#GreenQuestion of the Week

Did you know textile waste pollution is accelerating climate change and land degradation?

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The textile wastes in a landfill around Damascus, Syria Photo by Mohammad J. Taherzadeh

The textile production industry is one of the most polluting industries, producing 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year and these emissions are more than the emissions of international flights and maritime shipping. Worststill,the largest proportions of clothing manufacturing occurs in China and India, countries which rely on coal-fuelled power plants, increasing the footprint of each garment and perhaps this explains why 5% of total global emissions come from the fashion industry. The exact long-term environmental costs of clothing, footwear, linens and other textiles going into landfills are clear.
Decomposing clothing releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas and a significant contributor to global warming. The dyes and chemicals in fabric and other components of leach into the soil and contaminate water sources. What about the amount of space these textile waste take in the landfill?

Eleven million tons of textiles clogs up approximately 126 million cubic yards of landfill space – and that’s just one year’s worth of discards.

So what can we do to reduce textile waste pollution?

Some of the basic things you can do to reduce your textile carbon footprint include;

Wash clothes with cold water
Line dry your clothes
Shop local and shop at thrift stores
Beware of the fast fashion mentality
Support green brands
Donate, recycle or upcycle your old clothes

#Call2Action

We can do more but we lack materials and machines to increase our textile recycling and women empowerment project. We have 11 trainees and 02 Training Directors but have just 06 machines which are not enough for the 13 young girls who are striving to get empowered as well as clean-up the world. It is for this reason that @ecodesigns is striving to raise funds to purchase 7 machines so that we can double our productivity and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our textile recycling and fashion designing training.