‘JUNK: Full Wardrobe, the review’
‘JUNK: Full wardrobe a worldwide tour of what’s left of our Junk by Matteo Ward
After finishing watching the documentary series "Junk: Armadi pieni," a collaboration between Will Italia and Sky, which explores the invisible and visible damages caused by the fashion industry, here's what we have learned:
In the first two episodes, which we have already discussed in the previous article, set in Ghana and Chile, the focus was on the accumulation and impossible disposal of clothes from Europe, which ended up creating dystopian landscapes of debris overseas
In the third episode, Matteo Ward and his crew traveled to Bangladesh, where they start from addressing the tragedy of Rana Plaza and its consequences after ten years. Rana Plaza was a building that collapsed on April 24, 2013, resulting in the death of 1,380 people who were forced to continue working despite the cracks and alarms experienced in the structure from the day before and through the entire morning as well. Bangladesh is the second-largest producer of clothing in the world after China, and in places like Dhaka, the capital and largest city, th garment industry never stops. There are over 4 million textile workers, mostly women, out of a population of 23 million in the city. Kalpona Akater, CEO of Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, is now one of the country's prominent activists, who previously worked in underpaid factories says: ‘While some improvements have been made in terms of safety, the working conditions remain intolerable. The textile industry holds the lives of people in its grip, and there are no more ethical or sustainable alternatives available. Most women move to the cities because their surrounding lands are destroyed by environmental disasters. They work 6-7 days a week without decent meals, and they have to wait in long lines with 80 other people just to use the toilet. The only guarantee for them every day is the need to produce, regardless of what happens. They are required to produce around 120 pieces per hour, and the low wages force them to work constantly without breaks.’
A similar issue is seen in numerous tanneries where workers process leather with chemicals for exportation. Also here there are no regulations or safety measures for workers or the environment. Despite attempts to portray a facade of greenwashing, industrial pollution is not genuinely controlled by the factories but the reason lies before than companies policies: the factories lack alternative sources of income due to the low prices imposed by international brands, who want to buy cheaply without contribute to anything involving the process. The environment and the people who live near suffer the highest consequences, and those who strive to maintain their freedom from fast fashion end up getting sick. The relationship between Bangladesh and water is crucial, and the country faces challenges such as rising sea levels and flooding, which are not mere coincidences but the result of the exploitative practices of companies that do not bear the costs of the damage they cause to the country and its people. International buyers should share responsibility with producers to avoid compromising their profits and their survival in the industry, as explained by Rizwana Hasan, an environmental lawyer. In conclusion Fiona Gooch, the senior private sector policy adviser at Traidcraft Exchange, adds that everyone can do something to solve the enormous problems of the fashion industry. The first step is to question how this situation became the norm and demand that our governments change it, as exemplified by the Good Clothes campaign.
In episodes 4 and 5, the series focuses on deforestation and environmental disasters related to cellulose production and cotton cultivation respectively in Indonesia and India.
Viscose, also known as artificial silk, is derived from cellulose. At the begin, it was seen as a sensational discovery due to its simple production process; in Italy, silk was the first artificial fibre that man managed to create by manipulating nature in the 20th century. Right from the start, still unaware of the potential dangers, many workers in the factories began to suffer mental and physical disorders, exposure to carbon phosphide creating intoxication in the long run. In Italy the last factories were closed in 2007, but this did not mean the resolution of the problem but only a relocation, the factories moved to Asia between China, India and Indonesia. Here, what was an health problem for workers has now become an ecological disaster of uncontrollable proportions. Cellulose processing plants are sacrificing entire forests to meet the increasing demand. The only resistance against turning these forests into deserts comes from a few indigenous people known as "guardians of the forests" who fight to protect their ancestral land. In Indonesia, the situation is complex as the government can grant permits to cellulose fiber extraction companies without informing the local indigenous communities who live there. Over the years, these communities have seen large portions of their land replaced by eucalyptus trees due to deforestation.
Bangladesh
The Batak population, for example, has a close relationship with trees, which represent not only their ancestral heritage but also a responsibility for future generations. However, their gentle and courageous reforestation efforts alone are too slow to counter the speed of destruction caused by bulldozers. Every year, approximately 300 million trees are cut down to produce one billion garments, of which 60% will end up in landfills within the first year. This means that out of these 300 million trees, around 12 million will end up in landfills within the first year, as explained by Nicole Rycroft, the Founder and Executive Director of Canopy. Forests are essential for life on Earth, providing oxygen and being vital to our survival.
In India, the focus shifts to the production of the world's most famous and ancient textile fiber: cotton. The cotton industry in India is plagued by social and environmental injustices triggered by the greed of the Western textile system. In the 1990s, cotton cultivation intensified to meet the growing demand, leading to the use of pesticides that accelerated the process but harmed the plants. The use of pesticides made cotton cultivation more challenging year after year. In 2002, a genetically modified plantation called "Bt cotton" was introduced in Indian soil, using the DNA of a bacteria to induce the "natural" production of insecticides by the cotton plant itself. After 20 years, this has become a curse for farmers, as they are forced to repurchase seeds every season, plunging them into colossal debt. Additionally, it damages the groundwater, food, health, and the environment. Due to the resulting hardships, an average of 10,000 farmers per year commit suicide, often using the same pesticides produced by the crops they cultivate. This is just one of the many problems associated with cotton production. The dyeing process, considered the most dangerous phase, is carried out without safety measures and produces large amounts of water contaminated with toxic materials. In order to meet the low prices demanded by brands, dye houses disregard government environmental standards, releasing tens of thousands of liters of colored and chemical water into the adjacent land every day. This drastically changes the landscape and the way of life of the people living there. This is the cost of fashion and urban life, primarily paid by the poor and less privileged people, as well as the environment, which remains a silent spectator.
In the sixth and final episode, we return to Italy, where the journey began, specifically in the Veneto region. After discussing the "misfortunes" caused in distant parts of the world throughout the series, Matteo brings us back home to make us realize that we are also victims of invisible disasters caused by our irresponsible and unethical behavior. In Vicenza, Marco Milioni, a journalist, tells us about the substance called PFAS, its history, and its consequences. PFAS was initially used only in the military and was later introduced for civilian use starting in the 1980s. It can be found in non-stick pans, sofas, and especially in fabrics with water repellency. PFAS is a group of practically indestructible alcohol-based and polyfluorinated substances, whose damage to the environment is unfortunately permanent, just like its virtues.
The objective of PFAS, which is to make everything resistant, is also its problem: once released, its molecules become eternal pollutants. In the early 2000s, a group of researchers analyzed the presence of contamination in major European waterways and discovered a shocking concentration of pollutants in Italy, particularly in the Veneto region. The presence of toxic industrial substances, due to the high number of factories in the area, is exacerbated by the presence of PFAS molecules, causing contamination not only of the ecosystem and landscape but also entering the food chain and reaching our tables. Thus, it becomes a problem not only for Veneto but for all of Italy and Europe.
The main health consequences of PFAS exposure include:
1- Hypercholesterolemia
2- Thyroid diseases
3- Pregnancy complications
4- Testicular cancer
5- Liver cancer
The tragedy is that due to the difficulty of eradicating it and continuous long-distance production, even after ten years since the discovery of groundwater contamination, many people continue to live using contaminated water. One of the most concerning aspects of this type of pollution is the possibility of genetic transmission of PFAS from mother to child during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
The real crux of the problem is once again how this could have happened and how we can prevent it from happening again. This is the question we should all ask ourselves, facing the meaning of our responsibility and the potential impact of our actions when it comes to the fashion industry and textile manufacturing.