“Green” Jeans: The Newest, Eco-Friendly Fashion Statement

When you're walking down the street you don't usually take notice to the apparel of the strangers around you. You don't say to yourself "I wonder what those jeans consist of" or "what material is that made out of." Perhaps you should though. 

Dirtball brand jeans have introduced their line of "green" denim jeans, made completely from cotton and, get this, recycled water bottles! They are also made entirely in the U.S.

The construction process is broken down as follows:

• The denim is made in North Carolina- the majority of Dirtball's products, including shirts, hoodies, socks etc. are all made within 200 miles of the Hickory, NC headquarters. This means lower shipping costs.
• The zipper is made in Georgia, as is the closure button and burrs
• The waist tape is made in North Carolina
• Everything is then assembled in Kentucky

So how does all of this get produced from water bottles?

The article states:

The bottles are first gathered together and taken to a processing plant to be washed, de-labeled, and ground into flake-like squares. Those squares are then melted, separated by color, and eventually put through a giant spaghetti stringer-like machine that yields the ideal shape and size material. Around eight to 10 recycled bottles go into each pair of jeans, making up almost a third of the material used.

"Green" jeans are the result of eco-friendly mastermind and CEO Joe Fox, whose Kickstarter effort has earned over $40,000 for the product. His is the only one thus far to practice both the use of recycled bottles as well as nationwide manufacturing. .

A former racecar driver, Fox decided to make his idea for an eco-friendly clothing line a reality in 2008 after having a few too many drinks at a bar, he said. He estimates that with every 100,000 pairs of jeans made, [it] saves about 900,000 water bottles from being dumped into landfills.

The jeans are not yet for sale anywhere in the U.S. (that I could see) but keep checking back to see when and where you can get a pair that will help reduce your carbon footprint.

[Huffington Post]