Forum Topic

Ignorance is bliss

I was absolutely stunned to learn that it takes 750 gallons of water to produce 1 tee-shirt  = too roughly 3 years drinking water (WWF)1800 gallons to produce 1 pair of jeansHave since researched this and found some amazing water wastage factsFind it totally unbelievable  What wasteage!

Barbara Shillabeer ● 1194d7 Comments

Water is a problem.  All our rivers are polluted.  Sewage kerpx being dumped by water companies anc the Govt lets them,Our tap water is drinking water unlike in many other countries.  That's lovely but we don't need all our water to be.  Our rainwater in Lonfon generally all runs into the sewers with sewage.  We could do more rainwater harvesting here and more of us could install water butts.  Them we have a water shortage we will be more prepared.  In Oxfordshire I remember people complaining about a reservoir being built to provide water for those people in London!Particular foodstuffs are very water thirsty like those avocadoes.  People in Chile have complained that the avocadoes get all the good water and they don't - they get rubbish water. That's not something that is advertised.

Philippa Bond ● 1181d

Ignorance is simply ignorance - bliss is understanding reality and accepting it for what it is when it is good and achieving change for the better when it is not.

Clifford Cowell ● 1183d

Good point. The average UK person "wastes" (ie uses) 4 million litres of water in their lifetime. Absolutely none of it is destroyed or really wasted - it is part of a cycle.The issue should be whether the water is a scarce resource. Crops like cotton and avocados are planted where water is available or can be provided. No-one dies of thirst as a result. Energy use is more of a concern since it usually contibutes to the production of additional greenhouse gases.

Michael Winstanley ● 1184d

One in three fashion buys now gets sent back...  but if you don't want it/it doesn't fit please do this rather than leave it until it is totally out of fashion even if fashion does usually eventually come around...https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10458345/What-really-happens-internet-shopping-returns.html It can work so much better when you can at least check whether something fits by trying it on first before you buy!

Philippa Bond ● 1187d

You may be surprised how far it has travelled and that's just before you and the t-shirt hooked up...https://theconversation.com/what-your-t-shirt-reveals-about-carbon-colonialism-and-the-global-economys-vast-hidden-emissions-177956

Philippa Bond ● 1188d

Fast fashion is a big problem.  Buying things on credit increases the way we spend and the speed.  We no longer just buy because of need.  I was horrified recently of the amount of stuff people buy online and never wear or return.  Charity shops aren't the magic way to assuage all guilt either.  Space for them is important and if their goods don't sell fast enough they get rid of them.  That increasingly means being incinerated hopefully in exchange for some energy but doing that increases CO2.  So all that energy and water wasted in the growing and manufacture.Have you seen the pictures of all the dunes of clothing dumped in the Atacama desert?  That's sobering.It annoys me that fashion seems to require denim jeans to be stone-washed or tumbled and also torn before being sold so that so much actual wear in the garment is lost in the process.  Jeans used to be as stiff as cardboard when bought new and we used to have to lie in the bath to get them to fit (and wriggle into them)!  We also patched them as in the Neil Young LP cover whilst sadly many youngsters nowadays seem to struggle to sew a button on.  :(There is however a Repair Revolution happening and there are some interesting Japanese mending methods.

Philippa Bond ● 1191d

I always wonder about these statistics. Very few industrial processes 'destroy' water. Most either heat it or pollute it. Both can be returned to clean water with some processing. It's energy usage, not water 

Sean Hodges ● 1193d