Stretch Denim Jeans
600g pair, 98% cotton / 2% elastane
Only 2% of the fabric is plastic, but that elastane is enough to disqualify the jeans from cotton recycling streams. Water use is the real headline: roughly 2,700 litres for one pair.
Material breakdown
1 components- Elastane in the weave12g
Production footprint
Per unitEstimated upstream manufacturing footprint per unit, based on resin LCA averages.
Lower-impact alternatives
- 100% cotton rigid jeansRecyclable as pure cotton and they last longer.0gplastic
- Second-hand denimThe lowest-impact pair is one already made.0gplastic
- Repaired jeansA patched knee buys years of extra wear.0gplastic
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References for this item
Peer-reviewed studies and institutional reports behind the figures above.
- The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries ↗Chapagain, A. K., Hoekstra, A. Y., Savenije, H. H. G. & Gautam, R. (2006) · Ecological Economics, 60(1), 186–203
The standard reference for cotton's water footprint (~10,000 L per kg of lint). Used for the water figures on cotton and cotton-blend garments.
- Environmental impact of textile reuse and recycling – A review ↗Sandin, G. & Peters, G. M. (2018) · Journal of Cleaner Production, 184, 353–365
Reviews 41 studies on textile reuse and recycling; shows reuse consistently beats recycling, and blended fabrics are rarely recycled fibre-to-fibre. Backs our low recycling odds for blends.
- Textiles and the environment: the role of design in Europe's circular economy ↗European Environment Agency (2022) · EEA Briefing
EU-level per-person consumption, water and land use of textiles, and the design decisions that drive them.