The textile industry is one of the largest in the world; responsible for enormous CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions and must be considered a significant contributor to climate change. http://mslk.com/reactions/?p=1195

Second only to agriculture, the textile industry uses more water than any other and discharges massive quantities of toxic chemicals into the environment at all stages of production. It also uses huge amounts of oil and electricity in manufacturing, the production of synthetics, and in shipping and air travel. http://mslk.com/reactions/?p=1195

85% of all natural fibers are cotton, followed by wool, linen, and hemp, with cultivation occurring in around 100 countries. The main producers are India (8.6 million ha), United States (5.3 million ha), China (4 million ha), Pakistan (3.1 million ha) and Uzbekistan (1.4 million ha). http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

The majority of other textile products are made with synthetic fibers, most commonly polyester; made from oil, polyester uses 3-5 times more energy to produce. Rayon or viscose are made from wool instead of oil, still requiring considerable amounts of energy and chemicals to produce. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

Textile manufacturing contributes to poisoned water for 300 million in China. For more information, visit:
http://www.jasonmills.com/from-the-front-page/china-pays-steep-price-as-textile-exports-boom-3.html

The demand for water to irrigate cotton fields in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan over the last 40 years has decreased the Aral Sea by 85%. The Aral Sea http://www.ejfoundation.org/page146.html, once the world's fourth largest body of inland water, has now shrunk to just 15% of its former volume. ALL native fish are gone from its waters, 20 of the 24 native fish species there are now extinct including the sturgeon that produced world-renowned caviar, and the salinity has risen by almost 600%. Trawlers lie stranded and commercial fishing activities have long since ground to a halt.  The United nations described this as one of the “most staggering disasters of the 20th century.” http://www.ejfoundation.org/page327.html

WASTE & RECYCLING

As reported by the EPA , an estimated 11.9 million tons of textiles were generated in 2007, or 4.7 percent of total municipal solid waste (MSW) generation.

According to the Council for Textile Recycling, each year the textile recycling industry prevents 2.5 billion pounds of postconsumer textile product waste from entering the solid waste stream.  2.5 billion pounds of postconsumer textile waste represents approximately 10 pounds for every person in the United States. 

Approximately 500 million pounds of textiles collected are used by the collecting agency, with the balance sold to textile recyclers, including used clothing dealers, exporters, wiping rag graders, and fiber recyclers.

The Council for Textile Recycling estimates that almost half of textiles discarded are contributed to charities. Charities either give away clothes or sell them at discounted prices in secondhand stores.

About 61% of the clothes recovered for second-hand use are exported to foreign countries.

Primary and secondary textile recycling processors in the U.S. account for annual gross sales of $400 million and $300 million, respectively, and employ approximately 17,000 people. 


CONTAMINANTS

The Toxics Release Inventory (2006) of the US EPA http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri06/data/States_Doc_2006_v06.pdf reports that over 33,000,000 lbs. of toxic chemicals were released by US textile mills in 2005:  that’s in the US along and just “toxic” chemicals — there are many more that aren’t classified as toxic by the US government.  

In India textile effluent (water mixed with waste matter) averages around 425,000,000 gallons per day and is mostly untreated. http://www.xlweb.com/heritage/asian/jacob.htm Some of the dyes present in the wastewater are carcinogenic and harmful humans, plants and animals. The ground water in Tiruppur is contaminated from the large number of dyeing and printing units within the city of Mathura and has resulted in damage to agricultural crops and has caused skin disorder. The water used in the process is almost entirely discharged as waste, the average being 150 to 175 liters of wastewater for every kg of fabric processed. http://www.xlweb.com/heritage/asian/jacob.htm

10% and 100% of the weight of the fabric in chemicals is required to produce that fabric.  It requires between 4 and 20 pounds of chemicals to produce the fabric required for an average sofa. http://www.xlweb.com/heritage/asian/jacob.htm

Hazardous cotton pesticides are known to contaminate rivers and threaten global freshwater resources in USA, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Australia, Greece and West Africa. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page332.html Some of the most common pesticides used in cotton farming include:

Aldicarb http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35144 , a powerful nerve agent, is one of the most toxic pesticides applied to cotton worldwide and the 2nd most used pesticide in global cotton production. Just one drop of aldicarb, absorbed through the skin, is enough to kill an adult. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page332.html

Endosulfan http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35085  is widely used in cotton production and is the dominant pesticide in the cotton sector in 19 countries. In a single province of Benin, at least 37 people died from endosulfan poisoning in just one cotton season.  http://www.ejfoundation.org/page332.html

Monocrotophos http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC33331, withdrawn from the US market in 1989, it is still widely used in developing world countries. In 1997, Paraguay’s Ministry of Health and Welfare identified it as being responsible for causing paralysis in children living in cotton growing areas. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page332.html

Deltamethrin http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC33475 a nerve agent is applied in over half of the cotton producing countries. Medical analysis in a community in a South African village located on the edge of a major cotton production area found traces of deltamethrin in human breast milk. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page332.html

Some of the most commonly used hazardous chemicals in the textile sector are: lead, nickel, chromium IV, phthalates and formaldehyde. Even after washing the garment, some chemicals come off on the skin; some chemicals are carcinogenic and others can cause skin allergies and irritations. http://mslk.com/reactions/?p=1195

Dyeing and bleaching procedures of fabric typically use toxic chemicals like chromium in some wool dyes. Chromium http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/contaminants/dw_contamfs/chromium.html, a heavy metal, threatens our drinking supply when it is not properly disposed of during the dyeing process. Chlorine bleaching http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/products/bleach.htm  has been linked to dioxin pollution, which causes birth defects.
http://mslk.com/reactions/?p=1195

Natural dyes made from plants, earth clays, and insects as well as benign chemicals like aluminum and iron are eco-friendly alternatives to the synthetic dyes and hazardous chemicals used in conventional fabric dyeing.
http://mslk.com/reactions/?p=1195

Brominated flame retardants - “A group of bromine containing chemicals that are used to make materials such as textiles and plastics less flammable.”
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/toxics_chemicals_glossary.pdf

Phthalates http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/term/480 are so toxic that they have been banned in the European Union since 2005. They have recently been banned in the State of California in children’s toys.  But they are in the majority (90%, not 51%) of  textile inks. http://www.iccink.com/phthalates.htm


COTTON

Cotton is the largest money-making non-food crop produced globally.  http://www.islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?sku=1-55963-370-0

Cotton is an important cash crop in both countries with cotton and textiles, accounting for 55% of foreign exchange earnings in Pakistan and 45% of all exports from India to the EU. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

45-50% of all cotton clothes, household goods, and other commercial textile products require 115 million bales of cotton (25 million tons) annually world-wide. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

The production and processing of cotton provides some or all of the income of over 250 million people worldwide, employs almost 7% of all labor in developing countries often requires the use of hazardous chemicals, polluted or dwindling water supplies and can result in habitat loss, degraded soil and unfair working conditions. www.panda.org/agriculture

Nearly all activities associated with cotton production, processing, and manufacturing are becoming more concentrated in the hands of fewer companies and fewer countries. Cotton textiles constitute approximately half of all textiles (Banuri 1999). www.panda.org/agriculture and http://www.islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?sku=1-55963-370-0

With the cultivation and production of cotton comes poor social conditions including child labor, and “debt” or “bonded” labor in which farm workers and their families are forced to work to pay off debts to other farmers or seed and chemical suppliers, long hours and inadequate pay.  http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

Conventional cotton agriculture is responsible for colossal greenhouse gas emissions due to chemical fertilizers, desertification and long-term contamination of the water supply. http://gliving.tv/news/fashion-designer-campaigns-against-poison-cotton-and-slave-labor/

Cotton cultivation in Central America has decimated the hardwood forests leaving only 2% remaining and destroyed 100% of the coastal savannas and mangrove forests. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

Conventional cotton farming (grown with the aid of pesticides and herbicides) requires 3% of the world’s farmland and demands almost 25% of the world’s chemical pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers http://www.dartmouth.edu/~thepress/read.php?id=916 These chemicals and pesticides are classified among the most toxic by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

Cotton is the world’s thirstiest crop – requiring 6 pints of water to produce a single cotton bud. http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf

It’s estimated that worldwide cotton consumption is responsible for 2.6 per cent of global water usage  and 44 % of the water use for cotton growth is for export rather than domestic markets where the cotton is grown. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page334.html

It’s estimated that nearly half of the water problems in the world related to cotton growth and processing can be attributed to demand for cotton products. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page334.html

Producing enough cotton for a single t-shirt requires 257 gallons of water. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~thepress/read.php?id=916

The production and processing of cotton releases hazardous toxins into the environment. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~thepress/read.php?id=916 Conventional cotton farming methods require approximately 1 pound of harmful synthetic fertilizer and pesticides to produce enough cotton to make just one pair of jeans and a t-shirt. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

In 1995, more than 14 pounds of pesticides, including 5 of the top 9 cancer-causing chemicals (cyanazine, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin), were sprayed on every acre of cotton fields in California. All the top nine pesticides used are labeled by the EPA as the most toxic, Category I or II materials. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

The chemicals used in the growth and production of cotton not only contaminate and destroy our environment, they affect the farmers who work with them as well as chemically sensitive people who wear the end product. http://mslk.com/reactions/?p=1195

90% of municipal water treatment facilities don’t have equipment to remove carcinogenic herbicides, according to a report from 1994 by Environmental Working Group/Physicians for Social Responsibility according to a report from 1994 by Environmental Working Group/Physicians for Social Responsibility. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

46% of all U.S. counties contain groundwater susceptible to contamination from agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, and 68 pesticides have been found in drinking wells in California since 1982. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

2/3 of the cotton crop in the form of seed ends up in the food we eat, even though it’s been treated with chemicals that are banned for food crops. 40% of the cotton plant is comprised of fiber and the rest is seed, which is used to feed and produce food — primarily dairy and beef cattle, and an ingredient in prepared foods such as cookies and  potato chips. As much as 10% of a cow’s diet can be untreated cottonseed and gin trash. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

An eco-friendly alternative to conventional cotton farming is organically grown cotton which is grown without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides or defoliants. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

Organic cotton farmers increase their revenue 50% because of a 40% drop in the cost of supplies (fertilizers and pesticides), and a 20% premium for organic cotton (only a 1% premium is passed on to the consumer). http://gliving.tv/news/fashion-designer-campaigns-against-poison-cotton-and-slave-labor/

Turkey and the USA are the largest producers of eco-friendly organic cotton and yet only account for .03% of the total cotton production on the planet. http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/organic-fibers/

99% of the world’s cotton farmers live and work in the developing countries where cotton is a smallholder crop grown by the rural poor, employing 7% of the total labor force http://assets.panda.org/downloads/cotton_for_printing_summary_report.pdf. In a good year a smallholder farmer in Mali would expect to earn US$1,000 per year but with depressed world prices many of these farmers operate at a loss and accumulate debt.  Cotton accounts for around 40% of West Africa’s exports, yet subsidies to northern cotton farmers have led to a fall in world prices and economic problems in the south. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page327.html

Uzbekistan -- the world’s second largest exporter of cotton -- has devastating consequences for the ethnic Karakalpaks because their homeland lies directly south of the former Aral Sea. Dioxins and PCBs have been found throughout the food chain, in samples of treated water and breast milk. Rural communities show DNA mutation rates of up to 3.5 times higher than those considered normal in the USA. 5% of children are born with abnormalities.
http://www.ejfoundation.org/page148.html and http://gliving.tv/news/fashion-designer-campaigns-against-poison-cotton-and-slave-labor/

The grim life of a Uzbek cotton farmer produces a commodity which bankrolls the country’s regime, and furthers the careers of regional officials. The government controls their lives  and stiff penalties and punishments await those who don’t obey.  http://www.ejfoundation.org/page327.html

90% of Uzbek cotton is harvested by hand, due to a shortage of agricultural machinery and underinvestment—a lot of this work is done by children who miss up to 3 months of school each annually to pick Uzbek cotton. The government orders hundreds of thousands of children, as young as 7, to harvest the annual cotton crop for little to no pay. Over 100,000 children have been documented working for 13 hours a day for just .50$. Those who fail to meet their quotas or pick poor quality cotton are punished by scolding, beating or detention.  http://www.ejfoundation.org/page327.html

From West Africa to Egypt, India to Turkmenistan, children are employed in a variety of tasks from cottonseed production, to pesticide spraying and the annual cotton harvest.  In West Africa, children are also trafficked (bought and sold on the black market) to work in cotton fields. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page330.html


Each year an estimated one million children in Egypt aged between 7 and 12 work to manually remove pests from cotton plants-- up to ten weeks each year, they work eleven hours a day, seven days a week. Abuses reported include exposure to pesticides, beatings from foremen and overwork. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page330.html
 
In Andhra Pradesh, India, an estimated 100,000 children under the age of 18 have been reported to work 13 hours a day in cottonseed production for less than half a euro per day. These children are often bonded by loans given to their parents. http://www.ejfoundation.org/page330.html


ECO-FRIENDLY TEXTILE

Three factors determine if a textile is environmentally sound: renewability, ecological footprint, and the amount of chemicals it takes to grow and process the textile before it is ready for the market. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~thepress/read.php?id=916

Cotton and rayon are the most widely used textiles are not particularly environmentally sound.  Hemp has a considerably smaller ecological footprint than most other textile plants: requiring fewer herbicides and fertilizers, highly pest-resistant and requires no irrigation as it can thrive on the average rainfall. Wool, another environmentally friendly fabric, can be produced by farmers as a wonderful resource with few caveats.