Essay
The life cycle costs of denim jeans
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English essay about the life cycle costs of denim jeans, I wrote it for the minor 'Circular Economy & Business Innovation'.
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AssignmentIA5 Product Life Cycle Costing
Denim jeans
Jody de Groene (0966329)
25-10-2021
, INTRODUCTION
Never have we bought so many clothes as we do now, and we never threw clothes away at
the same time as quickly as we do now. Fast fashion, which has now ensured that there is a
growing mountain of clothing waste that will not go away. Prices have changed considerably
in recent years, shopping for a nice price is increasingly possible. This is therefore one of the
causes of this growing mountain of waste. We have too much, buy too much and throw
away a lot of clothes. If we look at 1 pair of jeans, in addition to the costs (purchase costs,
sales costs, production costs, etc.) to make the pants, this also costs another 20,000 liters of
water, which is equivalent to taking a 200 shower, 32 KG CO2 or 150 KM driving. For the cost
of the jeans, it makes sense, these are paid by the stores and clothing brands, but who pays
for the cost of the footprint? (Demkes, 2018)
During the production, sale, use or recycling of products, more costs are often incurred than
one might think. These costs are not always paid by the user or the producer, but who
ultimately pays for this? In this report I’ll take you to the costs of denim jeans, what are
these extra costs, who pays for them and, what are the possibilities to keep those costs as
low as possible or what can be done to ensure that a store or clothing brand can sell these
jeans for the same price?
EXTERNAL COSTS
The jeans price gap is
currently around 33
euros, which means that
jeans should cost 33
euros more to
compensate for the
social and environmental
damage caused.
The largest external
costs are caused by the
cultivation of cotton and
the processing of this
cotton into (denim)
textiles. More than half
of these external costs in
cotton cultivation are
environmental costs,
these costs are related to pollution of water and the consumption of scarce water. India is
the largest cotton product in the world with 23 percent (along with China). The cultivation of
cotton in India has a price gap of no less than €8.40 per pair of jeans. Of this price gap of 8
euros 40, 58% is due to external environmental effects.
During the cultivation of cotton, a large amount of scarce groundwater is used. This involves
more than 2,000 liters of water per pair of jeans (of the total of 8,000 liters required for the
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