How Our Clothing Is Polluting Our Oceans and Rivers
By: Cassandra S
Tags: Pollution, Oceans, Fashion Industry, Sustainability

The fashion industry has contributed to a negative impact on our oceans and rivers due to plastic pollution from fibers in our clothing. Not only is plastic polluting our oceans and rivers pesticides and chemical dyes used in making our clothing have contributed as well. This is a huge problem because once our oceans and rivers are contaminated with plastic, pesticides and chemical dyes there is no sufficient way to remove it. If sustainable strategies in the fashion industry are not made, we are all at risk because if our oceans and rivers are polluted with plastic, pesticides, and chemical dyes we will no longer have a clean water supply. As human beings we need water in order to survive. Water makes up 60% of our bodies and the cells in our body need water in order to keep functioning. By looking at two different articles on this same issue, we can further see how problematic this really is. In the article “Ocean Plastic Pollution: Why Our Clothes Are Part Of The Problem” by Brian Resnick, has a very strong viewpoint on this issue because of his effective use of logos. Although Resnick’s article is very convincing the article “Saving The Ocean One Outfit At A Time” by Heather Pringle and Amorina Kingdom, provides more logical evidence.

The article Ocean Plastic Pollution: Why Our Clothes Are Part Of The Problem, by Brian Resnick logically explains the negative impact that our clothing has on our oceans just by being washed, fibers such as polyester, nylon, acrylic along with other synthetic fibers which, are all forms of plastic make up about 60 percent of our clothing worldwide. This is very problematic because these fibers are very cheap and versatile making it high in demand for fashion brands to make a majority of our clothing from which, is contributing to ocean pollution. The article also discusses a solution from Mark Browne, an environmental scientist at the University College Dublin says,

Photo by Narain Jashanmal on Unsplash

“Washing machines need to be designed to reduce emissions of fibers to the environment; at the moment they are not”. In this quotation Browne is giving a solution to what needs to be done in order to reduce the amount of plastic fibers going into our oceans. I appreciate Resnick’s logical views on how our clothing is polluting our oceans because I wasn’t aware that this was happening. I was aware that our oceans were polluted with plastic from water bottles, plastic bags, straws and other things. I was unaware that fibers such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and other synthetic fibers used to make our clothing was contributing to ocean pollution. I want to become more mindful when shopping for clothing and paying attention to fiber content making sure it was consciously made and eco friendly. I also appreciate the fact that Resnick’s article has a solution to help this problem.

Photo by Marianne Krohn on Unsplash

In Pringle and Kingdom’s article Saving The Ocean One Outfit At A Time logically explains the negative impact that pesticides used to grow cotton have on our oceans and rivers. Pringle and Kingdom interviewed Shafiq Ahmad (Pakistan’s country manager for the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), who told them about a time in Pakistan when people could drink ground water. The water is now unsafe due to runoff crops that are contaminated with pesticides. This logically proves the negative impact that growing cotton with pesticides has had on water to the point where it is no longer safe to drink. Pringle and Kingdom’s article provide many different sustainable alternatives for making textiles one being the use of kombucha leather instead of leather. Kombucha is produced by mixing sugar, bacteria, and yeast into black or green tea. The kombucha mixture ferments making long cellulose fibers which, takes two to three weeks. Once it has fermented it has a membrane that is skin like which, is washed, oiled, dried and sealed. This logically shows that there are better and more natural ways to make sustainable textiles that won’t harm the environment. Although Resnick’s solution to reduce the amount of plastic fibers making their way into our oceans by starting with our washing machines is a logically good idea, Amorina and Kingdom’s article provided more sustainability strategies for the fashion industry.

In conclusion, although both perspectives logically convince the reader that our clothing is polluting our oceans and rivers. Amorina and Kingdoms sustainable solutions suggest starting from the beginning of how textiles are being made to avoid the amount of pollution contaminating our oceans and rivers.