Did you know Cotton is the world’s largest pesticide consuming crop?

Cotton is the world’s most commonly used natural fiber and it makes up about 40% of our clothing. Cotton is also the world’s largest pesticide consuming crop and it takes an average of 150 grams of pesticides and other agriculture chemicals to produce the cotton for just one T-shirt.
This implies the textile production industry pumps billions of pollutants (pesticides and other chemicals) in the environment and perhaps this explains why our bees are disappearing, why our waters are becoming more polluted, why our land is increasingly becoming degraded, why our biodiversity is rapidly declining and why the climate is speedily changing.

Is there anything we can do to salvage the situation?

Yes, we can contribute in reducing the impact of textile pollution on the planet and below is a list of some simple things you can do;

1. Swap your clothes with your friends

You can organize a clothes exchange event where each person brings the clothes they no longer want and then you trade or swap for everyone to go back home with fresh items for the wardrobe.

2. Donate and Feel Great

There millions of people across the globe who do not have clothes. Donating your clothing is a great way to give back to the community while also clearing out space in your closet.

3. Be Creative and repurpose your old clothes

Check out online resources for creative ideas on how to turn an old t-shirt into something fresh and new. Or come up with your own ideas to re-fashion your clothing.

4. Sell your unwanted clothes

Resell your clothing online or at your neighborhood. This is a great way to earn some cash.

5. Invest in quality clothes and buy less

While donating, reselling, and recycling are nice, the fact of the matter is there’s already an excess of clothes in the secondhand system and this is a major issue which is why investing in quality clothing and buying less are very important in curbing textile pollution

What is ecodesigns doing?

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At ecodesigns, we are training young girls in textile recycling and fashion designing in a bid to fight youth unemployment and poverty as well as reduce textile pollution.
We can do more but we lack materials and machines to increase our textile recycling and women empowerment project. We have 11 trainees and 02 Training Directors but have just 06 machines which are not enough for the 13 young girls who are striving to get empowered as well as clean-up the world. It is for this reason that @ecodesigns is striving to raise funds to purchase 7 machines so that we can double our productivity and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our textile recycling and fashion designing training.