You can get #cotton #bags pretty much everywhere. How did an environmental #solution become part of the #problem?

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/style/cotton-totes-climate-crisis.html

An organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall impact of production, according to a 2018 study by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark. That equates to daily use for 54 years — for just one bag.

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It’s also associated with forced labor, thanks to revelations about the treatment of Uyghurs in #Xinjiang, #China, which produces 20 percent of the world’s cotton and supplies most Western fashion brands.

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You can’t, for example, just put a #tote in a #compost bin: Maxine Bédat, a director at the New Standard Institute, a nonprofit focused on fashion and sustainability, said she has “yet to find a municipal compost that will accept textiles.”

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Some brands are turning to other #textile solutions. The British designer Ally Capellino recently swapped cotton for #hemp, while Ms. Hindmarch introduced a new version of her original tote, this time made from recycled water bottles; Nordstrom also uses similar bags in its stores.

#environment #economy #fashion #future #news #recycling #supermarket #shopping