Background
Every year the world consumes over 80 billion pieces of clothing. The production of these articles often requires massive amounts of water, chemicals, and oil. Cotton shirts for example require 700 gallons of water, or approximately 3 years of water for a single human being. Even worse, the average pair of jeans is produced with nearly 2000 gallons of water, or 10 years worth of water. As a result of this process, toxic chemicals, plastic microfibers, and waste is often released into local water sources.
One example of this would be the case of the Aral Sea, a thriving lake that was completely drained in 30 years solely from the growth of cotton. Because the region is generally dry and has little rainfall, there was very little that could be done to replenish the water taken. As result of this over 27 species of fish are now believed to be extinct.
Or let’s for a moment look at polyester and other artificial materials. Not only is this fabric produced from fossil fuels, but with every wash clothing made of this material releases microplastics which then enter the water ways. Each year 500,000 tons are released, or the equivalent of 50 billion water bottles. 31% of the microplastics in the ocean come just from this process.
Proposal
Swatch is an app designed to help simplify the online shopping process for the eco friendly consumer. Because we are often uninformed of the damage done by the fashion industry it’s difficult for consumers to make good choices for the planet, without putting in a lot of time and research first. Swatch aims to centralize eco-information and products all in one place. By making it easy for the consumer to identify fair trade and eco friendly corporations and products, the carbon imprint left by our shoppers can be reduced drastically, while also putting pressure on the market to enforce more ethical labor practices.
