Fashion Makes Environment in Danger

We often encounter the statement that Textile Industry is consuming more water.

It is always debatable as

 i)Environmental perspective of Europeans differ from US or India and 

ii)Economic Prospective of US differs from Europe or India.

These noises are often made by buying houses to justify non tariff barriers rather than of real concern.

However these concern always lead to some improvements in process.

On the otherhand, it still help the buyers to discriminate and negotiate with the poor suppliers to make them poorer.

We will see one by one, their claims:

1.One of the biggest culprit is cotton farming!!! (Account 4% of Global Fresh Water usage):

i)US, China and India are the three major cotton producing countries.

ii)It is one of the agricultural commodity for these countries and livlihood of their farmers. The soils are conducive for cotton farming.

iii)Cotton is one of the best renewable fibre available in the world.

iv)In countries like India, the major area is rainfed, multiple plants with pulses and hence low yield - which makes the claim futile.

Each country differs in their perspective in Cotton farming.

In the past, US spent billions to produce Corn fibre at 50cents/lb to compete with cotton and found it is economically unviable.

2.Cotton Processing requires additional 0.8% of Global Water Usage:

i)This is a real concern. Processing, Washing Clothes Using Washing Machine requires additional water.

ii)The point to note is that whether cotton or any other cloth, still you need to consume water.

3.Pollution is the real concern:

i)Textile Dyeing is one of the largest polluter of clean water. In many cases, it leads to run off, thereby polluting nearby water sources. It is a threat in future to living conditions in countries like India and China.

ii)Vibrant colours, prints and fabric finishes are appealing features of fashion garments, but many of these are achieved with toxic chemicals.

iii)Only fashion experts / consultants can help it out by carefully strategising their SS / AW collections with low impact simple dyes. They can make it simpler if they want. Instead, they still demand those tertiary colors and act as they are concerned with polluting environment.

iv)For examples - Cotton Jeans a decade before were made with 1.5% Indigo, but fashion consultants wanted over 4% for deep shades and stripping the dye with enzymes, chlorine bleachings in subsequent garment washing. Do not believe them - they say a pair of Jeans consumes over 8000 litres of water. They demand heavy dose of colours on one hand and shell out tears on the other.

v)I do not see any final consumer is demanding a particular coating, designs etc. He select among the options presented. Intermediaries can make it simpler if they want.

4.Alternative Fibres:

i)Alternative suggested by the experts are linen, hemp, cellulosic fibres.

ii)Linen/ Hemp are bast fibres and contain lignin. 100% use of these fibres in any garment will itch your skin and you need a itchguard.

iii)The fabrics made out of bast fibres will have short life and end with holes after repeated washing.

iv) Cellulosic fibres need Wood - it only make deforestration. India had an experience of closing down South India Viscose in Uthagamandalam on these grounds.

v)In the past, US made a sincere effort and spent billions to produce Corn fibre at 50cents/lb to compete with cotton and found it is economically unviable.

5.Indian Mom of Last Generation: Consume less, Cherish your Choice & Extend Usage:

Indians remember, the Wedding Silk Sarees their mothers, used, cherished and preserved for over 5 decades with only dry cleaning. Now also, Indian Art Silk Sarees costing 150 Rs or 2$ lasting for a decade.

Indians always use clothes which have greater life span and minimum use.

The gist is that Fashion makes Environment in danger and the solution is in the hands of SS/AW Experts.