Detox Fashion
Last year Greenpeace successfully challenged leading active wear brands Nike, Puma and Adidas to become the most sustainable brand through their campaign Detox. Something that the brands are still working on. Well this year Detox is back and tackling the hight street. The latest to sign up to Detox is Zara, the world’s largest clothing retailer, joining H & M, Marks & Spencer, C & A and Li-Ning.
“Greenpeace welcomes Zara’s commitment to toxic-free fashion. If the world’s biggest fashion retailer can do it, there’s no excuse for other brands not to clean up their supply chains and make fashion without pollution. People around the world have spoken out against toxic fashion and it’s now time for other brands such as Levis Strauss, Gap, and Victoria’s Secret to listen to their customers and urgently detox.”” Martin Hojsik, Detox campaign coordinator at Greenpeace International.
The Zara win was the combination of campaigning from over 315,000 people who participated through action on social media and protesting through street theatre outside Zara Store’s worldwide.
The Greenpeace report, Toxic Threads, brings to light some shocking facts. 80 billion garments are produced worldwide, the equivalent of over 11 garments a year for every person on the planet. Greenpeace brought 141 garments in April 2012 from 20 leading brands worldwide. From testing these garments they found:
* 25 of the garments did not have transparency attached to where they were manufactured.
* 63% of the garments tested contained NPEs (toxic chemicals that can cause cancer)
“As global citizens and consumers we can also use our influence to make this change. Together we can demand that governments and brands act NOW to detox our rivers, detox our clothing and ultimately, detox our futures. A post-toxic world is not only desirable, it’s possible. Together we can create it.”
