My carbon footprint: surely freezing jeans can’t be a thing?

I’m taken with this idea of pushing the non-wash boundaries, says Kate Hughes

Cotton production, accounting for 50 per cent of the garments produced every year, is the environmentalist’s nemesis (Getty)

It has come to my attention that the one about putting your jeans in the freezer is doing the rounds again.

Not because of some sleep-deprived or stress-induced confusion over which white cube is the washing machine, but because owners of said denim believe plunging their high rises into the icy depths will kill off the bacteria we all shed onto our clothes and thus remove the need for washing. Or at least freshen them up a bit. Or something.

Now, any opportunity to reduce water consumption should of course be immediately seized upon, especially given the hideous environmental impact of producing the 70 million pairs of jeans sold every year in the UK alone.