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Real Green Living

FEATURE ARTICLE - JULY/AUGUST 2005

Better Back-to-School Clothes

Feel good about this year's back-to-school purchases by choosing clothes made from eco-friendly fabrics under sweatshop-free conditions.

As we near the end of summer, many parents (and grandparents) among us will be going through their children’s closets, pulling out items that have been outgrown or are worn, moving pieces that are still wearable to the center hangers, and assessing what new clothing items their children need for the back-to-school season.

While you’re scouring those back-to-school sales, consider greening your child’s wardrobe. From Fair Trade pieces to items made from eco-fabrics, attractive, responsible clothing options exist for children of all shapes and sizes. Some options—particularly buying used clothing and swapping items with family and friends—will save you money as well.

We’re focusing this article on children’s clothing, because many readers have asked us how they can green their children’s wardrobes. But the clothing options we mention can be enjoyed by people of all ages, and many of the stores that offer kids’ clothes sell items for adults.

Eco-Friendly Fabrics

Soft, strong, and grown without toxins, environmentally friendly fabrics are ideal for clothing your children—and yourself.

ORGANIC COTTON: Worldwide, cotton crops use more than 10 percent of all pesticides, which translates into one-third of a pound of chemicals needed to grow a pound of cotton, according to the Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP). What this means is workers and people who live around cotton fields are exposed to dangerous levels of pesticides on a daily basis. In India, says the SCP, 91 percent of male cotton farm workers regularly exposed to pesticides eight hours or more per day experience some type of health disorder, including chromosomal aberrations, cell death, and cell decay. These chemicals often persist in the environment, where they can affect entire populations and wildlife.

Organic cotton, on the other hand, is grown without the use of chemical inputs. By choosing organic cotton, you’re helping to shift cotton production from being chemically intensive to chemical-free.

ORGANIC WOOL: A handful of companies are now offering organic wool products, which means that the sheep from which the wool comes are fed organic feed and are not treated with synthetic hormones or pesticides.

HEMP: Hemp is easily grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Companies that offer organic or pesticide-free hemp ensure that no chemicals were used in growing the hemp. Though related to the cannabis plant, hemp is non-psychoactive.

ORGANIC LINEN: Like hemp, linen is also easily grown without chemical inputs, and it takes five to twenty times less water and energy to produce than cotton. Look for organic or pesticide-free linen to ensure no chemicals were used in cultivating linen fibers.

ECO-FLEECE: Though fleece is made from polyester, a petroleum by-product, many companies are now closing the waste loop by making their fleece from used plastic bottles.

What "Organic" Means

When shopping for organic fabrics, keep in mind that federal organic standards only cover the raw fiber harvesting. Once the organic fiber leaves the farm, there are no federal standards in place, meaning your fabrics could be treated with chemicals later in the process, including bleaches, dyes, or finishers.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) hasdeveloped voluntary standards that address all stages of textile processing. Holly Givens, OTA’s communications director, says that OTA’s voluntary standards are based on international organic standards for fabrics, and they include guidelines for post-harvest handling, bleaching, dyeing, printing, product assembly, storage and transportation, pest management, and labeling.

Although just purchasing clothing made from fibers that are farmed organically keeps significant amounts of harmful chemicals out of the air and soil, you can also ask companies whether they have organic production standards in place. Many OTA-member clothing companies have embraced their voluntary production standards, and other green companies have enacted similar standards—be sure to ask before making a purchase.

A WORD ON DYES: OTA organic fabric standards require that certain kinds of chemical dyes not be used when producing organic clothing. Most OTA-member clothing companies, as well as several green companies, use low-impact dyes, which still may contain chemicals but include far fewer toxins than conventional dyes. If you’re concerned about the chemicals in low-impact dyes, look for unbleached, undyed clothing, clothing dyed with vegetable extracts, or clothing made from “colorgrown” cotton (also called FoxFibre™). Colorgrown cotton naturally grows in sage green, brown, or terra cotta colors, making dyes unnecessary.

Caring for Clothing Workers

Finally, there are the working conditions of textile workers around the world to consider when purchasing clothing. Clothing and textile workers are often subjected to abusive, unhealthy conditions and low wages that don’t meet their basic needs.

To ensure that the workers who made your children’s clothes were paid a fair price and worked in healthy conditions, look for Fair Trade clothes, such as items sold by members of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF). FTF is an association of Fair Trade wholesalers, retailers, and producers whose members are committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to artisans and farmers worldwide.

You can also find clothing from retailers in our National Green Pages™. To be included in the Green Pages™, retailers must demonstrate a strong and continuous commitment to caring for the Earth, their community, their customers, and workers all across their supply chains. (All FTF members are in the Green Pages™.)

Where to Buy

Try the following sources to find the greenest clothes for your children—and yourself:

BUY USED: When it comes to outfitting growing kids, nothing beats a bargain. Swap with friends, and scour garage sales and secondhand stores for cheap, quality items. Online auction sites can yield bargains in bulk: enter your child’s size and gender on eBay.com’s search engine, for example, to find entire lots of nearly new clothes for sale.

BUY GREEN AND FAIR TRADE: See the box below for retailers that sell green and Fair Trade clothing for children. For eco-clothing for the whole family, check out the “Clothing” and “Baby Products” categories in our National Green Pages™.

—Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

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