My T-shirt
& the environment

• What is my T-shirt made of?
  • Polyester
  • Cotton
• How was it made?
• What is its effect on the environment?
• What should I do?

I've just bought myself a nice new T-shirt...

What is my T-shirt made of?

It's a mixture of polyester and cotton.

Polyester

The polyester in my T-shirt was made from a few spoonfuls of Venezuelan petroleum. At a refinery in the Netherlands Antilles, the petroleum was heated to a very high temperature to produce smaller molecules. This is necessary to make polyester.

After this, more processes were carried out at a chemical factory in Delaware, USA. These processes used heavy-metal catalysts.

POLYESTER: a kind of man-made cloth.

REFINERY: a place where petroleum is processed.

CATALYST: a substance that helps a chemical reaction to take place.

Cotton

The cotton for my T-shirt was grown in Mississippi, USA.
Before the cotton was planted, the field was sprayed with toxic pesticides.

While it was growing, the cotton crop was sprayed five times with pesticides. Most of the pesticides were organo-phosphates, chemicals that damage people's central nervous system.

Finally, the crop was sprayed with defoliant so that the leaves would not stain the cotton.

COTTON: a plant with soft, white fibres that are used to make cloth. This cloth is also called cotton.

TOXIC: poisonous; harmful.

PESTICIDES: Chemicals that are sprayed on plants to kill insects.

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM:

DEFOLIANT: Chemicals that are used to kill the leaves of plants.

How was it made?

The cotton and polyester were combined at a textile factory in North Carolina, USA. Workers used strong industrial chemicals to bleach, dye and 'finish' the cloth.

The cloth was then taken to a Taiwanese-owned factory in Honduras. Here, the T-shirt was made by women workers who earned about 30 cents an hour.

COMBINED: mixed together.

BLEACH: (v) to take the colour out of something. (here - the natural colour of the cotton)

DYE: to give a new colour to something.

FINISH to make the cloth ready for sewing.

What is the effect on the environment?

Making polyester pollutes the air.
25% of the T-shirt's weight became air pollution. The chemicals that were released into the air included nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrocarbons, particulates, carbon monoxide and heavy metals: These chemicals have a negative effect on breathing, lung and heart diseases, and the immune system.

Growing cotton accounts for 10% of the world's total use of pesticides. Many of these pesticides are harmful to health.

LUNGS: organs that fill with air when we breathe.

IMMUNE SYSTEM: the system in our bodies that helps to fight disease.

What should I do?

• I shouldn't buy clothes made from synthetic cloth.
• I should buy clothes made from natural-fibres which have been organically grown if I can find them!

SYNTHETIC: artificial; man-made

NATURAL-FIBRES: materials that come from plants or animals. (like cotton or wool)

ORGANICALLY GROWN: grown without using chemicals.