"True Cost" Cotton T-Shirt Research Project Documentation

[jz_reconfigure]

Each shirt has "Sources/detailed information = http://true-cost.re-configure.org" which has a link to this forum.

Below is how I came up with the content printed on the t-shirt, and the one page handout that comes with the t-shirt.
Other resources that I found along the way are posted at viewtopic.php?f=49&t=145

Sources:
Waterfootprint.org, Textileworld.com, Reiter Machine Works, JOCsailings.com, Cotton Inc, National Cotton Council, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, International Cotton Advisory Committee, National Council of Textile Organizations, Anvil, Fruit of the Loom, Pesticide Action Network, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Dept. of Labor, U.S. International Trade Commission, Containership Register, SustainableCotton.org, Apparel Graphics Institute, Environmental Justice Foundation, Peterbuilt, Oxfam, Mississippi State Univ, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Chemical Industry Information Centre, Made-In-China.com, China Statistical Yearbook of the National Railway, China National Textile & Apparel Council, OceanAir Logistics, Books: The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, Maritime Economics


+ http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov says for 2007 that 9,071,101,440 lbs of cotton from 18,898,128 (480 lb bales) which is the total that I used for calculating pesticides and fertilizers, with 2007 being the most current year the USDA had statistics for (I was told by someone at the USDA that this is due to budget cuts).

+ 1 pound = 453.59237 grams, .5 lbs = 226.796185 grams (the t-shirt weight I used was 200 grams or 0.44 lbs

+ When you see "/by" this means "divided by" when doing the math

Resources used for distance, and to convert pounds, grams, ounces, metric tonnes, gallons:
http://www.unitconversion.org/weight/po ... rsion.html
http://www.geobytes.com
http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm
MT - http://www.france-property-and-informat ... _table.htm
fluid ounces to grams - http://www.convertunits.com/from/US+fluid+ounce/to/gram
MT to gallons - http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cf ... tor-basics
distance charting - http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-googl ... ulator.htm

Water Use
+ For water figures, I used http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=fil ... uct=cotton and was sent this paper by the author http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/C ... cotton.pdf

Energy Use
Harvesting (I emailed Mississippi State Univ professors and received the info below)
http://true-cost.re-configure.org/cotto ... gy-use.pdf
http://true-cost.re-configure.org/Fuel_ ... C_2008.doc
1 bale/480lbs=1089 shirts at 200g/.44lbs (MSU professor figure)
1 bale/480lbs=1.2 gal of diesel use
1.2 gal /by 1089 shirts = 0.0011019283746556473829201101928375 gal or 0.14104683195 oz
.71 oz for 2 lb jeans & 1/2 of that = 0.355 oz for 1 lb and 0.1775 oz per 1/2lb cotton
**0.14104683195 oz of diesel per 200g shirt from HARVESTING

kiloWatt-hours (Textile machines)
+ I referenced this TextileWorld.com page http://tinyurl.com/cgm2ww then called them, spoke with someone who provoked me to contact Reiter Machine Works who was responsible for the numbers, and I exchanged many emails with them about accurate numbers for a 200 gram cotton shirt.
+ kWh
300g t-shirt is listed at http://tinyurl.com/cgm2ww (I used the numbers below which are from Textileworld.com to then deduce for a 200g shirt)
land=2.13 kWh (0.71 x 3 = 2.13)
Ginning=.07 kWh
Spinning=1.8 kWh
Weaving=2.49 kWh
Finishing=6.2 kWh
Making-up=.08 kWh
.71 is 1/3 of 300g or .71kWh/100g [# /by 3 to get 100g increments then multiply by 2]
kWh for a 200g shirt
land= 1.42
Ginning= 0.046666666666666666666666666666667
Spinning= 1.2 (a new machine will use 0.5kWh according to Reiter)
Weaving= 1.66
Finishing= 4.1333333333333333333333333333333
Making-up= 0.053333333333333333333333333333333
total = 8.513333333333333333333333333332 kWh per 200g shirt
**7.8 to 8.5kWh, 7.8 when replacing an old machine with new machine for spinning = .5kWh instead of 1.2

Fuel (train, truck, and marine diesel)
+ Estimating the fuel was the toughest part of the research project. The book, “Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” was recommended to me by a friend after I told him that I was doing this research project. From that book I found out that cotton is mostly grown in Lubbock, Texas. I contacted the author, Pietra Rivoli, and she also mentioned that North Carolina is the cotton yarn spinning center of the U.S.
+ After speaking with a tractor salesman in Mississippi referred to me by a tractor salesman in Texas, he recommended I contact Mississippi State University. I found the appropriate persons to contact regarding cotton, and was quickly sent reports for fuel use during harvesting (and “handling”). These are the two reports:
http://true-cost.re-configure.org/cotto ... gy-use.pdf
http://true-cost.re-configure.org/Fuel_ ... C_2008.doc
+ I talked with someone who sold diesel trucks used for transporting cotton at Stover Equipment (http://www.stoverequipment.com) to obtain an estimate on gas mileage, and was told between 5.5 and 6 miles per gallon. I also confirmed this estimate from this Peterbuilt white paper http://www.peterbilt.com/eco/pdf/Aero%2 ... APER-2.pdf

GROUND FUEL EST: 48K from gin to warehouse or yarn factory, 40K from yarn factory to port, 29K from port after made into shirts, source of 48K=Cotton.org (email), source of 40K=National Council of Textile Organizations(email), source of 29K=Anvil & Fruit of the Loom(email)

+ An 8K lb container is the common way to transport bales prior and during export, as well as for imported t-shirts

+ 7.09 lbs per gal of diesel is from http://cta.ornl.gov/data/appendix_b.shtml (DoE) used to convert fluid ounces of diesel into grams in order to combine all fuel in grams in order to simplify the print on the t-shirt

+ 100 bales (48,000lbs from Cotton.org) transported to Cary/Raleigh N.C. from Lubbock,Tx = 1,600 miles for 108,900 shirts/100 bales at 5.5MPG = Pounds for travel from Miami to NYC would be 29,040 lbs instead of 48,000 according to Anvil
1600 miles TX+NC hauling 100 bales (48K lbs from Dale Thompson + 8,930lb FEU) at 5.5MPG=290.90909090909090909090909090909gallons /by 48K = 0.0060606060606060606060606060606042/lb or 0.77575757574oz/lb or 0.38787878787/.5 lb

800 miles NC+FL hauling 40K (National Council of Textile Organizations)
5.5MPG=145.45454545454545454545454545455gallons /by 40K=0.0036363636363636363636363636363636 or 0.46545454545oz/lb or 0.232727272725oz/.5 lb
combining trip = 0.620606060595g
**est of 0.6 oz diesel per 200g shirt for TX+NC+FL GROUND miles


1278 miles FL+NYC hauling 66,000 shirts/29,040 lbs at 5.5MPG=232.36363636363636363636363636364gallons /by
29,040lbs=0.0080015026296018031555221637866253gal/lb or 0.004000751314800901577761081893gal/.5 lb = 0.51209616829oz/.5 lb
**est 0.5 oz per shirt


Urumqui Xinjiang China to Shanghai by RAIL
*4077 km from Urumqi to Shanghai
*ICAC contact says 44,092.452437 pounds/20 metric tonnes/20,000kg cotton by rail at once
*Add 8,000 pounds for the container. 2204.6226218 lbs (metric ton) x 20 + 8,000 = 52092.452436
*23.628738961397058 metric tons of cotton + FEU container (or 52,092.45244 lbs)
*Netvigator says: Avg 24.6kg of fuel for every 10,000 ton-km i.e. 406 ton-km per kg/fuel. The units will be metric tons (1,000kg) *divide 1kg fuel by 406 ton-km = 2.4630541871921182266009852216749 grams/ton-km x 4077 km = 23.628738961397058 metric tons = 58.198864436938566502463054187171 grams per 23.6 ton-km
*237,276.7703093985356305418719211 grams or 237.27677031 kilograms or 523.10573546 lbs hauling 23.6 metric tons traveling 4077 km *523.10573546 lbs of fuel for 52,092.45244 lbs of cargo = 0.010041871921129309764552908809067 lbs/lb or 4.5549164839 gram/lb or 2.27745824195 grams/.5 lb
>> 2 grams per shirt

Marine
SHANGHAI TO L.A.
*Shanghai to L.A. = 2,771 tonnes (1K kg or 2,204.62262 lbs) of fuel using an 8000 TEU ship with a 69.5MW engine traveling 11-12 days or 252 hours = 163/day *29,040 lbs per FEU (Made-in-China.com confirms this or 66,000 shirts) + 8000 lbs for ONE empty FEU= 37,040 lbs of cargo
*.34 ton/TEU, so multiply by 2 for ONE FEU = 0.68
*.68 tonnes/fuel out of 2,771 tonnes used for an 8k teu ship
*.68 (680,000 grams or 1,499.1433829 lbs) for 37,040 lbs = 18.358531317494600431965442764579g/lb or 9.1792656587473002159827213822894 g/.5 lb
##########9 grams per shirt

HONDURAS
*YARN traveling 4 DAYS, (leaving Jan.16 & 30) Miami to HONDURAS by 1200 TEU (+118 reefers, 35 ton gantry) Maersk Tangier has a gross tonnage of 17,700 "tonnes" (2,204.6226218 pounds) = 39,021,820.40586 lbs
*40K of yarn per FEU + 8,000 lbs (empty FEU) = 48,000 lbs Miami-Honduras
*Maritime Economics Martin Stopford wrote 44 tons/day for 4 days 1200+TEU going 16 knots grossing 39,021,820.40586 lbs uses 176 tons (352,000 lbs) of fuel = 4.0916726226 g/lb yarn/containers = 196,400.2858848 grams used = 2.0458363113 g/.5 lb = #########2g per shirt

*3 DAYS, Honduras to Miami by 994 TEU K-Breeze grossing 8246 tonnes (18,179,318.1393628 lbs, leaving Jan.15, 2010) using 27.5 tons of fuel/day = 82.5 tons (165,000 lbs) = 4.1169168434g/lb for 37,040 lbs (shirts + ONE FEU) = 168,092.1130526 grams or 2.0584584217g/.5 lbs = est of #########2g per shirt

A Formula is % of containers are [product] /by lbs, reference weight of product = answer

Pesticides
Below are results for using 480 lb bales which = 9,071,101,440 lbs of cotton
US Dept of Agriculture stats for 2007: herbicide=27.7M lbs, insecticide=8.4M lbs, fungicide=0.1M lbs, other=19.1M lbs=total of 55,300,000 lbs (55.3M lbs)
55.3M lbs of pesticide /by 9,071,101,440 lbs of cotton=0.006096282834645491518172240834295 lbs or 2.7652273792g/lb or 1.3826136896g/.5 lb
+ For pesticide info, I was sent an excel file from the U.S. Dept of Agriculture that I've uploaded here http://true-cost.re-configure.org/USDA_ ... ngston.xls
I also referenced this report by the Environmental Justice Foundation & Pesticide Action Network http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/the_dea ... cotton.pdf

Fertilizer
60 lbs of Nitrogen to produce 500 lbs of cotton/1 bale says http://msucares.com/crops/cotton/nitrogen.html
Below are results for using 480 lb bales which = 9,071,101,440 lbs of cotton from 10,493,238 acres
USDA stats found here http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FertilizerUse
+91 lb nitrogen per acre
+43 lb phosphate per acre
+70 lb potash per acre
+NOT INCLUDING SULFUR
= 204 lb per acre of fertilizer x 10,493,238 acres = 2,140,620,552lbs of fertilizer
2,140,620,552 lbs (minus sulfur) applied to 9,071,101,440 lbs/cotton = 0.23598242905329035764812260769956 or 107.03982927g/lb or 53.519914635g/.5 lb
>> 53g per 200 g shirt


1kg of fabric having 457g of fertilizer /by 4 (to get amount per 250g of fabric) = 114.25 /by 5 (to get 50g of fabric x 5 = 250g fabric) = 22.85 per 50g fabric (x 20 to get a KG which = 457) 22.85 x 4 (to get 200g of fabric) =
>> 91.4g fertilizer per 200g shirt using UK study

CONCLUSION:
TEXAS TO NC TO FL TO HONDURAS TO FL TO NYC
**0.14104683195 oz of diesel per 200g shirt from HARVESTING
**.6 oz diesel per 200g shirt for TX+NC+FL ground miles
**FL+NYC = 0.4 OZ/shirt
**FL+HN+FL = 2g 1st way, 2.5g 2nd way, total = *4g for HONDURAS MARINE
Total = 1.1oz + 4g
1.1 OZ calculations follow: 1 gallon of diesel = 7.09 lbs or 128oz or 3,215.96990336g, which /by 128oz *25.12476487 GRAMS PER OZ) & .1oz = 0.00078125000001 gallon and .1 /by 128 = 0.00078125 (.25 /by 2.5 = .1) & (128 x 25.119 = 3215.232) & (.1 /by 25.1 = 0.0039840637450199203187250996015936) & (.9 /by 128 = 0.00703125) /by 3,215.96990336 = 3.1094818361179751808757922119412e-5("e-5"???)g (= .1oz) = 25.12476487
= 25.124795964818361179751808757922
#########29 grams/shirt for harvest + ground + marine for TX+NC+FL+HN+FL+NYC


Urumqi TO SHANGHAI TO LONG BEACH/L.A.
#########2 grams for RAIL
#########8.5 to 9g fuel per 200g shirt from Shanghai to L.A. MARINE FUEL
#########11 grams per shirt

CHILD LABOR
Children Behind our Cotton -
http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/The%20C ... 0FINAL.pdf & http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/P ... Behind.pdf
The Department of Labor's list goods produced by child labor or forced labor
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/PDF/2009TVPRA.pdf

Cotton Weights
+ I received weight estimates from the US Dept of Agriculture for cotton transported from the farms as well as from people involved in cotton truck sales and cotton tractor sales


...using the International Trade Commission's data-web resource (requires registration) http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/user_set.asp I found that Miami (also told to me by someone from Anvil apparel) is the cotton yarn export capital of America, and Honduras is the t-shirt knitting capital for American cotton yarn.

http://jocsailings.com was used to find container ship names for routes going from Miami to Honduras. I then looked up the vessels using http://www.containershipregister.nl & http://www.containership-info.com

[leomartin6]

Nice work. I have found a lot of useful information from here. If the true cost of that cotton t-shirt or iPod was included in the price tag, we might think twice before throwing it out and replacing it before we really need to. Think about that next time you look at those insanely low prices on so much consumer stuff -- who is really paying the full cost of producing all this? Not the companies that sell it. Hope You have a great time.

[jz_reconfigure]

Thanks for your interest. I recommend checking out http://www.sourcemap.org
I plan on posting my shirt info there sometime.