Alright, how many know the way some places make jeans? Jeans are died in iodine and then washed. The new hip look of fade is created by washing those jeans and sometimes washing them with rocks. The dye washes off and is released into the environment along with the scrap or old fashion clothing. This is the case with most clothes manufacturing places in third world countries. The amount of pollution produced is rediculous. In addition there is no agency or enforcement to try to control the pollution. How do you guys feel that consumer's (especially youth) high demand in new fashion and styles are creating a problem in other parts of the world. This not only impacts the enviroment, tainting nearby rivers and destroying the ecosystem, but it also causes the issue of low pay. Employies get the dye into their hands and eyes. Did you ever stop and think where your clothing came from and how it impacted the environment and other people?
check it out: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/115-9/focus.html
4 comments:
You raise some very good questions about the often unknown consequences of our choices: the impact of our lifestyle choices on the environment, the workers who produce the products we buy, and the safety of the products themselves. These are all part of the 'structuring causes' that operate invisibly in the background, as in Plato's allegory of the cave, shaping what we believe and do.
I think its hard for us to realize what actually does go into a lot of the products that we use and how it does affect other people. Most of the things that we buy come from large corporations who are interested in making as much money as possible so they will have production in countries with no minumum wage or standards for working conditions. Its really a hard situation to fix, I think, because while no one wants these people to have to work in these conditions or the adverse affects on the environment, no one wants to have to pay more either.
I did a project last year on Chinese factories and slave labor working conditions. Not only are we not focusing on the environmental impact. But the social impact. This people are suffering for three cents a day. Forced to sign "shadow contracts" that prevent them from leaving and from reporting the working conditions to human rights inspectors. The majority of the things we are using are manufactured there. (check the shirt on your back) And we walk around with no shame. Should something be done about this? If miraculously it was stopped how would that effect the global economy? Are we dependent on this contemporary form of slave labor?
It is actually very surprizing that people do not walk in shame! There are groups that stand up for animal rights and rights to arms, but yet their is no real concern for helping out our own kind in a distant place. Part of the reason is because of lack of knowledge but the other part is greed i guess. People wouldn't want to risk the possibility for such factories and jobs to be brought into their world so might as well ignore it and be alluded by the new merchandise.
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