothing

  • Water use in cotton production

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  • globally, this year

    • Cotton uses immense quantities of water

    It takes 10,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of cotton, meaning it takes about 2,700 liters to make 1 cotton t-shirt. When you buy clothing you therefore “use” water from wherever the cotton was produced.

    Devastating consequences

    Have you heard about the Aral Sea? Once the 4th largest lake in the world, but now virtually gone - mainly because of cotton cultivation. It has been called one of the planet's worst environmental disasters by the UN. You can see for yourself in this video.

    Deadly dust

    Instead of the lake, 43 million tons of pesticide-laden dust is blown into the air every year. The Aral Sea region suffers from the highest rates of throat cancer in the world - representing 80 percent of the cases of cancer.

    Cause heavy pollution

    Hazardous pesticides commonly use for cotton production are often found in nearby water resources. In Uzbekistan, groundwater at depths up to 150 meters is often polluted with pesticides. Around 85 percent of the population suffers from poor health as a result of unsafe drinking water.

    Raining pesticides

    Rain water in a Brazilian cotton region contained 19 different pesticides - 12 of which were used in cotton production.

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  • OK, I get it. Bad things are going on
  • Now what?