Sequin for festive season is not environmental
The festive season is upon us with plenty of party activity meaning of us will be wearing pretty glittery dresses covered in sequins. However these not so innocent sequins have been identified as environmental hazards for a few reasons.
- Sequins can fall off
- Disposable party clothes, the wear once and throw it away mentality after party
- Unsold clothes are thrown away
- When sequins are made, waste is generated
- Synthetic fibres bind together sequins
Sequins can fall off and they are disposable
Sequins are easily dislodged from clothes, and because sequins are made from reflecting surface coated plastic these small items can harm the environment because they will remain almost indefinitely as they do not break down easily.
They can also contain toxic chemicals, and this is a severe issue for our air, water and soil. Micro plastics present a huge danger to our ecosystem as typically they can be uncontainable, and very difficult to remove.
Researchers just recently revealed that they had found such micro plastics in the fresh snow of the Antarctic, hundreds or thousands of miles from any major urban areas.
Manufacturers are working in solutions, such as biodegradable plastic sequins, but are a long way off them being mass producible, and throw it away mentality.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64056052
Out of 2,000 British women between 18 and 55 years of age, 40% of them had admitted that they planned or had bought an item of sequin clothing this festive season.
Of those 40% who said they would, only a quarter of them would, only a quarter of them would reuse the item of clothing and wear it again, possibly up to 5 more times.
5% admitted they would put the item straight in the bin once they had worn it. According to Oxfam, they suggest that a whopping 1.7 million pieces of party clothing from 2019 had ended up in the bin/landfill.
So in fact landfill isn’t the final resting place for plastics, but a potential source of contamination of other areas of our environment.
Unsold clothes are troublesome and sequins producing generates waste
There also seems to be a problem within the clothing industry itself regarding sustainability and recyclability, as Greenpeace Germany claims that 40% of items produced by clothing manufacturers are never sold, instead they are shipped abroad and dumped.
Of course, there are sequin clothes to be found abroad these unwanted clothes shipments, which find their way into third world landfill sites such as Kenya, and Tanzania.
Viola Wohlgemuth, Greenpeace circular economy and toxics manager explained the problem. It’s not banned as a problem substance like other types of waste, such as electronic or plastic waste, under the Basel Convention.
There’s no regulation for textile waste exports. Such exports are disguised as second hand textiles and dumped in poor countries, where they end up in landfill sites or waterways, and they pollute.
When sequins are made, waste is generated. Some Indian clothing manufacturers used to manage their waste by burning it in incinerators, but this was quickly outlawed by the government because of the black, toxic smoke it would create.
This waste problem is indeed a huge challenge. However in contrast compostable cellulose sequins have been developed by Elisa Brunato, who decided that sheet materials were not the way to go when making sequins as it produced too much waste, instead opting to use moulds to create them.
Synthetic fibres bind together sequins
These synthetic fibres also present a danger to our ecosystem, as they have a high chance of contaminating water sources and potentially entering the food chain.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature suggested that synthetic textiles are responsible for 35% of microfibres released in water bodies. Currently the fashion industry has too much reliance on the fossil fuel industry for its raw materials for clothing manufacture.
This fundamentally needs to change if any profound impact is to be made upon plastics pollution problems. As clothing production is suggested to almost double in the next 10 years without significant changes in attitudes and business practices.
Source: bbcnews
