What is Sustainability and Why We Should Care
Quilters have been known to be frugal with their fabrics, often reusing materials from clothing or food sacks, using all the smallest bits in their quilts, mostly using cotton, and making beautiful works that become heirlooms (we hope). We are harmless crafters who are just looking for joy in being creative, so what’s the fuss? This is all true, but our industry is huge; it is an estimated $ 4 billion industry in the US alone. Quilting is connected to the textile industry, because of the production process of materials and the way marketing promotes consumerism. The three top sustainability issues are textile waste, water use, and carbon emissions.
Textile Waste
What happens after the textile product is no longer useful to the person who bought it? The average Canadian puts 80 lbs of textile waste into landfills annually, that’s a lot of t-shirts or quilt fabric! Not to mention that when these textiles get shipped to other countries, they end up in what are essentially dumping grounds under the guise of aide.
Water Use
Did you know that it takes 2700 litres of water to manufacture a metre of fabric? That’s equivalent to drinking water for one person over 2.5 years. That water does return to the water cycle, but it often takes with it the chemicals used in the process, which impacts plants, animals, and humans that are exposed to them. Textiles are primarily produced and manufactured in regions where communities already have inequities with accessing clean drinking water.
Carbon Emissions
Did you know that the textile industry is the fifth largest contributor to greenhouse gases? Textiles contribute around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions because of their long supply chains and energy-impacting not only people directly through health and comfort, but also indirectly through water quality and quantity, soil degradation, sea ice loss, extreme temperatures, forest fires, landslides, weather events, and so much more. These changes are impacting our daily lives and are driven by increased temperatures on the planet.
There’s a lot of eco-anxiety out there. Feelings of hopelessness and fear of doom for the planet are commonplace, and I know quilters are feeling this too. It’s becoming obvious to me that we need more education, more conversations, and more understanding of what our hobbies are contributing when it comes to climate change. We need to take a micro look within our own practices as well as the bigger picture of the industry.
It is my hope that by sharing some of the scary statistics, highlighting the issues, and showing how people are making a difference, you might be able to make some small changes in your own quilting. After all, small actions make ripples, which lead to waves of change.
Small actions make ripples, which lead to waves of change.
