Emma the Curious 🧐 has moved!May 25, 2023

I knew fast fashion was awful.

I didn't realise the scale of the problem.

"Today, three-fifths of all clothing ends up in landfills or incinerators within a year of production—a statistic that translates into a truckload of used clothing dumped or burned every second."

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/chile-fashion-pollution

fernMay 28, 2023
Show threadEmma the Curious 🧐 has moved!

And this one has horrifying images from Ghana, where "Some 15 million used garments pour into Accra every week from the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, flooding the city’s sprawling clothing market."

and

"40 per cent are of such poor quality they are deemed worthless on arrival and end up dumped in landfill."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-12/fast-fashion-turning-parts-ghana-into-toxic-landfill/100358702

Dead white man's clothes: How fast fashion is turning parts of Ghana into toxic landfill

For decades, the West's unwanted fashion has made its way to used-clothing markets in Africa. Now it's fuelling an environmental catastrophe.

ABC News
May 25, 2023 at 5:56amWeb
Show threadDr. Tamara L. SiudaMay 25, 2023
@UnconventionalEmma this also isn’t new even if it’s a bigger issue now; as early as summer 2001 I was watching corporate T-shirts and used shoes being unloaded from special barrels at the Port-au-Prince markets in Haiti. In Krèyol, the barrels are called “kenedis,” (or Kennedys) after the American President in office when they first started arriving….before I was born more than 50 years ago.
Show threadtoxtethogradyMay 25, 2023
@UnconventionalEmma Ghana was also a place where old computers and TV sets went to be landfilled. And the locals would burn the plastic off the wiring to get at the metals, which were precious, inhaling toxic fumes along the way...
Show threadLoukas (They/Them) 🏳️‍⚧️May 25, 2023
@UnconventionalEmma I find this extra sickening because 200 years ago Ghana had a flourishing and advanced textile industry that was destroyed on purpose by the British so the African west coast would be a market for Manchester cloth instead.
Show threadOpenDNA⚙️May 28, 2023
@Loukas @UnconventionalEmma Sounds like the that policy is still in effect.
Show threadEnkiusz🇺🇦May 28, 2023
@UnconventionalEmma textiles are the new plastic when it comes to pollution and waste