Dirty laundry

To change our lives we must first admit that our present situation is not satisfactory. Following that, we must accept that the predicament we find ourselves in will naturally lead us to ask what has brought this condition about. Greenpeace offers some answers.

In “Dirty Laundry,” their July 2011 report, Greenpeace claims that one of the leading international industries is using toxic chemicals during the manufacturing process. The textile industry is one of the largest in Bangladesh, providing half of the industrial employment for the country. Textile production is a water and energy guzzler all over the world. Greenpeace says this is leading to toxic clothing ending up on the shelves of your local retailer and poisoned water everywhere.

The textile industry’s water use and pollution is substantial. Worldwide, the industry uses a million tons of dye and seven million tons of chemicals. To prove their point, Greenpeace purchased dozens of articles of clothing and fabric shoes by fifteen big name brands from stores around the world. Ironically, the global nature of clothing production and trade means that these articles are being imported into European Union (EU) countries where the use of these chemicals in clothing manufacture has effectively been banned. In response, Adidas Group, C&A, H&M, Li Ning, Nike, Inc. and Puma are leading the apparel and footwear industry toward zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020. Not a moment too soon.

China is the largest polluter of the Pacific Ocean. One third of the industrial wastewater and 90 percent of household sewage in China is released into rivers and lakes without being treated. China's three great rivers - the Yangtze, Pearl and Yellow rivers - are so filthy that it is dangerous to swim or eat fish caught in them. China’s great lakes - the Tai, Chao and Dianchi - have water that is rated Grade V, the most degraded level. It is unfit for drinking, agricultural or industrial use. Nearly 80 percent of China's cities have no sewage treatment at all. Half of China’s population lacks safe drinking water. China’s own Environmental Protection Agency says that water pollution levels are double what the government predicted them to be. Dye houses can cause major environmental damage killing everything that lives in rivers and streams.

The textile industry is waking up to the realization that it cannot continue to destroy the environment. China has begun to enact new environmental regulations and laws. Beijing is closing polluting factories and building new sewage treatment plants. However, that is not good news. Chinese environmentalist Ma Jun told the Washington Post, “Hundreds of sewage plants have been built around China, but we haven’t seen our water getting cleaner. We have more than 600 records of violations by sewage plants discharging above standards or simply not treating it at all or properly disposing of the sludge.”