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There are many ethical issues surrounding textiles and garments, and it is barely possible for an individual to tackle them all, but the more we know, the more we can do. Here we outline a range of issues under three broad headings:

• Disposal and recycling
• Exploitation and child labour
• Sustainable farming and manufacture

Many environmentally conscious consumers will always tend to prefer a natural, biodegradable, fabric to a synthetic textile which is, to all intents and purposes, a form of plastic. This is quite understandable, and we share that same inclination, but choosing a natural fabric does not in itself represent a sustainable or ethical choice — as the other sections of this page will show.

Whatever fabrics we choose, the first step to sustainability does lie with us as consumers — we should buy good quality clothes to keep and use, not to wear once and throw away or abandon in a drawer, necessitating the immediate purchase of something else. And when we do finally decide to part with our garments, we should find an appropriate way to recycle them.

Swishing has now become a popular way to recycle or exchange clothing and accessories which have significant value and appeal. And charity shops and clothes banks or collections are a convenient way to ensure that good quality clothes are used again (by far the best form of recycling). Do bear in mind with collectors, though, that some are simply businesses masquerading as charities.

The recycling of worn-out clothes is more of a problem. In principle, almost all textiles can be recycled into ‘shoddy’, a yarn that can be used to make blankets, carpets and other products. But for private individuals, it is still a problem to channel old textiles into this process. There is really no point in taking worn-out clothes to a charity shop, as they will not be able to sell them. Even if they do arrange for them to be collected, you are really just wasting their time and money. It is probably justifiable, in the absence of any viable rags collection scheme locally, and if you do so responsibly, to place worn out clothes in the clothes banks of large organizations like Oxfam or the Salvation Army. These organizations sort everything and will direct rags to a textile re-processor. But remember that the sorting is done by hand, and the easier you make it for the sorters, the more efficient the process — so please separate synthetic and natural fabrics, and leave your usable and unusable items in separate bags.

Always remember that getting someone to take something away is not the same as recycling it. If they end up dumping something, you might as well have done it yourself!

It is widely known — though too often ignored — that the textile and garment industries are beset by problems of exploitation in sweat shops and the use of child labour. It will be some time before we can be confident that the clothes we buy in the high street have been produced under humane conditions.

There are many organizations working to combat the injustices in the garment and textile industries:

• The Ethical Trading Initiative is an important industry-based attempt to establish enforceable standards. But the ETI is not a certification body and it does not audit individual companies. Knowing that a company helps to fund the Ethical Trading Initiative does not actually tell you very much about that company’s own employment or procurement practices, and there have been high profile cases of ETI-affiliated companies being reprimanded for their own unethical or negligent practices.
• The International Labour Organization is the oldest UN specialist agency, bringing together governments, employers and trade unions in a tripartite arrangement. Its 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work lies at the heart of the work of the Clean Clothes Campaign, a major European initiative comprising NGOs and trade unions, and working in partnership with similar organizations around the world.

Whilst these and organizations play a vital role in combatting injustice and bringing about change, as individuals we can 'vote with our feet' by choosing to buy garments which have been ethically produced. But how can we tell?

When it comes to deciding what to buy, we ideally need to know about the supply chain of the particular product we are wanting to purchase, but this is very difficult in practice as we depend on producers and sellers to provide us with such information — and in practice this is rare, though there is growing pressure on reputable businesses to adopt ethical trading policies and practices.

Retailers do differ in their level of commitment to the ethical sourcing of products, however, and it is worth keep one’s eyes and ears open for reports about the trading practices of particular companies.

But ultimately, the best way to be sure that clothes have been produced ethically is to buy from companies who can provide a convincing account of the whole supply chain of the products they sell. Often this will mean a small producer or design house with a strong ethical stance, and which has taken care to ensure that its products are the result of ethical practices at each stage in the supply chain. Our Pants to Poverty are a case in point, as are our baby clothes ranges from Organics for Kids, Piccalilly and Bishopston Trading.

One very interesting initiative, which may well be setting a standard for the future, is the Dutch ‘Made By’ scheme. If you buy any garment which bears its tell-tale Blue Button, you can go online to ‘track and trace’ its supply chain, from farmer, to spinner, to garment factory, to exporter, to design label. The emphasis is not on certification of the individual actors in the chain (that is left up to them) but simply on opening up the supply chain so that customers can see who is involved and draw their own conclusions based on the information provided or on their own enquiries.

The Fairtrade Mark appears on garments which are made from Fairtrade-certified cotton. This does not amount to certification of the whole supply chain, but rather it refers to the conditions and terms of trade of the cotton farmers. However, efforts are made to try to minimize the likelihood that Fairtrade-certified cotton will end up in the hands of a sweatshop manufacturer, so a combination of Fairtrade certification and a reputable, reliable retailer still amounts to a significant indication that the supply chain will be reasonably 'clean'.

Certain other labels, notably a number of organic certification logos, also allow us to draw certain tentative conclusions about the production of the garments that bear them. In fact, the GOTS 'Global Organic Textile Standard' certification scheme has made significant recent moves towards becoming a 'whole supply chain' inspection scheme, with emphasis on labour as well as environmental critria. More information on this appears below.

While synthetic fabrics help to deplete oil resources and pose significant problems of disposal, biodegradable ‘natural’ fabrics, especially cotton, also carry a very high environmental cost. Typical modern cotton farming techniques involve the use of vast amounts of pesticides and water. Cotton farming is blamed for the virtual destruction of the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest lake, now only ten per cent of its original size, and replaced by an arid, heavily polluted desert with disastrous consequences for both the health and economy of the local population.

Cotton as currently cultivated is often referred to as a ‘dirty crop’ because of its hunger for pesticides — a middling estimate is that although cotton occupies only 2.5 per cent of the world’s cultivated land, it uses some 16 per cent of the world’s pesticides. The chemicals used in cotton farming and processing in some countries are so toxic that a huge price is paid by the labour force in terms of illness and premature death.

And yet, none of this is necessary. For centuries, cotton was grown organically — that is, without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers — and it is still possible to do so using a system of crop rotation and pest control by the careful management of natural predators.

The case for organic cotton is not really a difficult one to make, because it is not only the producers and the environment that benefit, it is the consumer too: organic cotton has longer fibres, making it stronger and softer than chemically assisted cotton, and it is also free of toxins which can cause skin irritation. It also commands a higher price in the market place, so it is really a ‘win-win’ situation , and the demand for organic cotton is indeed now firmly on the rise. It still represents only a tiny proportion of total world cotton production — but is expected to rise significantly for some time to come.

Organic Cotton should normally be certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and it may carry the new GOTS logo, shown above, or it may carry the logo of the certifying body, such as the Soil Association or EcoCert.

Some cotton carries both Fairtrade and Organic certification, and the French 'Bio Equitable' label is a secondary logo applied to such products, under the aegis of an association open to small ethical businesses. This is a very good example of a label designed as a marketing device, based on the strong foundations of the underlying certification. Not all marketing labels are based on such strong foundations, so beware!

It is worth noting that many certification bodies try to broaden their criteria beyond what you might expect to be their core concerns. Thus organic certification bodies will also take labour conditions into account, or animal welfare, whilst fair trade certification bodies will also pay attention to environmental sustainability factors. This reflects both the inter-relatedness of the issues and the widespread desire to promote and enforce ethical practices along the entire supply chain.

Going organic: Switching to organic cultivation is a major challenge for a farmer, not least because in the short term, yields will be affected and costs will rise, yet the grower will not be able to command the price for organic cotton until they achieve certified organic status (three years minimum), which is why it is so important to support farms 'in transition'. Pants to Poverty are described nowadays as 'pesticide free' rather than organic, precisely because the cotton is now sourced from farms which are in transition.

Environmental and health considerations apply equally to the dyeing, spinning and pre-manufacture treatment of textiles, and a good supply chain is one in which at all stages, production and trade are carried out humanely and sustainably.

Here are some excellent sources of further information:

• The Environmental Justice Foundation. Cotton is one of its five major campaign themes. The EJF has done more than anyone to highlight the terrible practices that have prevailed in Uzbekistan, the world's third largest exporter of cotton.
• The Pesticide Action Network (PAN-UK) maintains a website with a great deal of information about cotton production.

It is quite common these days to find textiles other than cotton being hailed as the 'new environmentally friendly alternative to cotton'. Consumers need to weigh up the claims that are made and draw their own conclusions.

Bamboo is currently enjoying something of a boom and is used, frequently in a blend with cotton, in the production of clothing and towels, as well as cleaning implements, on account of its high absorbency. Its main ecological benefit is that it grows fast without any chemical assistance, but the usual process by which the fibres are turned into a usable textile depends on chemicals, the harmful effects of which are disputed. There are also questions over the sustainability of the bamboo plantations from which most bamboo fabric currently originates. In our limited experience of wearing bamboo clothing, we do not think the durability of bamboo bears comparison with cotton.

Hemp is another robust, fast growing crop with a long history of textile use. It does not rely on chemical fertilizers, and is once more being grown in Europe on an increasing scale. Hemp is also used in the manufacture of foodstuffs, paper and skincare products. It will grow almost anywhere in the world, though cultivation is banned in the US, ostensibly because of the link between hemp and marijuana, though there are those who believe that the real reason lies with the vested interests of the cotton industry. Some states are actively seeking to reverse the prohibition. Pure hemp fabric is stiff and may be scratchy, although it has been used to make denim and canvas for nearly two centuries (by Levi Strauss, amongst others). When combined with cotton, it makes a strong, durable fabric, and almost certainly has a major role to play in the sustainable production of textiles in the future.