SHIRT TO DIRT
by CHARLIE DARWIN TEXTILES
A CITIZEN SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
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Join us for a fun summer experiment!
Join us in the summer of 2023 for an exciting community-based art & science project!
We're on a mission to better understand how long it takes linen fabric to biodegrade, and need your help!
How will it work? I'll send you linen fabric samples that you'll bury in your garden, yard, compost pile, or that sad patch of dirt by your back door, with a step-by-step guide for you to easily upload photos of your unearthed linen to our online database every two weeks. How quickly will yours turn back into dirt?!
No matter where you are in the U.S., you can be a part of this project by participating in the 8-week experiment (no science experience is necessary)! Let's work together to create the first visual database of linen biodegrading and unearth a brighter future with plant-based clothing.
But we're only keeping them for half as long.
An estimated 85% of textiles go to landfill every year.
We're buying 60% more clothes than we did 15 years ago,
Why do we care how long it takes fabric to biodegrade?
Over 65% of our clothing is made from plastic that takes hundreds of years to biodegrade.
Microplastics are consumed by ocean and terrestrial wildlife, causing harm to their bodies and ecosystems.
Every time you wash a polyester shirt, up to 70,000 tiny pieces of plastic fibers break off, and up to 40% of those enter into rivers, lakes, and oceans.
In contrast, linen fabric is made from plants, not plastic. It has been suggested that it can biodegrade within weeks.
Biodegrade = turn back into dirt
Linen = soft, breathable fabric made from flax plants
Let's get some data to back this up!
This isn't an experiment locked away in an academic lab...
The contributions you make from your backyard will be what matters most!
Citizen Science = Community works together to collect data