BLUEdot Register's infographic "The Carbon Footprint of Clothing" caught the eye of over 2,000 viewers when posted on Visual.ly this past January. One of those was a writer for the popular Italian news outlet Linkiesta who featured the infographic and a BLUEdot video in an article. Below is a translation of their article.

Translation

Production of Your Clothes Produces Pollution

Being fashionable is always nice: pity it is not very good for the environment
Leather is the most polluting. While cotton is quite ecological

Production of clothes produces pollution. Each vest, sweater, shirt, jacket you wear comes through a detailed production process, and that process produces pollutants. The breeding of animals (sheep, for example), shearing, transportation, processing, dyeing, transport, assembly, are all things that have an impact on the environment.

Not all clothes, however, effect the environment in the same way: the carbon footprint of wool is very high, but nothing beats leather. On the other side, that is among the substances most "clean" in terms of carbon footprint, we find lyocell, or Tencell, a fiber produced by celllulosa. The solvents used in the process of production of lyocell are little pollutants (but non-biodegradability is very high). Just above there is linen and conventional cotton.

This infographic, created by BLUEdot Register, lines up the materials used for the creation of clothes highlighting the environmental impact. The findings are very interesting and, for those who care about the health of the planet, also very disturbing.

For more insights on the topic of the ecological footprint, this site is the best you can consult: the video below, however, is a good introduction to the topic.

Linkiesta is an independent Italian online newspaper of investigative journalism, in-depth analysis, and commentary. It was launched on 31 January, 2011.