Tale of Fabircs

Cotton

Polyester

Utopian Fabrics
Rayon Can be

safely washed at
home Perfect Fit
after washing No
Shrinking No
Stretching
Improved CreaseRecovery.
Artificial silk- 1885

Nylon
Nylon Get rinsed through at

the odd moments and are seen

on the bath rail next morning ,
dry frills , floating no creases
Nylon was first used for fishing
line and toothbrush bristles but
found its fame as womens
stocking.
Nylon was light , strong & flameresistant and importantly , nylon
stocking didnt bag at the ankle

Mass-Produced clothing called

disposable fashion
Polyester and

other
synthetic can
ever be part
of sustainable
solution to our
clothing
consumption.

Modern Mans invention Scientific

experiment by huge chemical companies

Du Pont 1950

Easy care finish

Synthetic fabric became known as the fabric

that could make cheap, short-lived, fun fashions

of street style.

By 1970 , down side

of synthetic started.
Mid 1980- saw the
advent of
microfibers.
Finely knitted or
woven polyester
fabric , they are
weather proof warm
, soft , importantly
more able to
breathe than the
first generation
polyesters.

Polyester and throwaway Society

Synthetic & plastic

were the agents

behind the
obsolescence that list
at the heart of the
modern fashion
industry-mass
produced garments,
made from artificial
substances , that can
be discarded as
casually and as easily
as they are
purchased.

In979 7 million tonnes of polyester were

produced.
BY 2004 annual production had risen to some
30 million tonnes.

Polyester is not biodegradable , so

everything we have dumped in landfill

around the globe will be with us for about
another 200 years.

Can Polyester be green

Most popular use if

polyester is the form of

polyethylene teraphlate (
PET ), is plastic drink
bottles.
Patagonia a US based
outdoor clothing label
was the first one to use
recycled plastic bottles to
make polyester fleece.

Every British

household uses an
average 373 plastic
bottles a year , only
29 of which recycles.
Recycling just one
plastic bottle can
conserve enough
energy to light a 60
watt light bulb for 60
hours.

Both bottles and

synthetic yarn from

which all fleece are
made are derived
from the same
material- crude oil.
Green Pac A
company which reuses
waste materials and is
producing the
recycling fleece for
Marks & Spencer.

M & S claims that

with mens wear

fleece alone it will
reuse 22 million 2
Litre bottles, saving
6000 barrels of oil
each year from going
to virgin polyester.
In time M & S hope
to produce all the
stores polyester
clothing from
recycled plastic
bottles.

Eight Per Cent of the worlds annual oil

production goes into making plastic . Making

recycled polyester clothes will use much less
crude oil than the traditional method of
producing polyester, because oil has already
been moulded into plastic.

Cotton : A Natural Fibre ?

At just eight year old Anil already helped his

parents in the cotton fields and july 29 2000

started as day like many others. Anil had
worked hard and ran back to the house feeling
thirsty. Finding no drink , he set off to search
his parents.

On his way, Anil found an empty container,

and scooped up water to drink from a ditch.

That evening he did not return home . A
village search found his body next to empty
Callisufan bottle innocently used to quench
his thirst.

The container he drank from had held a highly

toxic pesticide, endosulfan , classes as

pesticide with extremely high acute toxicity.
Why was a disused container with lethal
residue lying out in the open ?
Why the substance so harmful being used at
all ?

Endosulfan , the second most widely used

insecticide in the world had been linked to

many cases of poisoning , including fatal
poisioning , among West African cotton
farmers.

Cotton is not the natural fiber we believe in to

be , but of the worlds most lethal and dirties

crops.

History of Cotton
Cultivated in Indus River

Valley ( Pakistan ) &

South America since
3000 BC.
Cotton when it grew
naturally had a color
range of 8 to 12 shadesfrom beige to red and
even green.

Pesticide deaths the hidden truth

about cotton
If just one person dies to make the shirt on

our back its to many.

Pesticide deaths the hidden truth

about cotton
60 percent of the worlds cotton is used to

make clothes.
In Pakistan only upto 10 percent of cotton
cropland in the Punjab region wad treated
with pesticides in 1983 but this had risen to
95-98 percent by 1991.

Pesticide deaths the hidden truth

about cotton
According to the World Health Organization

there are 3 million pesticide poisoning every

year , causing 20,000 deaths among
agricultural workers

Pesticide deaths the hidden truth

about cotton
According to ILO the fatality figure is much

higher at 40,000 deaths among as many as 5

million poisoning.
Farmers escaping death may have to deal
with many chronic health problem- insidious
reproductive health or sexual dysfunction side
effects caused by exposure to pesticides.

Pesticide deaths the hidden truth

about cotton
Pesticide cost for over 50 percent cost of

cotton production.
If you complain to companies saying that
endosulfan is killing farmers, they respond
with claim that proper use and proper storage
of endosulfan shouldnt cause any problem.
Its a total disregard for the reality of cotton
farmers.

Why Arent they Banned

Cotton accounts for 16 percent of global

insecticide release-more than any other single

crop , and 10 percent of all pesticides.

Why Arent they Banned

Bulk of national companies , with just seven

companies accounting for over 60 percent of

the world market.
Sheer force of the multinational companies
that produce these pesticides , it is not easy
matter to try to get them reviewed, restricted
or banned by international authorities.

Trading Unfair: How the deal for

farmers so bad.
About 40% of subsidies went to US Cotton

farmers but they present less than 1 percent

of worlds farmers/
In 2004 the top ten recipients received 61
percent of all cotton subsidies .

GM Cotton
40 % of world cotton production in 2010.
GM and non GM Cotton cannot coexist.
GM cotton reported decreases average yield

compared to conventional varieties.

GM Cotton
GM seeds can cost upto ten times more than

conventional seed.
Sheep became dull and depressed after
grazing on GM cotton crop residue , started
coughing , suffered blackish diarrhea.
At least 1820 sheep death were recorded in
four villages of America.