one solution.
What is the UK Government doing?
There are currently no plans to expand or extend recycling to cover the processing of textiles in an ecological manner. Investment for recycling and recycling initiatives is being reduced; the Waste & Resources Action Programme the UK organisation for the development of initiatives in recycling will not fund initiatives regarding to textiles, and is operating on a gradually reducing budget.13
What People Think About Recycling
This small scale survey reflects the results of both the WasteOnline research and the of ‘The Friends of the Earth’, ‘Doorstep Survey’.
Slight localised differences are apparent, Glass and paper in recycled quantities are swapped, this may be due to the way that the three surveys differ, and the way Council depots calculate collected items by weight, rather than volume.
- A large proportion of the survey recycled because they wanted to not because they were enforced to do so.
- 3.28 percent of the survey (those living in Hereford/shire) were enforced to sort and recycle, with £1000 fines enforceable.
- Doorstep collection increased recycling
- Everyone donated to charity shops, even those who were non recyclers (4.92 percent)
- A large contingent handed-down textiles (garments) within family and friend environment
- 53 percent discard their textile for land fill
- Only one quarter (25.4 percent) of those surveyed had knowledge of use of chemicals in textile manufacture and garment construction.
- There was a general awareness of the existence of Organic clothing
- 8 percent of those aware, bought organically produced textiles
- Those that did not buy blamed availability, and styling as reason for not purchasing, 27 percent blamed cost.
- 92 percent of those surveyed (111 people), were not aware of the destination of garments or textiles that were handed to charity or deposited in council collection bins.
Ecological Issues in Textile manufacture – Ethical Fashion Trade
“More than 8,000 chemicals have been identified by the German textile industry to be in regular use for production and processing of textiles. Of these nearly 200 are hazardous, though some cannot be tested at all or the tests are too expensive. While the impact of these chemicals has not been sufficiently investigated, the textile industry in developed countries, starting with Germany, has voluntarily started advocating ecolabels on textile products to enable consumers to buy “clean” products.”
Fierce competition and accelerated markets have forced producers of many natural fibres to take drastic and often dangerous action. Crop failure is not a situation that can be tolerated, or absorbed; excessive use of chemicals even with their intrinsic problems is common.
Since the first of January 2005, removal of all worldwide textile and clothing quotas has seen a boom in exports from developing nations.
“Exports to the United States of cotton-knit tops, one of the items affected by quotas, surged to 11 million units in the first five months of this year, compared with 2.8 million units during all of last year.”16
Especially key to this is the large increase of low end consumables, where profit margins are very narrow.
The range of chemicals used in the processing of textiles is wide ranging, the key areas of use are for the growth/development of:
What chemicals are used?
A host of different Chemicals are used as already stated, but these can be broken down into function.
In excess of 20 separate groups of pesticides are recognised as posing both a health risk at the consumer end, and at the cultivation of natural plant fibres such as cotton and flax. For Example:
Aldrine, carbaryl, DDD, DDE, dieldrine, endosulfan, endrine, heptachlor, heptachlorobenzene, lindane, methoxychlor, trifluralin.
Pesticides are used to prevent attacks and crop failure by insect attacks, whilst herbicides are weed-eradication and defoliant chemicals.
These particular pesticide and herbicides are rated from slight to highly toxic; various attributable effects on the soil are recorded.
Lindane is a pesticide and assumed 