Natalie Mao WP1 Draft1

Textile mills account for 20% of the world’s water pollution. Creating synthetic fibers is an energy-intensive process that releases tons of carbon and soot into the air, causing lung cancers and respiratory diseases. Microfibers from washing synthetic clothing generates one-third of the microplastic pollution in the ocean, poisoning ecosystems and harming people who consume fish, and the industries related to fishing. The textile industry is a staple in many countries’ economies, and is a part of our developed country’s culture. Addressing the textile industry’s pollution would need change in separate verticals of our lives — from culture, to manufacturing, to employment practices in developing countries, to policy change.

Thesis:

To mobilize every country on a single agenda of textile pollution is difficult — after all, countries are not proportionally affected by different types of textile pollution. However, pollution doesn’t stay within the borders of one country: we should instead emphasize the long term risks of deferring solutions and set an immediate global agenda for reducing excessive textile waste, which countries can then integrate into individual national policy.

global rules… so we don’t have piecemeal solutions.

Body 1:

The textile industry caters to global players — first world and developed countries demand fast fashion and cheap clothing, and dispose of clothing unsustainably; meanwhile much of the textiles exported to consumerist economies are manufactured in developing countries, thus producing emissions in the process of creating. Even if the fast fashion culture is addressed in the United States, it wouldn’t affect the demand in other countries — furthermore, it would hurt the economy of countries that rely on this industry. A global agenda for reducing textile pollution would allow for cooperation and a streamlined effort for phasing out the fast fashion industry. An example of this is the United Nations Alliance on Sustainable Fashion, which brings together organizations across the globe to rally against unsustainable manufacturing practices. Because much of manufacturing occurs in developing countries, the governments don’t have the resources or incentives to crack down on their top-producing industry. Thus, it is up to the rest of the world to create solutions and alternatives that these developing countries can rely on — for example, if there are bans on the trade of clothing dyed in water, consumers will lose the incentive to purchase these types of textiles, and manufacturers will not have to cut costs in this area because the competition will be phased out. This would make it easier for manufacturers to ditch the practice of dying clothes in water, which would in effect drastically reduce the water pollution created by the textile industry. However, global solutions do have shortcomings — when it comes to implementation, oftentimes global coalitions have trouble enforcing policy or even finding the right policy. Thus, it is important to also look at the fast fashion industry on the national side.

• tragedy of the commons* — how to allow ppl
• slow down and go into depth on each point
• bangladesh produces a lot of this, vs us creates damage in another way
• because much of this happens in devleoping world, the problem is that the governments don’t want to crack down on top producing industry...here’s why…here’s what will happen
• so this raises the question… what has worked?

Body 2:

The national approach would be to let countries decide their own policies of restricting fast fashion, or whether they would even restrict the trade. Most intuitively, fast fashion is cheap and has high demand, but at a cost to the environment. However, most developing countries have no incentive to protect the environment, especially since it would hurt their own national economy.

***consolidate into one paragraph

Yet still, individual countries have better control and knowledge of their own situations and have better insight into the common reactions to new policies. For example, one of the ministers in France was able to crack down on unsustainable fashion practices in France. Many designer brands such as Burberry burn unsold stock in order to uphold brand image — yet the french government was able to halt this practice in France. Furthermore, they were able to incorporate standards in washing machine filters to stop microplastics from leeching into the water streams as well. Both these policies are unique to the French lifestyle and economy, and it would be expensive and difficult to appoint global leaders to make specific policy like this for each country.

Body 3

Both national and global approaches to stopping textile pollution have pros and cons. Thus the best way to approach this issue is an integrated approach — we must have a global sense of urgency for this matter, but also allow individual countries to determine the policy that works for its citizens and economy.

**synthesis**??

Conclusion

The textile industry is a complex one, so there are no simple black and white solutions to its byproducts. Even after establishing an integrated framework to phasing out the pollution caused by it, there’s still plenty of research that needs to be done for creating new manufacturing techniques. There will also still be pushback, because the status quo is easier to maintain than change for the future. Creating global goals, however, and still allowing countries to keep their autonomy, is a starting point for addressing the pressing issue of textile pollution.