It’s often come in our mind that how often we should wash our denim jeans in a while. Our love for denim clothes is shown throughout the year, whether we are going to college, office, or hanging out with friends. As the winters are hitting Canada, we probably re-wear our favorite pair of jeans again and find ourselves questioning the same confusion.
You may hear about the bad rap of Denim jeans regarding the environment – as dyes used in production to color jeans are toxic chemicals and the large amounts of water used to manufacture single jeans. The Stephen Leahy, author of The Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts About How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products, said, “it takes 7,600 liters of water to make one pair of jeans. This figure takes into consideration the growing of the cotton, as well as manufacturing, but does not account for the number of times the jeans will be washed during their lifecycle.”
As a result of such clicking tongue figures, some fashion labels like Reformation are working towards tackling the issue by manufacturing environmental friendly jeans, using original cotton, and can be renewable and with other alternative fiber like TENCEL Lyocell, this a semi-synthetic fiber identical to cotton made from renewable wood material.
But, this still doesn’t eliminate our jean-cleaning questions. So we went to ask from Ref’s founder, Yael Aflalo, for her suggestion, she said, “it’s the same as something you have tried during 10th-grade science. When it comes to denim, consider bagging and putting your jeans in the freezer for a day or two. This will kill bacteria and odors and will keep your jeans in better shape.” This sounds like a win-win tip for us.
However, if you find the need to wash your jeans, Aflalo stated, “Up to two-thirds of our environmental impact occurs at home when we are washing our garments. If necessary, wash using cold water and skip the dryer, only wash as needed and use that spot cleaner.” Aflalo also says that she likes to avoid the dryer to add the eco-friendly bonus. She said, “hanging denim to dry in the open air – it can reduce up to 700 pounds of greenhouse gases.”
