Group 4

Raw Materials  T-shirts are made from 100% cotton grown and harvested on farms, which are often in United States, China, India, and developing nations  Cotton farms take up about approximately 3% of the world’s land  25% of the world’s insecticides are used on cotton, more than any crop  Many of these insecticides are known carcinogens

Marketing Slide  Different designs are used on t-shirts to attract different customers  T-shirts are not advertised too heavily, as people understand they need them Companies are still trying to advertise to nudist colonies  Stores compete to sell T-shirts for the lowest price

Manufacturing  Making T-shirts is relatively simple and mainly a process that is automated  Machines are specifically designed to cut, assemble, and stitch the materials efficiently  The shirt making process typically follows these steps: Styling-cutting-assembling the front and back- assembling the sleeves-stitching the hem- stitching the shoulder seams-attaching the neckband-finishing the neckline-setting labels- adding optional features-finishing the operations

Manufacturing Problems  Synthetic dyes used in the making of T- shirts are poisonous when swallowed in large amounts These can contaminate ground water  Less reliable natural dyes are used less frequently than synthetic ones  The making of T-shirts often uses cheap labor, which involves exploiting the workers  Like most factories, T-shirt factories create harmful airborne pollution

Sales, Distribution, and Packaging  Once the cotton is harvested, it is sent to areas where cheap labor is present, such as Asia  After being manufactured, the T-shirt must be shipped to the distributer, which are often in different countries than where it was assembled  They are shipped in basic containers, like cardboard boxes

Consumer Use  Cotton shirts will often shrink when washed  T-shirts do not have a very long lifespan  The shirts are not very durable  The washing and drying of shirts accounts for nearly 60% of the energy used throughout the T-shirts lifetime  The water used can be contaminated by the synthetic dyes and the cleaning products

Final Dispostion  Shirts can be recycled through the Salvation Army or similar entities  T-shirts with false designs, such as one celebrating the team that lost the Super Bowl, are often given to people in Africa for their use  They are often disposed of in landfill

Recycling  Places, like Plato’s Closet, rebuy used T- shirts and recycles the materials to make new shirts  Shirts can be recycled through the Salvation Army or similar entities  T-shirts with false designs, such as one celebrating the team that lost the Super Bowl, are often given to people in Africa for their use  If they are not recycled, they are usually put in a landfill

Works Cited  m m  reference/t-shirt reference/t-shirt  /2010/03/the-lifecycle-of-t-shirt/ /2010/03/the-lifecycle-of-t-shirt/ 