The eco guide to green jeans | Lucy Siegle

Go for organic cotton over classic blue denim if you want to keep your jeans clean

Globally, denim production adds up to 4bn metres per year, 60% of it made in Asia (mostly in China). Jeans are usually made from non-organic, non-sustainable cotton, which means pesticides, a gargantuan amount of water, trade injustice and exploitation. Fugitive Denim: a Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade by Rachel Synder is an insightful read.

Bleaching, sandblasting (supposedly banned in 2004, when it was linked to lung disease in workers) and stonewashing all give jeans a higher ethical impact. The distressing process involves repeatedly washing with pumice stones and lots of water. I have also seen effects obtained by putting jeans under sun lamps (imagine the energy burden).