this image was taken from http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov - environmental health perspective
A few years ago I saw some satellite pictures of what I called the ‘indigo rivers’. At first glance, I was amazed by the blue coloured streams and rivers that flowed through villages and cities. Then I discovered why. The waterways were coloured because of dye-contamination.
People bath in that water. Cook in it. Even let their children play in it. This highly toxic water is all some people have to use.
The pictures were of the Pearl river in China where the indigo, sometimes black, colour polluting the waterways is from dyeing denim. Denim starts as white cotton thread. To turn it blue it is boiled in giant vats of indigo-blue dye, which is then woven into fabric.
The dye-contaminated water needs to be drained but the expense of treating and then recycling it leads to factories draining it through the pipes that flow into the Pearl river. I would suggest the cost of health and environmental issues far outweighs the expense of treating water. However thats another story.
This image was taken from www.inspiringgreen.com blog
image from http://incredibleworldnews73.blogspot.com
Being conscious of where your denim comes from is important. We love jeans in this country; it is the one item of clothing I’m guaranteed to find in most NZ wardrobes. Next time you go shopping for jeans or denim shorts, look for organic-denim choices.
Here’s some to start you off
xSx
Fistfull of Birds - stocked at www.starfish.co.nz
Organic cotton jeans by Micah Clothing NZ www.micahclothing.co.nz
Tarau Jean in Chambray by Untouched World
Slim fit jeans from www.goodsociety.org
Boot leg jeans - www.goodsociety.org
Straight leg denim jeans - Untouched World, NZ
Thank you for bringing awareness on this topic, needs to be known as with soooo many issues in the fashion and textile industry.
Lara~Dawn
You are welcome. And you are right, there really is alot of issues to be addresses. Luckily, many have been bought to the attention of the world. Now we have to keep talking about them openly. Stay in touch, I love to hear my readers thoughts. S x
As a teenager, I recall almost every day on my way to high school seeing the Waiwhetu stream that flows into the Hutt River almost at the mouth, coloured a different colour each day. One day deep blue, then green or purple, then something red. The banks were dead and looked the the moon, or a battlefield.
At the time I didn’t think this too remarkable – it was an industrial area surrounded by ugly machinery and ok, the creek was polluted, but that was consistent with the area. I never considered that the river then carried all the pollutants along the harbour and onto the beaches at Eastbourne, where my family and friends spent half the summer in and out of the water.
When I later worked for the Wool Board, I found out that the main culprit was Feltex Carpet Yarns: I watched a demonstration of some hank dyeing where the excess dye liquid – and there was a lot of it – disappeared down a hole in the concrete floor. When pressed, the MD didn’t know where it went. Or so he said! A quick look at the stream from the car park as I left confirmed my suspicion.
The heavy metals used in these dyes include(d) chromium, zinc, cadmium and all sorts of other chemical nasties used to carry the dye and as fixatives. That’s what will be going into the Pearl River, and I suspect many of the locals have as little idea of the harm they are exposed to as we did as kids.
Eventually the Hutt City council blocked the stream edges with a steel wall and spent upwards of $15 million and two years or so physically digging out all the contaminated mud from the banks, and dumping it in a safe place (another story that). If you go past the Waiwhetu Marae and follow Riverside Drive these days, it is clean, clear and full of birdlife. It had been a major source of food for local maori, and from the reports I hear, it is becoming repopulated with fish as well.
As far I know, Feltex paid nothing toward the clean-up, another company now owns the plant but when I drive past at night I get a glimpse of the spinning mill running (I like woollen mills!) – there’s often a worker or three having cig. out on Bell Rd – and I assume it’s still being dyed at this site, just not in as damaging a way.
There are now a few people catching whitebait downstream too, even though the contamination signs are still up. My kids now swim, dive and surf around Eastbourne, and I’m really very glad that public awareness and the determination of the representatives of the Waiwhetu Marae and others were able to put sufficient pressure on the Council to force them to respond, and that they did so so fulsomely.
I hope that international pressure will eventually lead the governments of these countries to act to protect their citizens, but at the moment we get low-cost products because they pay with their health. Political pressure is ineffective at this stage, and economic pressure is going to be the the strategy that brings about change. Which means buying not for cut and colour, but for ethical manufacturing.
Sitting here in my dark-dyed jeans of Chinese origin, I’m starting to feel a little uncomfortable – I bought them for the cut! Next time, however, I’ll be thinking lot more about where they were sourced, and whether it’s sustainable.
Anyway, it’s nice to have a local story with a positive ending!
WOW – thank you so much for sharing your story. It’s amazing how un-green NZ can be at times. I know of a few tannery’s up north that have been questionable in the past. I hope you find some great fitting organic jeans when you’re next ready to purchase
Sam