Introduction
Hook: Polyester’s Ubiquity and Appeal
Polyester is everywhere. From the clothes we put on to the furniture in our living rooms, it’s one of the most used synthetic fibres on the planet. It is favored for being affordable, long lasting, and multi-purpose. Polyester, unlike natural fibers, won’t wrinkle, it will dry quickly and it will preserve colour well, which is what fast fashion companies and consumers are all about.
The Growing Concern
Polyester, for all its popularity and practical benefits, has a huge ethical and environmental price tag. Polyester production, from the extraction of raw materials to its production, comes with many responsibilities, not just environmental degradation but human rights abuses and social injustice. The more consumers are realising the hidden costs of their consumption, the more urgent the demand for transparency and sustainability in polyester manufacturing.
Thesis Statement
In this blog, I examine the ethical concerns of polyester production from the standpoint of environment, labour, and social. It will also provide advice on how customers can be more responsible consumers for the greater good of a more sustainable and fair fashion industry.
1. Environment and Polyester Manufacturing Issues
1.1 High Energy and Resource Use:
Petroleum-Based Material
Polyester is a synthetic fiber mainly manufactured using petrochemicals (oil and natural gas). Polyester uses finite non-renewable resources, while natural fibres like cotton or wool are renewable. Exploiting and refining petroleum are both energy-intensive operations that are a serious environmental disaster.
Realism: Polyester fibers use about 70 million barrels of oil per year.
Impact: This reliance on fossil fuels does not just accelerate the depletion of resources but is also geopolitical due to wars over oil.
Water and Energy Use
Polyester production requires a lot of water and energy, especially in the chemical reactions that polymerize and spin fibres.
Energy Use: Polyester consumes about twice the energy as natural fibres such as cotton.
Water Use: Polyester uses less water than cotton does but the water consumed ends up polluted with chemicals and pollutants.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Polyester’s carbon footprint is one of its biggest environmental issues. For every ton of polyester made, there is around 5.5 tons of CO2.
Emissions From Polyester: Polyester manufacturing is one of the largest source of greenhouse gases worldwide and is driving the climate crisis.
Compare: Recycling polyester (rPET) can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 50% and this is why it’s a key time to switch to greener alternatives.
1.2 Microplastic Pollution
Shedding Microfibers
Every time polyester clothes are washed, slivers of fibre rip and go into the sewer. These microfibres, which average less than 5 millimetres, are microplastic pollution.
Real fact: Up to 700,000 microfibers are washed out of a single polyester garment.
Cons: These microfibers are too small to filter well by sewage treatment plants, so they seep into rivers, lakes and oceans.
Impact on Marine Life
There are many problems with microplastics affecting marine life. Microfibers are eaten by fish, shellfish and other marine creatures who mistake them for food and deposit them inside their bodies.
Risques to Health: Collected microplastics can lead to deformities, intestine damage, even death in marine animals.
Impact on Humans: As microplastics advance up the food chain and inevitably reach human bodies, health effects such as endocrine disruption and toxicity have been reported.
1.3 Non-Biodegradability
Long Decomposition Time
The worst part about polyester is that it’s not biodegradable. Polyester can take hundreds of years to decompose in the environment compared with natural fibres, which break down in months or years.
Environmental Pollution: Leftover polyester clothing piles up in landfills as part of the global waste problem.
Pollution in the Oceans: Polyester from textiles dumped into the oceans is part of the ever-present plastic contaminating the environment.
2. Labour and Human Rights Questions
2.1 Unsafe Working Conditions
Hazardous Work Environments
Polyester is made with toxic chemicals such as ethylene glycol and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT). In polyester factories, employees work near these dangerous chemicals without protective equipment.
Chemical Inhalation: Exacerbations can cause respiratory tract, skin and chronic diseases like cancer.
Industrial Accidents: Since most of the factories are not fully safety conscious, accidents, fires and chemical spillage are common.
Health Risks
Medications of polyester production aren’t the only risks to health. Chemicals are harmful to workers in the long run.
Chest Problems: Exposure to chemical fumes may cause respiratory disorders like asthma and bronchitis.
Dermatitis & Skin Diseases: Skin diseases due to exposure to chemicals.
2.2 Low Wages and Exploitation
Unfair Compensation
A majority of the polyester factories are found in the third world countries where labour is cheap. Minimum income is low and the wages are living wages.
Example: Clothes workers make as little as $3 a day in Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Impact: These lower wages continue to feed poverty and exclude workers from access to food, healthcare and education.
Lack of Workers’ Rights
There aren’t labour laws and regulations, and many countries don’t enforce them, making it easy for workers to get taken advantage of.
Not easy access to unions: Unions may be a challenge for workers to sign up for and lobby for a pay raise and working conditions.
Insecurity at Work: Intermittent contracts and job insecurity leave workers no space to demand justice or object to violations.
2.3 Child and Forced Labor
Prevalence
Polyester supply chain was correlated with child and forced labour especially in areas where labor laws and regulations are weak.
The fact: In textile manufacturing, India, China and Uzbekistan have all been designated as child labor countries by the US Department of Labor.
Industries in Effected: Child labour is common in the earliest stages of textile manufacturing (eg fiber processing and dyeing).
Lack of Transparency
It’s hard to trace where polyester fibres are produced because global supply chains are so opaque and opaque.
Subcontainment, Sub-Queenfishing and Outsourcing cover up ill work practices to the consumer and the authorities.
Responsible Consumer: The non-transparency is a warning to help brands with a commitment to responsible sourcing and supply chain transparency.
3. Social Repercussions of Polyester Production.
Although there is much writing on the environmental and labour issues of polyester manufacturing, few have considered the social implications to local populations. Polyester production can be very devastating to the lives of people living near factories especially in developing countries where they are often located. They are accompanied by deportation, exploitation of natural resources and serious health issues.
3.1 Community Displacement
Land and Resource Exploitation
Polyester mills need huge swathes of land and huge amounts of natural resources (water) which means communities are uprooted. It is especially worrying in developing countries where the government tends to focus on industrial growth over local welfare.
Land Monopolization: Governments and Corporations often take up lands to build factories and often force small farmers and people into these farms. The displacement communities are often not even compensated for and are therefore abandoned or driven to slums.
Disposal of Subsistence: Most of these societies are dependent on the land for agriculture, livestock and other forms of subsistence. When factories are removed, they remove these materials from the people who then go hungry and poor.
For instance, in India and Bangladesh, for example, textile manufacturing has been industrialised too fast and dispossessed thousands of rural families, who then migrated to crowded urban centres to find low-paid work.
Water Pollution
The worst effect of polyester manufacturing is pollution of water. From factories, polluted chemicals, dyes and heavy metals are often pumped into rivers and streams that were not treated properly or never treated at all.
Emission to Drinking Water: These pollutants are released into local water bodies and render the water inedible for drinking, cooking, and bathing.
Damage to Farms: Degraded water also damage farms, decreases yields and health of livestock, and even the livelihoods of the local population.
Case Study: Around textile centres such as Dhaka, Bangladesh, sewage systems were saturated with industrial waste and caused health problems and devastation to the fisheries.
3.2 Health Effects on Local Populations.
The health effects of polyester production from polyester production are immediate and chronic for communities around the factories. Those living near factories face air and water pollution that is very unhealthy for them.
Pollution Exposure
Polyester manufacture pollutes the air and water with toxic chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides.
Air Quality: Factories generate a lot of particulate matter and noxious gases, and the surrounding air quality is also bad. The air is very prone to respiratory infections in the residents, especially children and the elderly.
Diseases In Water: Inhaled water causes water diseases like Cholera, Dysentery, Hepatitis etc.
Example: In textile-growing areas of Indonesia, air and water pollution has been associated with rising rates of asthma, bronchitis and skin diseases in the locals.
Increased Health Risks
Polyester production contaminants have also been linked to a range of chronic diseases, from respiratory disease and skin disease to cancer.
Pulmonary Diseases: By breathing the toxic fumes and particulates it may cause asthma, bronchitis and pulmonary fibrosis in the long term.
Dermatitis, Eczema and Other Skin Problems: Dermatitis, eczema, and other skin ailments can develop after the surface contact with polluted water or air.
Long-Term Health Risks: Extensive use of heavy metals and other toxins is associated with risk of neurological disorders, children’s developmental problems and some cancers.
People’s Testimony: When residents of China’s textile districts were surveyed, their disease prevalence and cancer rates were far above those of the rest of the country, which suggests the need for stricter environmental standards.
4. Solutions and Alternatives
The ethical issue of polyester production will require collaboration between consumers, brands and policymakers. Supporting sustainable production, humane labor practices and shopper education are all ways we can help curb the harms of polyester manufacturing.
4.1 Support Sustainable Polyester Production
The best way to reduce the ecological and social impacts of polyester is to replace it with more sustainable production processes.
Recycled Polyester (rPET)
The recycled polyester or rPET is a synthetic made from post-consumer plastic bottles and other recycled content. This makes polyester manufacturing significantly less polluting.
Benefits:
- Saves on virgin petrochemicals.
- Reduces emissions up to 50 % over virgin polyester.
- Saves plastic waste from the ocean and the landfill.
Consumer Hint: Look for brands of clothing that include rPET in their products and confirm the information with certifications such as the Global Recycled Standard (GRS).
Eco-Friendly Innovations
Not only is recycled polyester being developed by some companies, but they’re also producing bio-based polyester from renewable sources, like corn, sugarcane or algae.
Advantages:
- Reduces dependency on fossil fuels.
- Possibility to be more biodegradable than conventional polyester.
Example: Patagonia and Adidas launched bio-based, recycled polyester products, and the other companies will follow.
4.2 Ethical Fashion Brands
Being an advocate for ethical brands can change fashion for the better. Consumers can motivate brands to behave more sustainably and socially if they buy from ethical firms.
Research Brands
Check the supply chain, labor and environmental policies of the brand before you shop.
Questions to Ask:
- Does the brand share the names of its suppliers and factory?
- Does each worker receive a living wage and safe working conditions?
- Does the brand make use of green materials and waste less?
Certifications to Look For
A couple of third-party certs can point consumers towards sustainable and ethical brands:
Fair Trade: Guaranteed wages, safe labour and local community for the workers.
Global Recycled Standard (GRS): Assurance of recycled content in the products and social and environmental sustainability.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100: Verifies that fabrics are free of toxins and human-safe.
4.3 Consumer Actions
Each individual consumer can lead the industry change through sustainability in shopping, and by speaking out.
Buy Less, Choose Better
And buying less, better things that last longer is perhaps the most obvious way to offset the carbon footprint of polyester manufacture.
Benefits:
- Reduces demand for fast fashion.
- Minimizes waste and environmental impact.
Pro tip: Get one of the classics you can wear year round made of sustainable fabrics.
Extend Clothing Lifespan
If you take good care and look after your polyester clothes well, it will last a long time without having to change them as often.
Washing Tips:
- Wash with cold water for savings on energy.
- Filter with a microplastic filter bag to collect microfibers.
- Dry clothes naturally, not with a dryer.
- Advocate for Change
Consumers can also take part in systems reform, if they vote with their feet and back policies and programs that encourage sustainability and responsible labour practices in fashion.
Join Advocacy Teams: Engage in groups advocating for green and social justice in style.
Be a Advocate of Legislation: Call for pollution controls, worker protections, and supply chain transparency legislation.
Yashvi Jain, a writer by day and reader by night, is an accomplished content writer and published author of ‘Mind Under Construction. Yashvi possesses extensive knowledge of fabrics, sustainability, and literature. On occasions, you would catch her scripting for her YouTube channel, engrossed in fiction, or ardently dedicating her time to research and storytelling.