The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the ...

Major environmental impacts
are related to energy use
and use of toxic chemicals
Companies face three forms of pressure from their
consumers: shareholder expectations, customer loyalty
and ethical pressure. There is considerable evidence
in the UK that consumer interest in ‘ethics’ is growing
– and so business interest in developing and managing
‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ is also growing.
The major environmental issues associated with the
sector are .
• Energy use in laundry, production of primary
materials especially man-made fibres and in yarn
manufacturing of natural fibres.
• Use of toxic chemicals which may harm human
health and the environment – in particular in
conventional cotton production. A13
• Release of chemicals in waste water
– especially in wet pre-treatment, dyeing, finishing
and laundry – which may harm water based life.
• Solid waste arising from yarn manufacturing of
natural fibres, making up and disposal of products
at the end of their life.
Social implications for the
clothing and textiles industry
In both sectors there are still many concerns about
the quality of the jobs they create and their social
consequences.
and textiles have a legally defined minimum
wage, but social campaigners assert that there
is a difference between such a ‘minimum legal
wage’ and a ‘minimum living wage’ – it may not
be possible to escape from a cycle of poverty with
only the minimum legal wage.
• Precarious employment: use of repeated temporary
contracts or the absence of any employment
contracts combined with delayed payment and
the absence of employment benefits, is common
practice in some countries.
• Sexual harassment: campaigners for women’s
labour worldwide report cases in which women
are threatened by their superiors and unable to
complain A1 , without risk of losing their jobs.
The major occupational health issues associated with
the sector are exposure to:
• Hazardous chemicals particularly in cotton
production, wet pre-treatment, dyeing, finishing
and making up.
• Fibre dust, especially when processing cotton,
giving rise to the respiratory disease termed
byssinosis.
• Noise associated with yarn manufacturing, knitting
and weaving.
• Monotonous repetitive processes in making up,
leading to injuries amongst sewing machinists.
• Children: even though the elimination of child
labour is one of the goals of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) it remains a challenge
in the clothing and textiles industry mostly due to
the difficulty of monitoring subcontractors, indirect
workers and home workers.
• The industry workforce is largely made up of young
women, who are “low skilled” or “unskilled” and
may be migrants. Such workers are vulnerable to
various forms of abuse and may not know or be
able to claim their rights as employees A14 . Some UK
retailers are working to impose ethical conditions
on their suppliers in an attempt to protect such
workers, but the success depends upon rigorous
implementation which is costly. A particular
problem at present is that many subcontractors
deny the right of workers to form an association
(or trade union) to assert their rights to appropriate
working conditions, pay and training and
promotion.
• Pay: most countries supplying the UK’s clothing
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