Advocacy, Craftspersons/ Artisanal, Employment/ Livelihood, Entrepreneurship, Business Devt.
Hey, what are you wearing, and what are its implications?: Textile Value Chain (Ab)Use and The Way Forward
Ananthoo
Issue 10,Summer 2023
Issue #10, 2023 ISSN: 2581- 9410
Humankind has used textiles for thousands of years and fibres in those textiles have mostly come from plant and animal sources (flax, cotton, silk, wool etc.). History is replete with stories and evidences on silk and cotton having been used prominently, leading to civilizational contacts, explorations and exchanges, trade and commerce around these commodities.
With industrial revolution came large scale mechanization of textile manufacturing processes, and also manmade or synthetic fibres. 60-70% of our clothing today is made from synthetic fibre. Close to 100 billion individual garments valuing around $1.5 trillion! Just the two top brands produce1 billion pieces which are junked after wearing for just a few times.
Is there a problem here?
How many of us know about the hazards of microfibres?
It is estimated that one garment can release 6-7 lakh microfibres per wash. A large peril looms on land as well as our oceans due to microfibres from textiles, that too from synthetic fibres. It is another matter that synthetic fibres have been hyped as being eco-friendly! It is claimed that no water or synthetic pesticides got used in synthetic fibre production and textiles therefrom. What has...
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