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Fashion Social Impact

Production Stage

The Health of Farmers

 

Between 1 and 3% of agricultural workers worldwide suffer from acute pesticide poisoning with at least 1 million requiring hospitalization each year, according to a report prepared jointly for the FAO, UNEP and WHO. These figures equate to between 25 million and 77 million agricultural workers worldwide.

 

Source: The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton

Poor Working Conditions

 

Over the past thirty years, corporations have widely adopted labor codes on health and safety, yet too often in their working lives, garment workers across the globe encounter death, work-related injuries, and unhealthy factory environments.

 

Source: Unmaking the Global Sweatshop Health and Safety of the World's Garment Workers

 

 

Garment workers are often forced to work 14 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. During peak season, they may work until 2 or 3 am to meet the fashion brand's deadline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Sustain Your Style

Human Rights Watch documented labor rights abuses in both export-oriented factories and subcontractor factories in Cambodia. These include forced overtime and retaliation against those who sought exemption from overtime, lack of rest breaks, denial of sick leave, use of underage child labor, and the use of union-busting strategies to thwart independent unions. In addition, women workers faced pregnancy-based discrimination, sexual harassment, and denial of maternity benefits.

 

Source: Human Rights Watch

 

Unsafe working conditions continue to be a problem in many developing countries where production occurs. Often, workers face unsafe, cramped and hazardous conditions at work which can lead to health problems of the workers and to dangerous situations in the factories such as fires and collapses. Furthermore, some fashion styles e.g. jeans with a worn look, require workers to engage in very dangerous practices such as sandblasting.

 

Source: Shop Ethical

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Human Trafficking

 

The Global Slavery Index's 2018 report, published by the Walk Free Foundation, states that $127.7 billion worth of garments at risk of including modern slavery in their supply chain is imported annually by G20 countries, a group of nations which account for 80 percent of world trade. These imports help underwrite a global economy that trapped 40.3 million people in modern slavery in 2016, 71 percent of whom were women. 

 

Source: The Global Slavery Index

 

The female workers aged 14-23 were recruited with false promises of a good job and a lump sum payment under the guise of an ‘apprenticeship’ program known as Sumangali. Once recruited many women instead find themselves trapped in the factory for up to five years and two out of three women never receiving their promised payment.

The women are subject to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. They have limited freedom - have to sleep in hostels within the factory, have limited contact with their families, and are often forced to work up to 12 hour days, 6 days a week without their promised payment.

 

Source: Stop the Traffik

Child Labor

 

The International Labour Organisation estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, with many making textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond.

Source: Child Labour in the Fashion Supply Chain

 

Child labour is a particular issue for fashion because much of the supply chain requires low-skilled labour and some tasks are even better suited to children than adults. In cotton picking, employers prefer to hire children for their small fingers, which do not damage the crop.

Source: Forced and Child Labour in the Cotton Industry

 

Consumption Stage

Girl with Shopping Bags

Excess and Growth of Consumption

 

Clothing costs have risen slower than those of other consumer goods, increasing their affordability, and there will be continued growth as the middle class expands and purchases increase to match this demographic shift. This combination of factors is expected to result in a tripling of resource consumption by 2050 (compared to 2000).

 

Source: Nature 

Donating Used Clothing is Not a Sustainable Solution

 

Only 25% of clothing collected for thrift shops actually sells in the stores. What happens to the rest of it? That's because donated clothing is just the tip of the iceberg: some 85 per cent of clothing in North America isn't even making it into a bin where it may get a second life, and is instead going directly in a landfill, according to SMART, a group that represents for-profit companies in the recycled textiles industry. 

 

Source: CBC 

 

According to Oxfam, more than 70% of the clothes donated globally end up in Africa, Creating a demand for second-hand goods that lead to the collapse of many once robust textile companies. According to local (Kenya's) media reports, 500,000 people were employed in the textile industry in the 1980s. Today, that number has fallen by more than 96% to around 20,000.

 

Source: The Guardian

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