There are many of my possessions that I take notice of; this laptop I'm currently typing on, the jacket I wear when it gets cold out, even the pens and pencils I use to sketch ideas out. But there's one item I tend to overlook almost daily, and so I've chosen to research something I tend to take for granted. The item I've chosen to research is one of my most comfortable possessions: my bedsheets.
My bedsheets come from Meijer cost in the neighborhood of $30. They are made from 100% cotton which was grown in Pakistan and then processed and manufactured into what I have now. After researching my item I've come to know that cotton is actually regarded as one of the most environmentally damaging crops in the world. This is because cotton crops tend to get multiple treatments of some pretty powerful pesticides which damage the local environment, livestock, and people by getting into the water table. Luckily Pakistan is actually pretty good with pesticide regulation with only about 30% of crops being sprayed and has already banned the import of 21 different pesticides; agriculture is pretty regulated in Pakistan.
Although Pakistan has been pretty good in environmental friendliness when it comes to pesticides one of the other problems associated with the manufacture of textiles is the use of azo dyes. Azo dyes are toxic and are harmful to those who handle them, they are believed to mutagenic or carcinogenic. Azo dyes most often come in red and yellow hues, and my bedsheets are of a particularly vibrant red color. So likely the production of my bedsheets harmed the environment and/or some factory worker ever so slightly.
Since my sheets were produced in Pakistan, they had to travel to my local Meijer's, where I bought them. I'm not sure what method of transportation the company used to get this particular item to my local store, either cargo ship or plane (or both), and a number of trailer trucks likely.
All this transportation to get this set of bedsheets from Pakistan to myself, roughly 7000 miles away plays a significant part in the final cost of these sheets. Much of the cost of this item is tied up in the growing, processing, and manufacturing of the raw cotton added to the shipping costs. At most there was probably a few dollars profit made on this item in the end for both the company, Vision International Textile Inc. and Meijer.
After all is said and done, this particular pair of bedsheets will more than likely end up in the trash some years down the line. That trash will more than likely end up in some landfill somewhere until they degrade which would take years. Although in the future when I decide to get rid of these sheets, if I find a local textile recycling operation they will end up there.