Examining Externalities: Uniqlo Jeans
Today I will analyze the true cost of a pair of Uniqlo Jeans. The fabric is made of cotton with the pocket lining being 65% polyester. The website directs consumers to “Machine wash cold, Do not dry clean”. The life cycle of a single pair of jeans has 9 components: cotton harvesting, cotton being spun into yarn, yarn being dyed, yarn being woven into denim sheets, denim sheets being cut and sewn into jeans, transportation, consumer use, and waste. This pair of jeans retail for $49.90. Let’s see what the true cost that has been externalized onto society and the environment is.
Cotton Harvesting
0.7 kg of cotton is needed to create a single pair of jeans (Venkatesan). 10,000 liters of water are needed to grow that cotton. Herbicides and pesticides are also put into the soil to grow the cotton, which pollutes water runoff. Uniqlo’s cotton suppliers are all certified by the Better Cotton Initiative, which may sound great but they have no strict requirements for their farms, they just help farmers achieve better sustainability practices (“The Story Behind Our Cotton”). Their water use reports didn’t give specific numbers, but graphs showed that they reduced the use by 40% through the initiative. Therefore, we can assume that one pair of Uniqlo jeans would need 10,000*0.6, which equals 6,000 gallons of water. To put a price on these 6,000 gallons of water used to create one pair of Uniqlo jeans, we need to analyze the purchase of the water, the energy to pump the water, the energy to treat the water, and the costs of disposing of the water. The cost of water was priced at $1.50 per 1,000 gallons, so $1.50*6 = $9.00 (“The Price of Water”). Then the energy to pump, treat, and dispose of the water is not quantifiable. Because these processes pollute the air with energy production and pollute water sources with chemicals, I would suggest putting an additional price of $1.50 per 1,000 gallons gallon of water, amounting to the true cost of the cotton harvesting process to $18.00.
Spun into Yarn
In this step, the cotton is spun into yarn. Usually, a plastic thread will be embedded into this yarn to allow for more stretch and elasticity but Uniqlo only uses polyester in its pocket lining, so this plastic usage is negligible. The majority of the jean is 100% cotton. Therefore, I will not be adding a cost to this step in the process.
Yarn is dyed
In this step, blue dye is added to the yarn. Although Uniqlo is unclear on how it dyes its yarn, most blue dye is made of petroleum byproducts and toxic chemicals (Venkatesan). Petroleum’s combustion contributes to the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (“Petroleum”, World Wide Fund for Nature). Oil spills also leak mass amounts of petroleum, with 700 metric tons of oil being spilled just in 2022 (“Average annual number of large oil spills worldwide per decade from 1970 to 2022”). Petroleum also has health effects on humans such as skin irritation, eye irritation, dizziness, headache, nausea, and in extreme cases, death. The toxic chemicals and petroleum in this dye contaminate water, and depending on where that water ends up, can contaminate the ocean or soil. Because of all of these detrimental effects, I would suggest adding a tax on this step of the process of 15% of the cost of the item. There is no data on how much dye is used for one pair of jeans, or how much petroleum and toxic chemicals end up in water after the dying process, so this had to be another rough estimate. This would be an added true cost of $7.50.
Yarn is woven into Denim Sheets and Denim Sheets are cut and sewn into Jeans
This step is where the cotton yarn gets woven into the denim fabric, and then said fabric gets sewn to make the jeans. The external cost of this process is the labor rights of factory workers. Often, factory workers are not paid enough and do not have enough regulations to keep them safe. Although Uniqlo has made many claims that they prioritize their workers, there have been contradicting stories that have come out, such as one article in 2022 reporting that Uniqlo and another company named s.Oliver owed workers 5.5 million dollars in compensation (Preuss). It takes 15 minutes to make one pair of jeans. Workers have been reported to work overtime constantly in Uniqlo’s factories, being paid $227 per month, converting to around $1.30 per hour. To put that to a better standard (that still isn’t enough) I would raise the wage to minimum wage in the U.S., an increase of $5.95/hour to become $7.25/hour. Because a worker can make 4 jeans in one hour, I divided $5.95/4 = $1.4875. In conclusion, the true cost I would add to one pair of jeans to consider for labor rights would be $1.50.
Transportation to distributors
The jeans also need to be transported. It is unclear whether the previous processes are done in one facility, but the jeans most definitely need to be transported to the Uniqlo warehouse and then to the individual stores. When apparel is transported by sea, transportation is responsible for 1% of the CO2 emissions in the lifecycle (McKinnon, AC & Piecyk). When apparel is transported by air, transportation is responsible for 30% of the CO2 emissions in the lifecycle. We do not know if Uniqlo’s shipping is done by air or sea. There are a lot of unknowns to this step but one thing that is for sure is that transportation emits a lot of greenhouse gases. Therefore, I would add another 15% tax on the pair of jeans, adding a true cost of $7.50.
Consumer Use
The use of the jeans by the consumer will contribute to emissions through the laundry process. The average American family does about 300 loads of laundry every year, equating to 12,000 gallons of water and an immeasurable amount of energy (Household Water Conservation Tips). Each load of laundry emits 3.3 kg of carbon dioxide, or 0.00363763 tons (Earth 911). The exact emission of a single pair of jeans in that load can be estimated by dividing it by 10, equalling 0.000363763 tons of carbon dioxide per wash of jeans. Assuming that people wash laundry once a week, and accounting for the fact that most jeans are worn for 2-3 years, we multiply 0.000363763 * 2 years * 52 Weeks = 0.037831352 tons of carbon dioxide emitted through the consumer use of the pair of jeans in the entire lifecycle (How Long Do Jeans Last?). The exact amount to be taxed per ton of carbon has not been agreed upon but I will use an average estimate of $70 per ton. The tax on one pair of jeans therefore would be 70*0.037831352 = $2.648. This may seem low but the care instructions for this pair of jeans do tell the consumers to wash the jeans with cold water, and the heating of water is the biggest contributor to emissions in the laundry process, so I think this true cost is fair.
Waste
The average lifespan for a pair of jeans, according to the International Fabric Institute Fair Claims Guide, is 2-3 years. This means that after 2-3 years, this pair of jeans will most likely end up in a landfill. Of course, it could go to secondhand shopping or donations first, but through my personal experience of Uniqlo’s quality of clothes, their jeans most likely will not be usable after 3 years. The fashion industry emits 10% of annual global carbon emissions, so needless to say, the emission of one pair of jeans is pretty heavy. Because I have no exact numbers to work with, I will once again add a 15% tax for this step, adding a true cost of $7.50.
Positive Externalities
In my opinion, jeans do not have any positive externalities. They are a piece of clothing that provides coverage for people, which doesn’t add much value to society. The original price point is a positive externality in that it is extremely affordable, providing options for low-income communities. But, because its true cost will increase the whole price of the jeans, this is also negligible.
Solutions
I propose to invest in the cotton harvesting process of the jeans. This is where there is the most possibility for labor issues, the biggest wastage of water, and one of the steps with the biggest chemical contamination of water. I believe that using regenerative cotton would be the best solution for this. Regenerative cotton can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce erosion, and improve a soil's drought resilience. I would suggest that Uniqlo uses third-party certifications and auditors to ensure worker safety and rights. Additionally, I would suggest that Uniqlo invest in research on how to make cotton and fabric farming more efficient. For example, Levi’s uses Tencel fibers, fibers made of sustainably sourced wood that are compostable and biodegradable. This would solve part of the problem in the waste segment of the lifecycle. Tencel reports that their fibers use 50% less water and emit 50% less carbon in their production compared to usual modal fibers. These are all viable solutions that would decrease this pair of jeans’ true cost.
