Ethical Fashion

Rapanui is an Eco-Fashion company from the Isle of Wight, that makes Organic, Ethical clothing using Renewable Energy with award-winning traceability. Rapanui is about making eco-fashion cool.

Rapanui Eco Latest

Ethical Fashion

Fairtrade

Environental Policy Statement

The Trouble with cotton

Post Purchase Emissions

Up to 80% of the environmental impact of a normal t-shirt happens post-purchase – through washing and drying your clothing. Our organic, ethical and low carbon products mean that new ways to reduce our environmental footprint must come by looking beyond the supply chain.

Post purchase washing drying clothing carbon

We've already looked into what happens before buying a Rapanui t-shirt, to try and make it easier for consumers to shop ethically and quickly, and created our Ecolabelling and Traceability initiatives. We've sourced an Organic, ethical and low carbon supply chain and the last piece of the puzzle - the bit that most brands assume isn't their responsibility - is what happens next, the Post-Purchase phase.

Some people think that brands are at the mercy of buying behaviour. We belive brands create buying behaviour, and we want our Rapanui to convince buyers to demand sustainable products - from a sustainable industry.

Up to 80% of the environmental impact of a t-shirt occurs post purchase (after you’ve bought it): the water, chemical toxicity, energy use and emissions from washing and drying your clothing.

This means that if every clothing manufacturer in the world halved their eco-footprint of their supply chain, it would still only make 10% difference over the whole product life cycle. Even for a thoroughly sustainable supply chain, like ours, this is a big wake up call. Whilst we may do everything we can to make sure our products are sustainable; it's what you do with them next that makes a huge the difference.

We've commited to the following:

•    Our products must be designed to minimise their impact post purchase
•    Our brand must transcend the product and influence the post-purchase care
•    We must inform our customers about the need to Wash Cool, Hang Dry
•    And help them choose low-impact wash powders.

What happens to make this post purchase impact?

Energy profile of a t-shirt

80% of the carbon emissions of a t-shirt occur post purchase from: the fossil fuel emissions creating and transporting electricity to power your washing machine, tumble dryer and iron. Britain's tumble dryers use more than £1.1million of electricity every DAY; enough energy to power 2,650 homes for a year.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In Italy, home to some of earth’s most fashion-conscious inhabitants, only about four percent of households own a dryer – it’s how they roll. The 310kg of CO2 emissions and £100 per year saved per Italian is about the same saving we get from draught-proofing your home, if you left your fridge door open 24/7 you still couldn't rack up an electricity bill that represents that much carbon. Either way, tumble dryers are the most energy intensive household appliance in your home and the leading cause of household appliance-related fires. Despite this, over 35% of Britons use tumble dryers all year-round - when all you need is a clothes horse or a line.

The Carbon from transporting clothing is actually very small in comparison to the post purchase emissions.

Hang Dry

Did you know each Briton - spent on average £624 on clothes last year? The population of the UK purchases approximately three billion garments per year, this is equivalent to approximately 50 items per person. Hanging dry your clothes will make them last longer, they won't shrink and you won't need to keep replacing them

Wash Cool

If you lower the wash temp 10 degrees and wash at 30, you save around 40% more energy per wash. Stopping tumble drying (responsible for 60% of the post-purchase energy use) and ironing altogether plus lowering your wash temperature by 10 degrees leads to around 50% reduction in the overall global climate change impact of the product's entire life cycle.

The carbon comes from the electricity your appliances suck up; they are powered by coal, gas and nuclear power stations. Whatever the fuel type, you still need fossil fuel to extract the fuel from the ground through mining. Purchasing a 250g cotton T-shirt implies purchasing 1,700g of fossil fuel, depositing 450g of waste to landfill and emitting 4kg of CO2 into the atmosphere - it may seem easy, but just pushing the ON button of your tumble dryer has greater, far-reaching consequences than you might imagine.

Water and Toxicity

Surfers Against Sewage commented on Phosphates in washing powders -
“Phosphates in washing powders can often pass through the sewage treatment works untouched. Once these phosphates enter our rivers and seas, they can cause eutrophication, or over-enrichment. Over-enrichment of our rivers and seas can result in harmful algal blooms. Excessive phosphates can result in an inability to support life, effectively turning our rivers, seas and our beloved surf spots into dead-zones.”

The phosphate content of standard washing powders can be up to 30%. Discharging phosphates to the waste water stream promotes the growth of green algae which, in excess, can limit the survival of various water-based organisms. The World Wildlife Foundation recommends washing liquids containing less than 5% phosphates. The best eco-labelled detergents do not contain any phosphates and are said to be 100% biodegradable. To save you the hassle, we've compiled a list of the best eco friendly washpowders.