"Hidden Costs Of Jeans" Environmental And Social Costs As High As 33 Euros.

The social enterprise Impact Institute, which focuses on promoting environmental protection, and the Bank of Holland (ABN AMRO) have released a report entitled The Hidden Costs of Jeans (hidden costs of jeans), analyzing the hidden costs of environmental damage and loss of workers' rights in the whole jeans production chain. The results show that jeans retailers should pay more than 33 euros for each pair of jeans.

Researchers at Impact Institute investigated a typical jeans production chain: from India's cotton plantations and cowboy weaving factories to jeans factories in Bangladesh and to the European market.

They calculate the "real difference" between the jeans price and the actual cost in the whole production chain, where the actual cost includes the environmental damage and the impact on the local society.

The report shows that the biggest external cost is generated in the process of cotton growing and processing into denim, that is, in India.

More than half of the external cost of cotton production is environmental costs, which is related to the massive use of scarce water resources and water pollution problems.

And in the production process of jeans and jeans, it has caused very high social costs.

In India, there are widespread forced labor, child labour and insufficient wages in the industry.

In Bangladesh's sewing workshop, when jeans are produced with cotton cloth, the external cost of each pair of jeans is relatively low, because the production stage is very short.

But there are also problems of intimidation and low wages.

The report also mentions that the overall cost of pportation and pportation in the entire production chain is negligible.

Finally, the report made some suggestions to make jeans more realistic.

Because of the unpaid hidden costs of water pollution, waste of water resources and illegal labor, jeans retailers should pay more than 33 euros for each pair of jeans to producers.

The Bank of Holland hopes that fashion companies can improve the sustainability and environmental protection of the production chain, and establish long-term cooperation with manufacturers, governments and social organizations to better organize and develop production processes in production countries.

Henk Hofstede, a banking banker in Holland, told local media: "true prices help retailers establish long-term friendly relations with manufacturers, work together to reach a good agreement, and ensure that these agreements are complied with so that fair procurement prices can be paid.

Consumers want the industry chain to be more pparent, and the real way to measure prices is also a reference, so that they can make better choices.