Most of us don’t fully understand the environmental impact of our clothes. From their production, to the materials that make them, all the way to transportation and washing, clothes can make quite a dent on the environment.

While more and more people seem to be recycling their old attire, according to the U.S. EPA Office of Solid Waste, Americans still throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person per year. Clothing and other textiles represent about four percent of the municipal solid waste stream.

The materials used to make the clothes we buy also matter:

• Polyester, the most commonly used manufactured fiber, is made from petroleum in an energy-intensive process that emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and acid gases into the air. The process also uses a large amount of water for cooling.
• The manufacturing of nylon emits nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with a carbon footprint 310 times that of carbon dioxide.
• Rayon, derived from wood pulp, often relies on clearing old growth forests to make way for water-hungry eucalyptus trees, from which the fiber is derived.
• Cotton, found in most clothing, is the most pesticide-dependent crop in the world. It takes one-third of a pound of pesticides to make one t-shirt.

When manufacturing clothes, dyeing requires a hefty amount of water, and its fixatives often flow into rivers and sewers. Also, all “easy care” and “permanent press” cottons are treated with formadehyde.

Why not reduce your environmental impact by buying recycled clothes and recycling your own? You can do your part to increase the current statistic that every American purchases an average of only 10 pounds of recycled clothing per year.