Post date: Mar 20, 2012 1:49:9 PM
ZHONGSHAN, CHINA (GREENPEACE) - Greenpeace on Tuesday (March 20) released evidence that residues of hazardous chemicals used in clothes sold by major brands around the globe are released into public waterways when they are washed by consumers.
Greenpeace calls for global fashion brands to detox their clothes from hazardous chemicals as the organisation presents proof of toxic residues entering public waterways when the clothes are washed by consumers.
According to Greenpeace the chemicals break down into even more toxic and hormone-disrupting substances once they have entered rivers, lakes, or seas.
Simulating standard domestic laundering conditions, Greenpeace tested clothing items and measured the percentage of the hazardous chemicals known as nonylphenol ethoxylates or NPEs in the waste water. In a press release Greenpeace says items from brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, G-Star and Calvin Klein all lost the NPE's during washing, proving that the textile industry is polluting public waterways around the world.
"The chemicals we looked for are known as nonylphenol ethoxylates or NPEs, and they are used in textile manufacture. Where they were used, they get released from the factories into the local environment and they also leave residues in the clothing products," said Greenpeace senior scientist Kevin Bridgen said who took part in the research and sampled clothes in a laboratory in Exeter in the United Kingdom.
"We found that through washing, the chemicals readily came out into the water and down the drain," Bridgen added.
Greenpeace has campaigned against discharges of hazardous substances from textile manufacturing in China, where a lot of the world's major brands produce their clothes.
But this is the first time they have found proof of the used chemicals also entering waterways when they are washed by consumers at home. The group believes this increases the scale and urgency of the problem.
To raise awareness about the issue Greenpeace activists put out a banner in front of Amsterdam's Fashion Center, saying: " Detox our fashion" and presented a street art show depicting polluted waterways.
"Wherever people are buying clothes and washing them, they are actually causing toxic water pollution, because what we found is that the brands, when they are making the clothes, they use toxic chemicals that stay in the products and when they are being washed, those chemicals enter into the waterways," said campaigner Marietta Horjono.
She said Greenpeace is calling for major brands to detox their clothes and set clear deadlines for the elimination of the most hazardous chemicals.
"We tested the clothes of several brands, for example from Calvin Klein, G-Star, Abercrombie & Fitch, from H&M, from Adidas, and what we found is that all of these chemicals that we found are washing out into the water," Horjono said.