KEY
BASE: current practice in which a user buys a new pair of jeans and, after a certain use period of traditional ownership, disposes them to a waste-to-energy facility.
REDUCE: scenario in which the user extends the time they use a purchased pair of jeans. In this scenario, environmental benefits are assumed to follow from avoidance of primary manufacturing of a product.
REUSE: a used pair of jeans is sold in a secondhand shop for a new user. Through slowing the consumption cycle, this type of ownership chaining is assumed to produce environmental benefits by reduction of primary manufacturing of a product.
RECYCLE: used jeans are industrially transformed into new textile materials, which can be used to create new products. In this scenario, environmental benefits are assumed to follow from decreased use of primary raw materials (in this case, cotton).
SHARE: the same pair of jeans is leased or rented to multiple users during the product lifecycle. This scenario resembles the logic of collaborative consumption, in which environmental benefits are assumed to follow from increasing the utility rate of a product.
NOTE: I’m not here to get upset about the use of the word green to suggest sustainable… But… Green is a color, not a sustainability measurement.
