Did you know that to get that used and comfy look on a new pair of jeans there is an underpaid worker somewhere in a developing country that is literally sanding the dye off those jeans? Somewhere nearby their fellow worker is tearing holes so that you can get the look you want. The tearers may consider themselves lucky; the dust from the jeans is an irritant to the lungs and that poor sander has to wear a mask all day long. It’s hard to thing about all the atrocities that are committed in the name of fashion.
The reason that sweatshops and underpaid/dangerous labour has become a problem is because of globalization. As some corporations look to find cheaper means of production they find it where people are most desperate. In developing countries many people are happy to have a job at all. It’s the only way for them to survive and care for their families. Buying clothes made by people in these situations may sound good in theory but really we are contributing to their misfortune.
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| Garment Workers |
In North America we have a very large price range when it comes to clothes. Unfortunately when we splurge and go the higher-end stuff, we are paying for the brand. That $50 shirt from Guess probably cost the same to produce as the $5 shirt from Wal-mart. This is because many of these companies use foreign labourers to do the dirty work and pay them very little for it. Good thing it’s easy for us to know whether or not our clothing was made by a 9-year-old girl working 10-hour days! We can check the label. If it says that the clothing was made in an underdeveloped country you can bet that it was made by someone who putting themselves in danger to produce that item for you.
Sweatshops may support a local economy to an extent, but the corporations have the money to be paying people properly! If they don’t then they shouldn’t be in business. Many of us will shell out the big bucks to get the brand we want. I like to think that we would do the same if the company could guarantee that the item of clothing was made sustainably and by treating their workers fairly. A lot of these workers may be happy for a job, but that’s because they don’t have a choice. Our consumerist nature is exploiting them as well as their resources. In a previous blog I mentioned a company called Monsanto. They are a perfect example of this principle as they make it hard for local farmers to find a place in the market. The garment industry works the same way. Local producers can’t get a proper footing in the market if a transnational corporation is producing clothes more cheaply.
Going beyond the means of production I’ll now tell you about the means of disposal. There’s a detailed powerpoint here. Clothing does get recycled on a large scale. I think as a society we are pretty good about donating what we no longer “need”. Don’t be fooled though, those donation chains have found their own way to make some money. They can actually sell what they have leftover to other companies who will transport it and resell it in other areas of the world. With the way clothing is produced it is not at all hard to get, soon even the poorest of the poor will expect new clothes. Then what will we do with our cast-offs? The world does not need any more clothes! We’ve already grown all the cotton and made all the fabric we will ever need. The media drives our need for the latest styles and it’s creating a ridiculous surplus of garments.
Changing how our clothing is made is not enough. Sure bamboo is more sustainably produced than cotton. Of course we want to buy from brands who guarantee they are sweatshop free. However the industry will soon be at a tipping point. We have to consider that soon may be the time to look very closely at recycled clothing being the main player in the clothing industry.
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