Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh is telling consumers to wear their jeans in the shower when they’re in dire need of being washed, or better yet he says, just a spot clean will do. Bergh reasons that circumventing the washing machine will benefit the environment and make your Levi’s last longer.
“The denim industry consumes a ton of water,” Bergh told CNBC. “Half of it is growing the cotton, and then the other half is the consumer throwing their jeans in the washing machine,” he added.
He explained that if he spills something on his jeans, instead of putting them in the washer, he manually cleans that area. But if they need a more thorough cleaning: “I’ll wash them in the shower,” he said. This includes stepping into the shower while wearing the jeans and washing them with soap, as you would wash your body, but only if “they’re really gross.”
Bergh claims that while people in the U.S. wash their jeans regularly, other regions in the world will go years without washing their denim, and added that it is better for the environment.
Studies show that denim pollution is very real, and is happening, with scientists reporting that the microfibers flow from washing machines and into rivers, lakes, and oceans around the world. “We don’t know yet the impacts on wildlife and the environment.” Sam Athey, one of the authors of a study published in the Environmental Science and Technology Letters told Science News Explores. “Even though denim is made of a natural material — cotton — it contains chemicals,” she added.
Although studies back Bergh’s reasoning for refraining from putting those smelly, dirty jeans in the washing machine, it doesn’t negate the fact that bacteria will continue to live on the jeans even after giving them a shower. Bergh offers the option to freeze your jeans to get rid of the smell and kill bacteria, but that’s not exactly true, according to Stephen Craig Cary, an expert on frozen microbes with the University of Delaware.
Cary told the Smithsonian Magazine: “One might think that if the temperature drops well below the human body temperature they will not survive, but actually many will. Many are preadapted to survive low temperatures.”
He added even if only one bacteria survives on the jeans, it can repopulate when the jeans warm back up. “I would suggest that you either raise the temperature to 121 degrees Celsius for at least 10 minutes,” Cary told the outlet, “or just wash them! The latter surely is the best alternative to save energy.”