The NRDC asks: How Green Are Your Jeans? We Ask Do You Use Them for Insulation?
We used recycled-content dry blown-in cellulose insulation for most of our new house (http://house.seniorwomen.com), but when looking at Josie Glausiusz's article for the NRDC's magazine, OnEarth, questions arise as to the use of even some of the insulation made from blue jeans byproducts.
(We were glad to see that Wikipedia's page on cellulose states: "Another major reason for the comeback of cellulose might be because of the increased interest in green building. Cellulose has the highest recycled content of any insulation material and also has less embodied energy than fiberglass and other furnace produced mineral insulations.")
How Green Are Your Jeans? by Josie Glausiusz
Some 450 million pairs of jeans are sold in the United States each year — 1.5 pairs for every man, woman, and child. The average woman has eight pairs in her closet. Chances are that to make those jeans, cotton crops were drenched in pesticides; fibers were stained with toxic dyes; and the resulting fabric was sandblasted, chemically softened, and ripped and scrunched to create the wrinkles and tears that make new jeans look perfectly broken in.
There is another option: the eco-minded can invest in a pair of jeans woven from organic cotton, dyed with natural indigo, and faded with nontoxic ozone. These eco-jeans are pricier than the conventional pants peddled at your local superstore (though not necessarily costlier than high-fashion conventional jeans), but how much healthier for the environment are they? A close look at America's favorite apparel reveals some surprising wrinkles.
GROWING COTTON
Cotton is one of the world's thirstiest crops. About 1,500 gallons of water are required to produce the 1.5 pounds of cotton used to make a single pair of jeans, not including the water used to dye and finish the fabric. Let's not forget the insecticides: cotton growers use 25 percent of all such chemicals applied worldwide, including highly toxic organophosphates (chemical relatives of nerve gases used during World War II). Pesticide sprayers and farm equipment run on oil, and about a pound is required to harvest enough cotton for a single pair of jeans.
The makers of some "green" jeans sidestep pesticides and oil-guzzling machinery by opting for hand-picked organic cotton. Because pesticides are not applied to organic cotton, yields can be as much as 50 percent lower than those of conventionally produced cotton, which means more land may be needed to make organic jeans. Some manufacturers also use bamboo. It's a fast-growing, water-efficient crop that can be cultivated without pesticides and fertilizers, but turning it into a comfortable pair of jeans requires some nasty chemical treatments (details follow at Ms. Glausiusz's OnEarth article).