Confronting High Street Shoppers with A Shocking Truth: Stacey Dooley Investigates 

My teacher showed us this in school today and let me tell you this actually changed my way of thinking about shopping

When we were kids we only got new clothes for Xmas or special occasions in the 80s . I prefer quality over quantity.

Better give up all animal products if you care about water usage too - do some research on how much water is used to grow and maintain livestock.

They need to include impact of alternatives

I’d still rather buy cotton than some man made fabric which is effectively plastic. My old jeans can be recycled or composted, pvc or nylon will never rot down.

I do study about textile chemistry and very excited to learn more about how these problem come up and can't wait to give some contribution to fix it up. wish me luck!

its not just cotton that takes lots of water everything does if you really care about water usage you wouldn't use anything or own anything or eat anything after you found out how much water everything takes to make or grow

This video doesn’t really tell me much apart from how much water it takes to grow cotton. It would be nice to have some additional information like which countries are producing the cotton and how it effects the locals in the area. This is just a react video.

The answer is not buying less cotton, or switching to polyester. Nearly all other fashion materials are horribly bad for the environment. The answer is an inconvenient truth - we need to give up fast fashion.

So what, water is eternally recycled.

This is all good and well, now tell us about the eco friendlier alternatives!

But what's the better/more ecological fabric to buy /wear?

I don't really understand this, the water doesn't just disappear? I would love to see the breakdown of the inputs and outputs

The water used is used in various ways. Most of it is clean and evaporates back to atmosphere and is cycled in the environment. It is not lost, albeit the water could have been used to grow something else. I personally hate shopping and shop for cloths once a year, maybe for new pair of jeans, trousers. I wear t-shirts and jackets that I was wearing 15 years ago often. I buy new shoes maybe every second year. Reduction and reuse are the best alternative obviously. But also longer lasting fabrics and materials are a good idea. I can't stand people who have obsession with fashion, new trends, and buying often. It repulses me physically.

Does anyone have any clarification as to whether the places the cloths are grown have surplus or deficets of drinking water and if the water used on the cotton plants is of drinking quality? I know that the Aral sea had its rivers diverted for cotton farming which is terrible but are any of the other cotton farms sustainable? Also what happens when the plant use the water, does it not just everporate and get put back into the water cycle or drain back into a sea? Conservation of energy means that not all the 1000's of litres of water are actually turned into cloths (or a hoody would weigh tons) so what happens to the excess?

Documentary made on fashion industry's impact on environment was superb. Watched that episode in sony bbc earth.. Please show such documentaries again and again on television and social media

Should have also mentioned how the workers are treated making those clothes

This seems very irresponsible. Yes, plants use a lot of water but that water doesn’t just vanish. A lot would go into ground water and photosynthesis that then also produces water. How much real water is actually lost? If you want to talk water waste, then it should be about industry pollution, bottled water, mining, water conversion, and climate change. I don’t think destroying a farmer is helping anyone. Not the economy or the environment. Please be more responsible.

Buy less. Would help for a start.

Recycling is key folks 🙂

I am ignorant to the fact and shocked. But I also think that the error lies in over production and wastage. We know our skin prefers cotton, so what is an equal alternative?

Ever heard bout water cycle? Didn't expect more of BBC tho

There are a lot of people here who want to know more eco-friendly options... simple. Shop secondhand.

My teacher showed me this. I’m in a lesson now lol

I live in the Southern United States and am right in the middle of cotton fields...everywhere. I can tell you that rain water plays a huge role. It not all pumped from the water system. I actually don’t see the big movable sprinkler machines running much.

Great for people to know, but it doesn't stop the production..so yes some people might make better decisions and shop less, but the clothes are still being made.

But the water doesn't just disappear?

its literally not the shoppers fault... and if they didn't buy the shirts they would still be on the shelves in the store and someone else would of bought them. just bc you didnt buy it doesn't mean all that water is gone already

I love this girl. So disarming, that voice makes people drastically under estimate her. Then comes the awful promise of truth. She's great, though this isn't on the iPlayer anymore. I hope we start teaching this stuff in schools, instead of religious classes which is basically apocryphal insights into ancient cults that bore zero relevance to me, or anyone else in my school.

I mean how stacey can be so damn perfect ? This girl is ...mind blowing

Stacey’s jumper looks cotton to me.... haha

Social media platforms adding to the problems. because so called "public figures" will need a new outfit when sharing a new post. Let's say, 250,000 "influencers" buying new outfit to post on social media and in a week will post at least 2 times. that's 500 thousand outfits produced, worn once and after uploading post of them wearing the outfit, they are reluctant to wear the outfit ever again!

That is what the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile water is about. Ever heard of the much vaunted Egyptian cotton?

Powerful programme tonight Stacey, Recycling is the way forward ,more bloggers needed for this than buying new every time

Cotton is a hard word apparently.

What other material do u expect me to wear. Polyester is made from oils which is not renewable.

I can't believe that it was so much water, I will definitely think about this in the future

want us to stop growing plants too? ever heard of the water cycle? all that water goes right back round the cycle

Water cycle

Is it ok to use a small clip from this video in a lesson plan to bring pupils' attention to this brilliant documentary please?

What's the alternative then?

how many times has she changed the outfits during this programme? i could not catch up with counting..lol

Only ~5% of the water in a plant is used for photosynthesis, the rest is lost (evaporated into the atmosphere to fall as rain) in transpiration. The water isn't even lost in photosynthesis because when it is used to recover energy in respiration, the glucose and oxygen produces water and carbon dioxide. The thousands of litres of water has a greater mass than the clothes therefore the water is lost therefore the water is not used up Water is one of the most abundant things in our planet, covering ~2/3 of the surface of Earth. There is a water cycle. Just putting it out there.

says that as she wears a hoodie

Greed and power are the main factors in destroying the environment, but this is not a new thing. Look at history, theirs always someone who wants more, even the caveman wanted a bigger club than his neighbour!!

Lol shock, no companies wanted to talk. That just shows their guilt

Where is the original video? I watched it last week, but it is not there anymore?!

This is so stupid for the areas that do not need to water their growing cotton!

In Australia that would be considered water wastage

Hemp fabrics, no pesticides and one tenth of the water.

PLENTY of water is used in animal products to maintain livestock, so if you consider doing some reasearch if you care about this issue and the environment would be the best thing .

Coming here from watching the documentary on CBC. I'm becoming more and more convinced that our species existence and growth is detrimental to everything else around it (except domesticated pets, I guess, but they wouldnt have existed if it wasnt for our existence in the first place). Maybe if everything we buy had to be made-to-order, that could help? Its usually the entire concept of mass-production and industrialization that destroys our world and creates waste just to fill the pockets of a few induviduals. But the only way I see the future of consumerism being made-to-order is if its government-mandated. Most consumers, being uninformed, and every industry would never agree to switching to such a system en masse. It might mean buying new clothes would be more expensive but it could also rebalance the whole system by taking control of what we wear away from corporations and more with usually local and sometimes international small businesses.

this is called the development of industry and culture.

ok im going to stop drinking water now, and wearing any clothes

People from the UK buy more clothing than any other European country. (Guardian Newspaper 2019). But who is the most stylish?, I don't think it's people from the UK. Possibly France perhaps. It seems people in other European countries value their clothing more, have a capsule wardrobe and understand style.

but what options do we have to change this?

How much water dies 1 single broccoli cost to produce? i think a vending machine cup of coffey without milk costs like 20 litres of water to produce. But everything we use and consume has to come out of a resourse somehow, what does this information mean to us other than it is water costly to grow cotton, as is anything. Hemp, corn, vegetables, fruit, beans, livestock. Everything costs resources to become another resource.

Why is this not available on bbc iPlayer, where can I watch this again?

lol I bet none of them returned it after CRYING over how much water it is haha

Probably one of the most shocking things is how dim Stacey actually is.

so, why did she buy a new clothes?

I don't see how it's a bad thing. Can someone explain it to me. Are poeple being denied water just to grow Cotton

Now we're even being criticised for buying new clothes... Even if everyone who did watch this video did reduce the amount they buy, it wouldn't make a dent. It's not our place to solve, its the businesses that are using these materials and methods that need to invest into R&D and find an alternative material or alternative to using those large amounts of water.

Oh please! Water is 100% recycled. If I need new clothes, I will buy them.

Where is the full episode? I see its deleted..:(

Its a good like eye opener.

I'm naked. It's wrong to where clothes

whys that bad, correct me if im wrong but doesn't it all get evaporated anyway? much better using water than plastic/oil based substances

Informative but.. not overly helpful, & there are far too many contradicting responses in the comment section. Everything needs water, whether it’s to dye, wash, or grow. Fact. Everyone can do their bit for the environment, we all already know that, but as someone already mentioned, this is really one sided & I often really like Stacey & what she documents. It produced more unanswered questions than answered for me & many others. Eh.

I’m wearing wool 💁🏼‍♂️

Where can I watch the documentary Fashion’s Dirty Secrets?

Are we supposed to by synthetic clothes then?

Who is here because of Mrs. Schuh? Hello fellow clasemates👋👋

Shocking

Sorry but this doesn't make me feel any differently about using water or buying clothes. I understand the implications of using water for people who don't have it easily available but this has nothing to do with us, those clothes will still be sat in the shops if we didn't buy them someone else will. I am sure that the companies need to be looking at what they can do to improve the water waste and surely those figures are exaggerated. A lot more goes into it than just oh lets dump 10,000 litres of water into make cotton. I like the concept of the video but it does lack a lot of detail.

We are drinking the same water as dinosaurs did, water doesn’t disappear by plant growth it’s used like we use it in and back out again, what a stupid thing to fret about.

OMG THIS WAS IN GLASGOW!!!!

The thing that always puzzles me about such figures is how they even are relevant. First, the water used in farming doesn't magically disappear, so the better variable to look at seems to be how much farming pollutes water. Furthermore, it seems contraintuitive to equate the used water with drinking water because you don't need drinking water quality for watering plants.

Omg...didnt know...

What's the first biggest polluter in the world?

I disagree Stacy, people don’t care. They know the effects and impacts of buying dirt cheap clothes to satisfy their economic needs. You want a £10 jumper ? There’s the £10 jumper. But don’t complain because your the demand for these £10 jumpers. That’s why there are people and children making pennies daily for your jumper, living in piss poor conditions to ‘ support ‘ their families which they can barely do. Environmentally you can’t complain that millions of dye is being released into the ocean effecting everything. Want to make a change ? Buy clothes from reasonable organisations who don’t do this shit, ethical clothing. You could also buy more expensive clothes which usually have more quality standards.

Surely they don’t use the water from Flint USA

Guess I'll have to start wearing animal skin

It is disgusting, we should be reprehensible for damage we done to this earth sake of money . This is also the terrible side of the capitalism. Money ,money , thats all . Look at that river , one guy said that he was playing in the river when he was a teenager, and now the river become a river of poising. We all must think about this matter very serious than we ever thought . Unless our fate and miseries would not far away .

Stacy on Blood Sweat and Tshirt was sooooo cute....

People should care more :)

Non cotton products are even worse BBC

ok

Where does that water go though?

Just have to get my breath after laughing so hard, all that water somehow disappears from existence the second it’s absorbed into a cotton crop? 😂😂😂

Stacey is gorgeous

wait is this good because of global worming

This changed my live, from now on I'll be just wearing leather, fur and polyester

It's not like we will run out of fucking water jheez there People need to chill

suprised theres nothing about babtunde or something

How about to make a royal wedding. We are not informed by your network BBC. I buy clothes and toys for my grandchildren at thrifty shops. Unless I'm invited to The Ball.

Glasgow runs the joint

I live here :)

I have finally read the findings of the investigation from the website and I found it very helpful and eye opening but, I don't like how, the materials such as plastic and cotton (the main focus of this short film) are being referred to. She makes it sound like these materials have life in them and are evil and intentional polluting our environment whiles, what is really causing the damage is man. We human beings are the ones who decided to use these materials to provide our selves with our needs without thinking about the impact of it on our environment.

Yeh but no but yeh innit though