Assessing the Environmental Profit and Loss of Cotton T-shirts

ABSTRACT

Wastewater and pollutants emitted from cotton fabric production have generated several impacts on the ecosystem and human health. The Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) methodology was proposed to assess the environmental performance of a business by converting various environmental impacts into social marginal cost (SMC). This study applied the EP&L method to calculate the SMC of 1,000 kg of knit cotton T-shirts from the knit-yarn production to the end-of-life stage. The results show that the highest SMC was that of greenhouse gas emissions, followed by water pollution and water use which were $40.2, $28.3, and $0.04, respectively. In terms of production processes, the SMC of batch dyeing was the highest, and compaction was the stage with the least SMC. Through analysis of results, the SMC of cotton T-shirt was found to be closely related to the production activities of enterprises and the use of consumers. Findings of this study are of practical importance and can be used as a reference for green production of cotton products.

摘要

棉织物生产过程中排放的废水及污染物对生态系统和人类健康产生了一定程度的影响. 环境损益法通过将各种环境影响转化为社会边际成本来评估企业的环境表现. 本文应用环境损益法计算了1000kg针织棉T恤从纱线生产到废弃阶段的社会边际成本. 结果表明, 温室气体排放造成的社会边际成本最高, 其次是水环境污染和水资源占用造成的社会边际成本, 分别为40.2美元, 28.3美元和0.04美元. 在各生产阶段中, 染色阶段的社会边际成本最高, 织物预缩阶段社会边际成本最低. 对结果进一步分析可知, 棉T恤的社会边际成本与企业的生产活动和消费者的使用情况密切相关. 本研究的结果具有一定的现实意义, 可为棉纺织产品的绿色生产提供参考

KEYWORDS:

• Social marginal cost
• greenhouse gas
• water use
• water pollution
• environmental impact
• environmental profit and loss

关键词:

• 社会边际成本
• 温室气体
• 水资源占用
• 水资源污染
• 环境影响
• 环境损益

Highlights

• The environmental profit and loss of cotton T-shirts was evaluated from knit-yarn production to the end-of-life stage.

• The social marginal cost of greenhouse gas emissions was highest, followed by water pollution and water use.

• The SMC of batch dyeing stage was the highest and compaction was the stage with the least SMC.

• Cotton T-shirts’ SMC was found to be closely related to the production activities of enterprises and the use of consumers.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to General Project of Humanities and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education of China (21YJCZH160), the Clothing Engineering Research Center of Zhejiang Province (2021FZKF01), Soft Science Research Project of Zhejiang Province (2022C25030), the Fundamental Research Funds of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (2021Y008) for providing funding supports to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This research does not contain any studies on human participants or animals performed by the author.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.