Waste and Pollution within the Fashion Industry Den
im’ s d litt irty le s ecr et
Blue jeans are a fashion staple for everyone, at any age, all over the world. However, denim, and many of our favorite garments, are polluting rivers in locations where they are being made, impacting the lives of people who count on those waterways for their survival. Big box retailers and fashion labels are committing “hydrocide”, or the deliberate destruction of water sources by dumping into them toxic waste from fabric dyes. Mercury, lead, cadmium, and other chemicals and carcinogens are flushed out into lakes and rivers needed for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and much more. Scientists have been able to concretely link these toxins found in water samples to fabric dyes and tanneries, and the next step now is linking them to the specific companies producing and disposing of them in secret.
The cruel joke now is that one can predict the main color story of the next season’s fashion trends just by taking a gander at the opaque rivers near factories in China, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia. Due to such intense pollution, the most populous fashion manufacturing areas are now some of the most inhabitable cities in the world. Nothing can survive in these rivers. The civilians, who are often the ones working in clothing factories for miniscule wages, have no other choice but bathe and cook with this water, and therefore are subject to immense harm. This is all happening while the companies hide behind their brick walls, iron gates, and deflecting rhetoric.
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