The life cycle of jeans

Anton Luiken

NVRD-project
Chain management jeans
 Jeans
• Names
– (corduroy) fabric from Genoa – Jeans
– Blue de Nimes – Denim

• Generally:
– Cotton fabric, twill
– Relatively heavy cloth
– Dyed with indigo
– Making up to a pair of jeans, strengthened with (copper) rivets
– Bleached or mechanically treated to get a worn look
– Leather (look) label

– Started as work wear in gold mines appr. 1860

– Became fashionable in 1950’s
– Generally accepted fashion article in 1960’s
– Image wear in 1990’s
 Jeans – Life cycle
• Cotton production
• Spinning
• Dyeing of warp-yarns
• Weaving
• Garment production
• Finishing
• Packaging
• Transport
• Use, care and maintenance
• End-of-life
 Environmental aspects

• Cotton production
– Water
– Pesticides, herbicides
– Fertilizers
– Area in use for cotton production
– Energy use
– Emission green house gases
 Environmental aspects

• Spinning / weaving
– Energy consumption
– Dust
– Waste material
 Environmental aspects
• Dyeing
– Chemical use
• Bleaching agents
• reductive agents
– Dyes (production)
– Waste water
– Energy
 Environmental aspects

• Garment production
– Solid waste
– Dust
– Labour conditions
– Combination of materials
• Acetate (labels)
• Rivets
 Environemtal aspects

• Finishing
– Bleaching
• Chemicals
• Enzymatic treatment
– Mechanical treatment
• Sand blasting
• Stone washing
• Grinding
 Environmental aspects

• Packaging
– Solid waste

• Transport
– Energy consumption
 Environmental aspects

• Use, care & maintenance

– Water
– Washing chemicals
– Energy
 Environmental aspects

• End-of-life
– Incineration
– Landfill
– Reuse (2nd hand)
– Unraveling into fibres
 Data on textile fibres
Units Fibre
Cotton Wool Polyester
Fibre production
- energy MJ/kg 60 57 97
- oil/gas kg/kg 1,5
- fertilizers g/kg 457 100
- pesticides g/kg 16 5
- water l/kg 22200 1140 17
- CO2-emission kg eq/kg 3 30 2,3

Textile production
- energy MJ/kg 40 20 33
- water l/kg 3900 1635 1291
- CO2-emission kg eq/kg 2,3 1,5 1,1
Mixed sources; textile production: mainly cleaning, bleaching, dyeing,finishing
 Environmental impact textile fibres

• Classification by Made By
– Class A
• Recycled cotton, recycled nylon, recyled polyester, organic
hemp, organic flax (linen)
– Class B
• Tencel, organic cotton, in conversion cotton
– Class C
• Conventional hemp, Ramee, Pla, Conventional flax (linen)
– Class D
• Virgin Polyester, poly-acrylic, Lenzing Modal
– Class E
• Conventional cotton, virgin nylon, rayon (cuproammonium),
Bamboo-viscose, wool, generic viscose
– Unclassified
• Silk, organic wool, leather, elasthan, acetate, cashmere,
alpaca
 Identitex sorting range
NIR
Sorting stations Rest
Top view fraction

Front view
 Innovation in reprocessing
• New equipment for improved opening of post
consumer textiles
– Longer fibres
– Better cleaning performance – removal of non-textile
components
• Buttons, zippers, accessories
• Producing spinnable fibre quality
• Production of textile products along “traditional”
lines
 Environmental impact jeans
• Difficult to assess due to many variables
• LCA gives some answers but difficult to perform
• Ecotools are much easier to use
– NIKE design tool
– Eco-index tool – American outdoor industry
• Modint Ecotool
– Easily accessible
– In short time first estimation of impact on
• Climate
• Energy use
• Water use
• Chemical consumption
• Land use
– No toxicological data!
Demonstration Modint ecotool

Jeans – vs recycled jeans