Pilar Pilar

With the arrival of colder weather, the lost and found area in the secondary school of the European School of Alicante once again fills up with jackets and personal items that remain there for days without being claimed. Beyond a matter of organisation, this situation invites an important reflection: secondary school students are at a key stage in assuming full responsibility for their belongings. Each forgotten item is not just a minor oversight, but the result of a production process that has required natural resources, energy and transport.

The textile industry is a clear example of this invisible impact. Producing a single cotton T-shirt can require around 2,700 litres of water, and a more complex garment such as a jacket needs several thousand litres over its entire life cycle, from fibre cultivation to dyeing and finishing. Globally, the fashion industry uses approximately 79 billion cubic metres of water per year and is responsible for a significant share of industrial water pollution.

Added to this resource consumption are the emissions associated with transport. Many garments sold in Europe are manufactured in Asia and travel thousands of kilometres by ship or plane before reaching our shops. Taken together, the textile industry generates around 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. What may seem like an individual and insignificant decision — buying a new garment because another one has been lost — ceases to be insignificant when repeated millions of times.

In this context, reuse emerges as a powerful alternative. Reusing a garment that has already been produced avoids the extraction of new resources, reduces emissions and decreases waste. Recent studies show that the environmental impact of reusing clothing can be up to 70 times lower than that of producing a new garment. Each recovered jacket, each reused bottle and each well-cared-for object is, in practice, one less new purchase.
Source: https://euric.org/resource-hub/press-releases-statements/press-release-clothing-reuse-has-a-70-times-lower-environmental-impact-reveals-new-study

For this reason, the lost and found area can also become an educational space. Taking care of our belongings is not only a matter of personal organisation, but an act of environmental responsibility. Understanding the life cycle of the objects we use every day helps shape more aware citizens, capable of making informed and sustainable decisions both inside and outside the school.