By Young Lee, Source: Rawr Denim

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The environmental benefits of raw denim is a subject that has come up occasionally as a peripheral reason to wear raw denim but it was hardly ever the main reason people gravitated towards it. Recently, Levi’s CEO, Chip Bergh, caused a bit of a stir when he proclaimed that people should never wash their jeans to save the environment and even went as far as to say that it would help make the jeans last longer.

While the latter claim is at best a complete fabrication, it did get us thinking more about not just the environmental benefits of raw denim but the impact in general the raw denim and clothing industry has on the environment.
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When washed and pre-distressed denim hit the market, it was welcomed as jeans that didn’t require any break in period and would have that well-worn in look from the beginning. While that has resulted in a huge boom in the denim industry with thousands of options to choose from, the water needed to achieve that look has been hugely substantial.

On average, a washed and pre distressed jean will require 42 liters or about 11.1 gallons of water to achieve that worn-in look. On top of that, there are chemicals used to treat the jeans, power needed to dry the jeans after the wash as well as the manpower and labor needed to distress the jeans by hand.
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Read the rest at: Rawr Denim