How to dress in an eco-friendly way

Brut America

How can we dress more sustainably?   Here is episode 6 of our series of stories on eco-citizen initiatives with French author Julien Vidal.

Transcript

00:00Just a coat is 110 kg of raw material.

00:04The production of a t-shirt in water is the equivalent of 70 showers.

00:08And even worse, a jean travels 65,000 km before arriving in our closet,

00:14that is, once and a half around the world.

00:16How long does it take to produce a t-shirt?

00:27On average, we only wear our clothes 5 to 10 times.

00:30And the waste, at the national level, is even worse,

00:33since out of the 5 million tons of textiles that are put up for sale each year,

00:364 million end up in the trash.

00:38So today, we're going to see together how to lengthen the lifespan of our clothes

00:41and how to consume them more sustainably.

00:43How to lengthen the lifespan of your clothes?

00:49I've just sorted out the clothes that I don't necessarily wear,

00:53and I realize that there are a lot of them that I've put aside.

00:55And rather than keeping them at home,

00:57taking the dust in my pantry,

00:59it's more interesting to give them to an association that will give them a second life.

01:03And then on this side, I put the things that need to be repaired.

01:07So here, the classic sock hook, which has a small hole.

01:10I don't know how to do it, I don't know how to fix it.

01:12So here, typically, it's the kind of thing that I'm going to take to a repair café,

01:16where specialists will be able to help me repair it

01:19and lengthen the lifespan of this pants.

01:33So here I have clothes that I wear that I don't know how to repair,

01:35and that's a good thing, there are 150 repair cafés

01:38spread all over the French territory,

01:40where there are people who have the know-how

01:42and who will help me lengthen the lifespan of my clothes.

01:47Hello Thérèse.

01:48Hello, how are you?

01:49I'm fine, and you?

01:50I greet you.

01:52I have two things to repair.

01:54Can I sit with you?

01:55Yes.

01:56You'll see.

01:57No problem.

01:58It's going to be doable.

01:59And even the ideal is that you show me how we're going to do it, right?

02:02Absolutely, absolutely.

02:03And that it's less than they do.

02:04I'll make you hold the needle.

02:06Great.

02:07Because that's typically the kind of thing that happens to me often

02:09and that I'd like to do again.

02:10Absolutely.

02:21It allows you not to throw away the fabric,

02:23because from the moment we're missing something,

02:26we feel like we can't wear it anymore.

02:28That's right.

02:29Sometimes we're really in the absurd,

02:31whereas we could replace the zipper,

02:33or the button,

02:34or do what you're doing, for example.

02:37A priori, even by hand, without a machine,

02:39you can repair your clothes.

02:41Yes, that's great.

02:42It doesn't move anymore.

02:43Great.

02:46So, the sock too.

02:47It's here.

02:52460 grams.

02:53There you go.

02:54Magnificent.

02:55Thank you for my pants.

02:56It's going to keep me warm all summer.

02:58And I think I'll give you a kiss.

03:01Goodbye.

03:02Goodbye.

03:08I was really lucky.

03:09I was able to avoid throwing away

03:11more than 400 grams of clothes

03:13that should have ended up in the trash.

03:15And now I'm going to keep wearing these pants for a long time, I hope.

03:18From time to time,

03:19unfortunately, we have to go through the purchase option.

03:21And there are either opportunities,

03:23or brands in France that are moving

03:25to offer more eco-friendly and environmentally friendly clothes.

03:33Hello, sir.

03:34Hello, Saul.

03:35Clément, how are you?

03:36Good, and you?

03:37Laurent.

03:38Nice to meet you, Laurent.

03:39So, we're with you two.

03:40Laurent from Malterre,

03:42we're on the knitting side.

03:44And you, Clément, with Opal,

03:46we're on the finished product side.

03:48We can see it in your beautiful jacket.

03:49And I have a question for you.

03:51What is an eco-responsible garment?

03:53It's a very broad word.

03:55But at Opal, there are two things that are important to me.

03:58There's the recycling part.

04:01So, using recycled materials

04:03that have not consumed virgin resources.

04:05And the local side, Made in France.

04:07So, that's where we're going to work with Laurent.

04:09How can we support his company

04:11by using recycled materials?

04:13Yes, because we imagine organic resources.

04:15We say that at least they use less chemicals, pesticides.

04:18But in fact, there is already a whole material that exists.

04:21It's the material of the clothes that we're going to throw away

04:24and that could be reused.

04:26Yes, absolutely.

04:27Clothes are a raw material,

04:29recycled, ground, purified,

04:31re-transformed into fiber, then into thread.

04:33So, we're at the end of the line.

04:35But it's still interesting to think

04:37that we can get materials to destroy

04:39or throw away

04:41to recycle them into clothes.

04:43And this is also done with natural materials,

04:45clothes,

04:46but with bottles that we get from anywhere

04:48to re-transform them into fiber and polyester threads.

04:52Can you show me how it works?

04:54Let's go.

05:00So, we're going to see all this.

05:02Yes.

05:03Impressive, isn't it?

05:06Here, we're not recycling, we're using organic cotton.

05:08Yes.

05:09Here, too.

05:11These are recycled bottles.

05:13We always say that the bank card is a ballot.

05:16When you buy an organic bottle of milk,

05:18you don't buy an organic bottle of milk.

05:20You send a signal to the distributor

05:22that you want organic.

05:23You send a signal to the dealer saying,

05:25I want Made in France.

05:26I want organic.

05:27I want Made in France.

05:28I want Responsable.

05:29What does the seller hear?

05:31He hears the message.

05:32And then, what does he do?

05:33He re-dynamizes the production.

05:35It's really important.

05:37But we were not used to it.

05:38We were used to the 5 euro t-shirt.

05:41How do you do it?

05:42In the 5 euro t-shirt,

05:44you pay for the thread.

05:46The thread.

05:47The thread coil.

05:49That's it.

05:50Basically.

05:52And then, the manufacturing,

05:54the pre-coating,

05:55the dyeing,

05:56all that is free.

05:57And that's where we get to aberrations.

05:59I mean,

06:00the 5 euro t-shirt

06:02doesn't remunerate the person who works on it.

06:05Or there is an economic effect on the material.

06:08And it's done in a slightly opaque and polluting way.

06:11What's the point of wearing something

06:12that was made by children

06:13in Petahuchnok,

06:14I don't know where,

06:15in conditions,

06:16as we saw in the reports,

06:17that would make you vomit.

06:18Today, there are people

06:19who open the car window

06:21and throw the plastic bottle

06:22through the window.

06:23And you have those behind who pick them up.

06:26We choose our time.

06:28The 5 euro t-shirt,

06:29we know what time it is.

06:31Thank you, gentlemen.

06:32And bravo for your work,

06:33bravo for your passion.

06:35Goodbye.

06:38Today, society is changing

06:39and being fashionable

06:40is consuming less but better.

06:42Exactly what we can do with our clothes,

06:44by reducing our impact on the planet

06:46and by valuing the people

06:47who are behind the manufacturing.

06:49Because changing your world

06:50is changing the world

06:51and participating in the construction

06:52of a better world,

06:53it starts with me.

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