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Detox fashion

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Time for big brands to come clean and stop toxic waste.

They say you can tell next season’s hottest trend by looking at the colour of the rivers in Mexico and China.

That’s because global fashion brands are using hazardous chemicals and dyes to make our clothes.

These chemicals poison our rivers, and traces of these hazardous chemicals also end up remaining in many of the garments people buy.

Environmetal protection group Greenpeace is campaigning to stop industry poisoning waterways around the world with hazardous, persistent and hormone-disrupting chemicals.

Initially launched in July 2011, Greenpeace’s ‘Detox’ campaign has exposed links between textile manufacturing facilities causing toxic water pollution in China, and many of the world’s top clothing brands.

And since then, H&M, M&S, Nike, Adidas, Puma, C&A, Li-Ning and Zara have committed to Detox, in response to the – still growing – international campaign.

But while some companies have joined us, other top clothing companies still need to get a move on, to Detox their brands and help Detox our future.

Clothes, Greenpace point out, don’t need to come with toxic accessories such as hazardous chemicals that enter the environment both as discharges from the manufacturing facilities, but also potentially as residue that is washed out when we clean our clothes at home. There are alternatives.

The real challenge, they say, is the complete lack of public information available at the moment, and the manufacturing facilities, suppliers and fashion brands have to commit to transparency.

China, for example, has a large and thriving textile industry which supplies both the domestic and the international market with clothes, but there is a severe lack of information about the kinds of chemicals being used and released into environment there.

There is also very little information about how the hazardous chemicals used to make our clothes are dealt with.

Toxic chemicals such as many PFCs are especially dangerous because they can survive the treatment system meant to clean the water and pass directly out into the environment.

Pollution of water is happening on a massive scale, with almost 70 per cent of Chinese lakes, rivers, waterways and reservoirs affected by some kind of water pollution.

But there is no excuse for toxic pollution to continue.

Global brands have been able to hide behind industrial smokescreens and public ignorance and ineffectiveness for decades and continue to make their products against a backdrop of toxic water pollution.

But then you get to the point where enough is enough.

Around the world, consumers, activists and fashionistas are uniting behind the idea that the clothes we buy should carry a story we can be proud of, not the residues of hazardous chemicals.

Brands that want to keep their customers therefore need to do more than make a positive statement or write a policy – they need to be seen and heard publicly talking about the problem and solutions, publicly disclose information about exactly what chemicals are being released throughout their supply chains, and actively work for toxic-free fashion.

And you can help.

Help Greenpeace gets its new video “Detox Fashion”, on as many screens as possible.

Because of course, every time you like, share, comment on, or promote this video, it increases the pressure on the companies to change their ways: to stop poisoning rivers in the countries where their products are made, and stop shipping hazardous chemicals all over the world in their clothes.

And then watch this for good measure: The Secret Lives of Our Clothes.

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