Cotton is a white fibrous substance which surrounds the seeds of the cotton plant, which is then taken and made into a textile fibre and thread for sewing. It goes through a long process before it becomes usable or useful.
It is a material which is used in so many garments. Nearly everything I own is made up of a percentage of cotton. Its ready and easy to wear nature makes it an important material in the fashion industry due to popularity. However, you would never expect a bit of cotton to cause any sort of problems. It's just cotton, right?
Well no, because conventional cotton is one of the most unsustainable fibres in the world. Picking the cotton is a job which is classed as forced labour. Making it tedious and dangerous. To produce the cotton, just one shirt uses 2,700 litres of water and a lot of pesticides. These pesticides cause 350,000 deaths of farmers a year, leaving a further million hospitalised also.
It is shocking how you never hear about these disasters that happen from producing what is seemly an easy material for the sake of fashion. It is almost a secret that happens behind the scenes. I feel that it is important to raise awareness of the issues within the environment and society due to the cost of fashion and fast fashion. It is unnecessary and could be easily prevented if there were more regulations and people took more care.
No comments:
Post a Comment