Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko spoke quite a bit about her family’s eco-friendly habits. But she admitted that in the grocery store she makes a choice in favor of those products where there is less packaging. And all the glass and plastic at home washes and sorts.
“Now I try to buy where there is less packaging. I’m washing plastic now. Now I wash the glass, sort the garbage separately and tell my family: “Guys, think about how they will dispose of this.” Jeans, please don’t buy new ones every season. Too much water is used in production. You can walk long enough in the same jeans. Or somehow revive them.
As for jeans, then, according to the data provided by RBC, the volume of the market for these clothes in Russia five years ago was 218 billion rubles. And if you count in pieces, then back in 2007 this market was about 100 million a year. At the same time, the production of one pair of jeans requires 7.5 thousand liters of water, according to the Swiss non-profit organization World Economic Forum. For comparison: the production of one shirt takes 2.5 thousand liters. Cotton requires frequent and abundant watering.
In addition, the subsequent processing of the fabric can also take place using water-consuming technologies. Bleaching, heat treatment, the use of chemicals – all this is practiced in factories that do not work according to the standards of Western eco-production. In Europe, as Lyubov Popova, professor of fashion history at the Academy of Arts in Milan, says, technologies that are safe for nature have been used for ten years already.
Lyubov Popova
professor of fashion history at the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan
“There are completely new technologies in the production of jeans, absolutely harmless. What production are we talking about? In Western countries or in Asia? Dry ice and laser technologies are used. We moved away from sandblasting and chlorine a long time ago to give a worn look to jeans. This is all about countries that do not follow Western standards. Water is the last problem that has arisen, because there is a drought. Now even corn cannot be grown in Italy because it requires a lot of water. Plants that need water the least will be selected.”
According to Popova, the problem with the lack of water has arisen in the last two or three years, and the agricultural policy is being revised. Crop growing regions change depending on whether there is water there.
After the imposition of sanctions, Russian stores practically do not receive products of European and American production – there were few of them before. Most jeans sold in Russia are made in Southeast Asia. And, apparently, not the most environmentally friendly technology.
However, the percentage of Russians who can afford to buy jeans every season is relatively small, said Dmitry Chumakov, CEO of Vector Market Research. This is 15-20% of those who generally buy denim products. At the same time, the vast majority of citizens of the Russian Federation wear such clothes for two or three years, or even more. At the same time, jeans are one of the most common clothing categories in the world, Dmitry Chumakov admits:
“Jeans are universal items of clothing that people use to go to work, and to go out of town, and to go to a club, restaurant, go on vacation. Since the thing is used very intensively, it needs to be changed more often. This is exactly what explains why many people buy not just one pair of jeans per season, but buy several pairs per season. Moreover, there are warmer jeans, there are thin jeans, there are ripped jeans that are better to use in summer. The product feature also encourages customers to buy multiple jeans.”
If we return to the interview with Victoria Abramchenko, it is worth noting that the Deputy Prime Minister gave it in an official suit.