Cotton is a sustainable crop that can be grown and manufactured with little environmental impact when best practices are followed. Farmers grow cotton through irrigation and careful cultivation. Manufacturers produce quality cotton products and ensure waste is reused. Consumers can support sustainability by buying Australian cotton goods and practicing recycling. The full lifecycle of cotton from seed to clothing demonstrates how the crop can be a renewable resource when grown, produced and reused responsibly.

1. Cotton
Bridging the Rural Divide
Macarthur Anglican School

2. Do you know where your
cotton products come from?

3. What role do you play?

4. What is Sustainability?
• Sustainability is the
ability to maintain or
continue something.
• It is to look after
something so it lasts for a
long time.
• Cotton is an excellent
product for sustainability
because its products are
comfortable and useful.

5. How does cotton grow?
• Cotton seeds are
grown in Spring, in
warm and healthy soil.
• Cotton grows on leafy
green shrubs that
have cream and pink
flowers.
• 80% of cotton is
irrigated.

6. What do farmers do?
• Farmers grow and harvest
the cotton
• They must care for the land
• They must care for the
plants
• They must care for the soil
• They must care for the
water

7. Best farming practice
• Cotton can be grown
sustainably with little affect
on the environment
• Use pesticides safely
• Try not to spread weeds
and disease
• Recycle water and use it
carefully

8. What can manufacturers do?
• Produce good quality
cotton to make good
quality products.
• Create a variety of
products.
• Ensure that even the
waste is used.
• Run environmentally
friendly factories.

9. Considered Recycling?
• Cotton provides cool and
comfortable clothing, other
textile, animals feed,
cottonseed oil, biomass
fuel, and numerous other
products.
• It’s a resource that is
natural, renewable- and
recyclable.
• Large companies recycle
cotton.

10. What can the consumer do?
• Cotton is a natural fibre.
• Cotton is used in cooking oil.
• Cotton is easy to wash,
doesn’t shrink easily, colour
doesn’t come off after first
wash.
• Support the Australian cotton
industry
• Buy Australian cotton
products
• Be informed about cotton

11. Sustainability and Cotton
A poem
Clothes, socks and underwear
Recycling is an important thing
There is so much more
It makes life a lot easier
Come and join us in this poem
Making clothes into something new
and we will explore
Perhaps into anything!
and we will explore!
One question is,
First the farmers’ role
What’s sustainability?
turn the soil
Let’s soon find out
sow the seeds,
It is doing farming in a way that it doesn’t ruin the soil
water it in and see what proceeds.
and that is good because we don’t want to spoil.
Organic soil is different to the rest,
No one knows what the future will hold
no spray or chemicals
Flying cars or magical shoes
with no pesticides,
But what we know is, cotton won’t grow old
we think that’s best!
there might even be more fabrics to choose.
From the seed to jeans,
or the seed to socks
As Macarthur Anglican School decorate their cow
The process is awsome
We know it will look cool
We think it rocks!
You just need to know how
The Manufacturer sorts the cotton
Cotton is cool
Seeds, cotton and waste
Cotton is light
The waste is the most popular
Cotton is what I sleep on at night
It seems like a big mistake.
Cotton is what we love the most
I have cotton, not to boast.
The consumer is the one who buys it,
when its been made into clothes,
Sells it off to all the shops,
Amelia Patterson 5G
How much it costs, nobody knows!

12. Cotton
Bridging the Rural Divide
Macarthur Anglican School

13. Bibliography
• http://www.cottonaustralia.com.au/facts/factsandfigures.aspx?id=6
• http://australianorganiccotton.com.au/
• http://www.kingcotton.com.au/reycled-clothing/
• http://cottontoday.cottoninc.com/sustainability-about/reycling/
• Illustrators: Keegan Potgieter and Brooke Duncan
• Poet: Amelia Patterson
• Information gathering and publishing by students of Macarthur Anglican School