POLLUTION MADE BY TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Textile industry has been condemned to be one of the world’s worst environment polluters. It requires large amounts of chemicals and water at every step of the textile manufacturing and finishing processes.
Pesticides that farmers use to protect textile crops when being grown can harm wildlife, contaminate other crops and get into the food chain.The main problem is the evaporation of pesticides into the air and their leakage into underground waters which followingly results in contamination of soil and posing threat to vegetation and all live beings.
In our country flax has been grown ever since as the primary textile crop. It is not as water, fertilization and pesticides demanding as for example cotton, which appears to be a painful isssue for example in China, India, USA, Pakistan and others.
Chemicals that are used to bleach and colour textiles can damage not only the environment but also our health. Not only in the process of their production but even when being used.
Although the situation is getting better, the level of textile pollution is still pretty high. The question is if we could help the environment even more. The Czech Republic has its way. We have been involved in the GINETEX group, an international association taking care of the proper usage of textile and clothing which consists of many European countries such as Italy, Spain or Germany. Experts supporting the movement have developed symbols which help consumers to better textiles treatment. They have come up with a new project called Clever Care which teaches us how to deal effectively with textiles to prevent environmental pollution. On the Clever Care website you can find advice on how to treat our garments more environmentally-friendly. The given advice applies to washing, bleaching or dying. For example washing powders contain phosphates (used to soften the laundry) as well as formaldehyde (a potential cancer-causing substance), which can hardly be cleaned even in sewerage plants. That is why phosphorus gets in the sewage and causes the outbreak of algae and cyanobacteria in standing waters. Bathing in such waters can cause serious skin allergies such as various eczemas or even eye disorders. If you want to make the use sustainable, look at Clever care's site which offers several tips on how to save both money and the environment.
From 191,228 tons of textile waste in 2002 in the Czech Republic the amount of textile waste rapidly increased and in 2009 it reached almost 800,000 tons. Fortunately, the figures had not risen and had stayed more or less constant until 2017. Corporate waste from textile factories amounted to 66,844 tones in 2006. The share of hazardous waste was 4,374 tones. Luckily,in the following years the situation had been improving and the amount of corporate waste fell to 37,840 tones, 2,362 tones of which fell on hazardous waste in 2013.
One human produces about 7 kilograms of textile waste on average.
According to official statistics, about 8% of municipal waste is textile waste. In the Czech Republic a citizen produces 250 kg of waste per year. Which means more than 20 kg of textile waste is thrown into landfill sites and thus unreasonably burdens the environment.
Every year we consume an average of 15 kg of textiles each year, in Germany it is even about 20 kg.
A significant reason why this is happening have been most of all rapidly changing fashion trends resulting in the increasng worldwide need of clothing production.
Primary textile crop production
Disposal of textile
Harmful chemicals
POLLUTION MADE BY TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC