Bamboo

Bamboo fabric facts...

• The grass produces an ultra-soft fabric that is twice as soft as cotton and is said to rival the softness of cashmere.
• The fabric wicks moisture away from the body keeping the wearer dry.
• Bamboo fabric has thermally regulating properties so it keeps the wearer cool when it’s warm and warm when it’s cool, this makes the fabric suitable for such a diverse range of products and garments.
• The plant produces a fabric that has anti-bacterial properties.
• Bamboo has so many other uses other than fabric; it is used in food, construction, home ware and has many decorative purposes.

So, why is Bamboo more sustainable than other fabrics on the market?

• Bamboo does not require much water and does not need the use of pesticides and fertilisers for growth, this means than it is not using up the earth’s resources and is not harming the worlds natural eco-systems.
• No animals are harmed in the making of Bamboo fabric, the Giant Panda is in danger of becoming extinct, large areas of its natural habitat (areas where Bamboo is grown) are being destroyed. As Bamboo is becoming more and more popular more of the plant is being grown and areas of land that already grow the grass are saved. This means that the Giant Panda will have a better chance of survival.
• The grass is very fast growing, from seeding to harvesting in just 2 to 4 years. This is just a fraction of the 50 - 60 years it takes for standard timber, some species are even known to grow up to 4ft in just one day!
• Year after year the plant will grow back without human intervention needed as it is a grass, therefore it is self-propagating.
• The plant produces 35% more oxygen than standard timber trees so it will help with the global rising CO2 levels.

 

 

The down side to the fabric

http://www.rapanuiclothing.com/ethical-fashion/bamboo-clothing.html

• When the bamboo plant is processed it is broken down chemically, while in the EU this process is a closed-loop system and no chemicals escape, the same can’t be said for outside of the EU.
• Outside of the EU regulations are not in place to ensure that Bamboo fabric is being created without harming the environment, stronger regulations need to be put in place to make sure that our environment is not exposed to the chemicals used to create the fabric.
• On the surface Bamboo is a great fabric as it has so many positive properties and is fully sustainable, to then go and create the fabric in a way that causes harm to the environment defeats the point of the fabrics original purpose. Once stricter regulations have been put in place then the consumer can make Bamboo purchases knowing that their item has caused no harm to our planet.

 

 

Chemical use and water pollution

Chemical use in China

·         17-20% of water pollution in China comes from the dying processes in textile factories.

·         72 toxic chemicals originate solely from dying and 30 of these cannot be removed from water.

·         In China over 100,000 deaths annually are caused by chemicals in water, 300 million Chinese people do not have access to clean water, this is almost the equivalent to the whole of the United States.

·         Many big name brands and companies have been responsible for polluting water in China, some of these companies include, Abercrombie and Fitch, Adidas, H&M and Nike.

 

 

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/water/detox/

Greenpeace

·         Greenpeace’s Detox campaign is run by over half a million people and they are demanding toxic free fashion and clean water.

·         15 Global brands have signed up to the Detox plan:

1.       Nike

2.       Adidas

3.       Puma

4.       H&M

5.       M&S

6.       Li-Ning

7.       Zara

8.       Mango

9.       Espirt

10.    Levi’s

11.    Uniqlo

12.    Benetton

13.    Victoria’s Secret

14.    G-Star Raw

15.    Valentino

·         The campaign is famous for naming and shaming brands with negative environmental impacts and an unethical ethos.

·         The campaign was launched in 2011 and is still continuing to urge global brands such as Calvin Klein and GAP to join the campaign.

·         This campaign is one of the largest of its kind and has had a huge positive impact so far. Greenpeace will hopefully continue to put pressure on brands and show them the importance of this situation and how much good they could do.

Cotton and water use

Cotton and water use

·         Only 0.01% of water on earth is drinking water that is readily available to humans. 2.5% of water on earth is drinking water but only 0.3% of this is available to us.

·         Cotton accounts for 90% of natural fibres used in the fabric industry and it needs the extremely large amounts of water to grow successfully. Cotton is grown where conditions are dry so it is very costly getting the cotton all the water it needs; it also uses up limited water supplies.

·         Cotton has the largest carbon footprint out of any crop worldwide.

·         One pair of cotton denim jeans takes 10,000 litres of water to create, to put this into context an average adult uses 165 litres of water a day.

 

 

http://store.levi.com/waterless/doingyourpart.html

Water<Less

·         Levi have launched a new campaign and clothing range called Water<Less. As the company mainly uses cotton based products they are aware of the environmental impact this has and they huge amount of water they use.

·         On their campaign page above they are trying to educate the consumer on just how much water everyone uses each day without realising. They also suggest lifestyle substitutes to help create a more sustainable way of living.

·         After a customer buys a product from Levi the way they care for it at home can have the largest environmental impact, the company suggest that you wear your jeans more and wash them less to help the planet, they also recommend not using a tumble dryer when possible.

·         Levi’s new Water<Less range has already saved them using 170 million litres of water. They have removed the water in many of the processes that the denim goes through and have found that the effect is very similar without the use of water. Some of their items from the range have been created with as little as a quarter of a cup of water.

·         Although this is a really positive thing that Levi are doing as they are saving so much water, the way the cotton grows is still a a major issue as this is where most of the water is needed. Alternative fabrics need to be substituted that do not need the level of water that cotton needs as the production of cotton is straining the earth’s natural resources.

 

 

 

Pesticide use

Pesticide facts

·         Pesticides are used to destroy insects or organisms that pose a threat to cultivated plants or animals.

·         Over $2.6 billion worth of pesticides are sprayed each year over cotton fields, this equates to 10% of the global pesticide use.

·         Pesticide use is causing harm to our environment, not only is it destroying the species it is intended for it is killing other animals, plants and harming humans that come into contact with them.

·         Children are extremely vulnerable when it comes to pesticides, pesticides have known to cause many illnesses and diseases to children who have come into contact with them such as autism, ADHD and pesticides can also cause birth defects.

·         An estimated 20,000-40,000 people die of accidental pesticide poisoning each year.

·         Pesticide use has been weakening our earth’s natural eco-systems for years and something needs to be done before pesticide use causes extinction of animals and plants.

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/bee-harming-pesticides-banned-europe

Article

·         A ban has been put on the use of a pesticide that is extremely harmful to bees and is endangering the species. This ban has been imposed in Europe and is the world’s first continent pesticide ban.

·         The UK changed their vote last minute to a ‘no’ this was heavily criticised by many environmental campaigners and other countries but the ‘no’ vote was still a minority and the ban went ahead.

·         Without the use of this pesticide some people think that harm will be caused to food crops and this was the reasoning behind the majority of the ‘no’ votes. Surely technology has advanced and something other than pesticide use can be used in cultivation on plants? Research on alternative processes needs to take place as although we are heavily reliant on pesticide use we cannot keep harming our environment and our natural eco-systems with the use of them.

Working Conditions

Working Conditions

·         Fashion retailers source a lot of products from the Far East and less developed countries as they can get the work done cheaply in these places. But do these companies actually consider working conditions in these places and do they do all that they can to ensure the standards are as high as possible.

·         Many workers in textiles factories receive pay so low that it does not even cover what they need to live, in fact  a large proportion of workers receive three times less than what is needed to live. But do we ever think of this when making purchases?

·         The general public are aware of the terrible conditions in sweatshops across the world, but when they are put in a retail environment do they ever stop to think about this? And would we change the way we shop if we were even more aware of the terrible working conditions in some places? Or would the lower prices be able to persuade us against making an ethical decision?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/29/bangladesh-factory-tragedy-sweatshop-economics

Article

·         This article highlights the key points on why workers choose these jobs and the conditions they work in.

·         Although the average wage for a textile worker in Bangladesh is less than $40 a month (less than half a living wage) this is considerably higher than other available jobs in the country for example agriculture. Agriculture pays less than $1 a day, the UN state that living off less than $1 a day is living in extreme poverty.

·         The job also offers a lot of freedom for women, the textiles industry in Bangladesh employs millions of women who without these jobs would have no independence.

·         So, workers are willing to disregard the health and safety issues of working in a garment factory to receive a larger wage. This compromise seems worth it for the people of Bangladesh as they will have a job with steady hours, independence, and routine and will gain skills on the job. Until major incidents like the factory collapse happen workers are not aware of the level or danger they are working in.

·         Will conditions improve? For retailers to keep their company successful they have to source as cheaply as possible from places like Bangladesh to ensure that they can afford the transport costs of sourcing abroad. But until retailers are willing to pay more for the stuff they buy from places like Bangladesh, will the workers conditions improve?

Carbon Footprint

About Carbon Footprint

·         Carbon footprint is the impact that something has on climate change and global warming. That something could be an activity, a lifestyle, a company etc.

·         In the United States the textiles industry has the 5^th largest C02 emissions, this is because of the high dependency for high fashion in the world we live in. The higher the dependency gets, the higher the carbon emission become.

·         The textiles industry produced 60 billion kilograms of textile each year, this equates to 6.9 trillion litres of water used and 1074 billion KWh of electricity used. The industry is very wasteful of the world’s resources and many companies are not doing anything about this and are therefore not helping lead the world in a sustainable direction.

 

 

This video on this page highlights some of the key facts on carbon emissions and climate change……

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2013/apr/24/carbon-omissions-uk-footprint-animation

UK emissions and the government

·         This video highlights that the government are being misleading with the information they give us. Although UK carbon emissions have decreased, we live in a global world and are heavily reliant on imports from other countries.

·         We are so concerned about making our country look good that we are forgetting to take any responsibility for our emissions outside the UK. Over the past 20 years UK emissions have dropped but our overall emissions have increased by 20%. So, although we feel like we’re making a change for the better we are actually having a negative impact on the planet.

·         As we live in a world run by consumerism it is becoming increasingly difficult to reduce our impact, as the demand for more and more stuff gets higher so does our carbon emissions. The government have not faced the fact that we cannot live the lives we live today while making a positive impact on the planet. It is time to change, but will it actually ever happen?

 

Are we aware and can the industry change?

The video

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22302595

 

 

·         After watching the video at the bottom of this page it dawned on me how little the general public are aware of where their stuff comes from.

·         Is it really that surprising how unaware the consumer is anyway? The consumer is completely uneducated when it comes to where their stuff comes from, so unless the consumer researches for themselves they wouldn’t know any better.

·         Is this something that retailers and the government are doing purposely? Do these people want all this information behind closed does as in a number of cases it may ruin the company’s reputation and brand image.

·         The video also shows that the public are aware and are concerned about what goes on in other countries when they see it on the news (the Bangladesh factory incident) but this does not cross their mind when they go shopping, they are more concerned about price when put in that situation.

Bangladesh

·         Should it be down to Bangladesh to improve the working conditions over there or it is the job of the retailers sourcing from there? The people of Bangladesh are so dependent on the textile industry that it takes first place over health and safety and something needs to be done about this. The factory owners seem to have a bigger say than the government and therefore incidents like this will continue to happen. Do the government turn a blind eye? Because of the huge dependence on the industry it might be that the government are willing to disregard health and safety to keep the country as economically sound as possible.

·         How big of an accident has to happen before the way the country is run to change? Over 1000 people lost their lives in this incident, if the government don’t step up now, when will they?

·         Should the retailers take responsibility? Better communication between the retailer and the factories needs to be put in place, stronger health and safety regulations need to be implemented and visits from the retailer should be made more frequently. Until the communication is improved then standards may not change.

Tencel and Lenzing

Tencel facts

·         Tencel is the trademark name for Lyocell, though the fibre most commonly known under the name Tencel.

·         It is a man-made cellulose fibre that is derived from wood pulp sourced from sustainable farms. The wood used is from eucalyptus trees grown in South Africa.

·         The fabric is 100% biodegradable.

·         Tencel has antibacterial properties therefore it is extremely kind to the skin.

·         Extremely colour fast fabric, retains colour very well after dying.

·         99.8% of the chemicals used to create Tencel are recovered and are used over and over again- no harm to the environment.

 

This video gives a brief insight to the manufacturing process and the story of Tencel….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W_oq6I_7Khg

Lenzing

·         Lenzing are the company that produce Tencel.

·         Lenzing are a passionate company as shown in this video. They are aware of the environmental impact they have when creating Tencel and are therefore constantly challenging their processes.

·         The negatives for the company are that they are using some fossil fuels during production but they have already started challenging this in one of their factories. As long as the company keep challenging their processes until they have a completely harm free way of producing the fabric, Tencel will become a completely sustainable fabric with strong ethical positives.

·         Will this fabric be able to compete with other sustainable fabrics? The fabric has many positive attributes and aesthetics, the only down side is that the plant takes longer to grow that other sustainable fabrics like Bamboo, therefore it may not be able to keep up with production rates.

 

 

 

Dhaka Factory Collapse, Bangladesh

Facts on the factory collapse

·         The factory collapsed on the 24^th of April 2013 with an unknown number of people inside the building.

·         The death toll has passed 1000 and over 2500 people were injured, most of these being female garment workers between the ages of 18-40.

·         Days before the terrible incident the factory was briefly evacuated when the cracks (that eventually caused the collapse) appeared. Despite the building being branded unsafe, the workers were allowed back in the building later that day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22476774

 

How much is the Ready Made Goods industry worth to Bangladesh?

·         Overall the RMG industry is worth of $15 billion to the country.

·         It is accountable for 80% of the country’s exports; H&M are responsible for 10% of this as they have imported $1.5 billion worth from the country.

·         Bangladesh is home to over 4,500 textile factories.

·         The industry employs approximately 4 million people in Bangladesh.

Will anything be done?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22474601

·         Many well-known brands and companies sourced or had previously sourced from this factory in Bangladesh including Primark, Matalan, Mango and Benetton. All of these brands released a statement after the collapse, Matalan, Mango and Benetton all stated that at the time they were not sourcing from this factory or that they never had, shifting all blame away from themselves. Primark stated that they would do all that they could to help.

·         Brands were quick to let the public know they were not sourcing from there as to not ruin their reputation even though the public need to be more aware of the situation and the area needs to be addressed. These companies need to start taking some responsibility for these incidents as until somebody steps in, incidents like this will continue to happen.

·         Although companies say that they will do whatever they can, is anything actually being done? As the conditions in these places do not seem to be getting any better and disasters like this are still happening.

·         Why should it take something as huge as this before a change is made anyway? Thousands of people shouldn’t have to lose their lives before something is done and the working conditions in these places are improved. Sadly we, as the consumer, don’t even stop to think about any of this while buying from these retailers, all we are concerned about is getting the best quality at the lowest price.