Brut America
  • 3 days ago
How can we dress more sustainably?

Here is episode 6 of our series of stories on eco-citizen initiatives with French author Julien Vidal.
Transcript
00:00Just a coat is 110 kg of raw material.
00:04The production of a t-shirt in water is the equivalent of 70 showers.
00:08And even worse, a jean travels 65,000 km before arriving in our closet,
00:14that is, once and a half around the world.
00:16How long does it take to produce a t-shirt?
00:27On average, we only wear our clothes 5 to 10 times.
00:30And the waste, at the national level, is even worse,
00:33since out of the 5 million tons of textiles that are put up for sale each year,
00:364 million end up in the trash.
00:38So today, we're going to see together how to lengthen the lifespan of our clothes
00:41and how to consume them more sustainably.
00:43How to lengthen the lifespan of your clothes?
00:49I've just sorted out the clothes that I don't necessarily wear,
00:53and I realize that there are a lot of them that I've put aside.
00:55And rather than keeping them at home,
00:57taking the dust in my pantry,
00:59it's more interesting to give them to an association that will give them a second life.
01:03And then on this side, I put the things that need to be repaired.
01:07So here, the classic sock hook, which has a small hole.
01:10I don't know how to do it, I don't know how to fix it.
01:12So here, typically, it's the kind of thing that I'm going to take to a repair café,
01:16where specialists will be able to help me repair it
01:19and lengthen the lifespan of this pants.
01:33So here I have clothes that I wear that I don't know how to repair,
01:35and that's a good thing, there are 150 repair cafés
01:38spread all over the French territory,
01:40where there are people who have the know-how
01:42and who will help me lengthen the lifespan of my clothes.
01:47Hello Thérèse.
01:48Hello, how are you?
01:49I'm fine, and you?
01:50I greet you.
01:52I have two things to repair.
01:54Can I sit with you?
01:55Yes.
01:56You'll see.
01:57No problem.
01:58It's going to be doable.
01:59And even the ideal is that you show me how we're going to do it, right?
02:02Absolutely, absolutely.
02:03And that it's less than they do.
02:04I'll make you hold the needle.
02:06Great.
02:07Because that's typically the kind of thing that happens to me often
02:09and that I'd like to do again.
02:10Absolutely.
02:21It allows you not to throw away the fabric,
02:23because from the moment we're missing something,
02:26we feel like we can't wear it anymore.
02:28That's right.
02:29Sometimes we're really in the absurd,
02:31whereas we could replace the zipper,
02:33or the button,
02:34or do what you're doing, for example.
02:37A priori, even by hand, without a machine,
02:39you can repair your clothes.
02:41Yes, that's great.
02:42It doesn't move anymore.
02:43Great.
02:46So, the sock too.
02:47It's here.
02:52460 grams.
02:53There you go.
02:54Magnificent.
02:55Thank you for my pants.
02:56It's going to keep me warm all summer.
02:58And I think I'll give you a kiss.
03:01Goodbye.
03:02Goodbye.
03:08I was really lucky.
03:09I was able to avoid throwing away
03:11more than 400 grams of clothes
03:13that should have ended up in the trash.
03:15And now I'm going to keep wearing these pants for a long time, I hope.
03:18From time to time,
03:19unfortunately, we have to go through the purchase option.
03:21And there are either opportunities,
03:23or brands in France that are moving
03:25to offer more eco-friendly and environmentally friendly clothes.
03:33Hello, sir.
03:34Hello, Saul.
03:35Clément, how are you?
03:36Good, and you?
03:37Laurent.
03:38Nice to meet you, Laurent.
03:39So, we're with you two.
03:40Laurent from Malterre,
03:42we're on the knitting side.
03:44And you, Clément, with Opal,
03:46we're on the finished product side.
03:48We can see it in your beautiful jacket.
03:49And I have a question for you.
03:51What is an eco-responsible garment?
03:53It's a very broad word.
03:55But at Opal, there are two things that are important to me.
03:58There's the recycling part.
04:01So, using recycled materials
04:03that have not consumed virgin resources.
04:05And the local side, Made in France.
04:07So, that's where we're going to work with Laurent.
04:09How can we support his company
04:11by using recycled materials?
04:13Yes, because we imagine organic resources.
04:15We say that at least they use less chemicals, pesticides.
04:18But in fact, there is already a whole material that exists.
04:21It's the material of the clothes that we're going to throw away
04:24and that could be reused.
04:26Yes, absolutely.
04:27Clothes are a raw material,
04:29recycled, ground, purified,
04:31re-transformed into fiber, then into thread.
04:33So, we're at the end of the line.
04:35But it's still interesting to think
04:37that we can get materials to destroy
04:39or throw away
04:41to recycle them into clothes.
04:43And this is also done with natural materials,
04:45clothes,
04:46but with bottles that we get from anywhere
04:48to re-transform them into fiber and polyester threads.
04:52Can you show me how it works?
04:54Let's go.
05:00So, we're going to see all this.
05:02Yes.
05:03Impressive, isn't it?
05:06Here, we're not recycling, we're using organic cotton.
05:08Yes.
05:09Here, too.
05:11These are recycled bottles.
05:13We always say that the bank card is a ballot.
05:16When you buy an organic bottle of milk,
05:18you don't buy an organic bottle of milk.
05:20You send a signal to the distributor
05:22that you want organic.
05:23You send a signal to the dealer saying,
05:25I want Made in France.
05:26I want organic.
05:27I want Made in France.
05:28I want Responsable.
05:29What does the seller hear?
05:31He hears the message.
05:32And then, what does he do?
05:33He re-dynamizes the production.
05:35It's really important.
05:37But we were not used to it.
05:38We were used to the 5 euro t-shirt.
05:41How do you do it?
05:42In the 5 euro t-shirt,
05:44you pay for the thread.
05:46The thread.
05:47The thread coil.
05:49That's it.
05:50Basically.
05:52And then, the manufacturing,
05:54the pre-coating,
05:55the dyeing,
05:56all that is free.
05:57And that's where we get to aberrations.
05:59I mean,
06:00the 5 euro t-shirt
06:02doesn't remunerate the person who works on it.
06:05Or there is an economic effect on the material.
06:08And it's done in a slightly opaque and polluting way.
06:11What's the point of wearing something
06:12that was made by children
06:13in Petahuchnok,
06:14I don't know where,
06:15in conditions,
06:16as we saw in the reports,
06:17that would make you vomit.
06:18Today, there are people
06:19who open the car window
06:21and throw the plastic bottle
06:22through the window.
06:23And you have those behind who pick them up.
06:26We choose our time.
06:28The 5 euro t-shirt,
06:29we know what time it is.
06:31Thank you, gentlemen.
06:32And bravo for your work,
06:33bravo for your passion.
06:35Goodbye.
06:38Today, society is changing
06:39and being fashionable
06:40is consuming less but better.
06:42Exactly what we can do with our clothes,
06:44by reducing our impact on the planet
06:46and by valuing the people
06:47who are behind the manufacturing.
06:49Because changing your world
06:50is changing the world
06:51and participating in the construction
06:52of a better world,
06:53it starts with me.