Livscykelanalys av en ekologisk bomullsskjorta - miljöpåverkan från vagga till grav

This study includes a life cycle assessment, LCA, on an ecological produced cotton shirt for the company Reflective Circle, which designs ethical and ecological clothes. Initially were cotton farming and textile production studied to gather basic knowledge about the processes. Since this shirt is being ecological produced in the whole production chain, we studied what an ecological production means, but also how a conventional production works. When this was done we could start to discuss the differences and similarities between the production of the shirt and general conventional production. When the LCA was first initiated, the main focus was on the green house gas emissions from the manure at the cultivation. Thereafter the process steps such as picking, ginning, carding, spinning, weaving and sewing were being studied. The picking is done by hand, but the rest of the processes are handed by machines which consumes energy. This conduce emissions like carbon dioxide, methane gas and nitrous oxide. The cotton farming is settled in Peru, and from there the textile is sent via Sweden to Estonia to become a shirt. This also conduce emissions, which is shown and discussed. The assessment describes the exact influence on the environment during the production of the shirt, with just a few exceptions when data has been taken from other sources. This and how other presumptions are affecting the result are discussed in the chapter where insecurity is refereed. Our result shows that the production of the shirt is affecting the environment in many ways. The most affected parts are emissions of green house gases from the farming and the use of electricity from the machines in the processes which also gives emissions of green house gases. When the shirt is laundered by the user, he or she is contributing to the use of energy, but this depends on how many times they do it. The study ends up with a discussion about our results, how trustworthy it is and what our conclusions are