by In honor of Zero Waste’s international day, the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, the textiles and the fashion industry, asked to reduce their effects on the environment.
Before the United Nations General Assembly on March 27th, he said: “The waste crisis is a topic that is at the center of production and consumption. And one that requires actions at every level – locally, national and global. Unless
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With regard to the “thousands of chemicals” – many of which are harmful to people and the environment – that often uses textile production, Guterres said that “resources such as land and water – exert pressure on ecosystems and knock out greenhouse gases.”
The Secretary General recognized how clothes are produced into an “amazing rate” and said that this was driven by business models that “prioritize novelty, speed and disposition”. In order to illustrate his point of view, he noticed how the equivalent of a garbage trolley full of thrown away clothing is on landfill or is burned every second.
The United Nations’ Advisory Board for Zero waste combines partners from the textile sector and the government to try to reduce the environmental impact. Guterres characterized how the decisions of consumers, including young people in society, can make a difference. While some brands, conglomerates and consumers have contributed to containing the environmental influences that fashion has to contain, Guterres asked the companies to “increase circularity, waste reduction and resource efficiency across their supply chains”. He said, “There is no place for Greenwashing.”
Request for responsibility for corporate obligations and transparency for customers for customers that consumers can use their purchasing power to promote changes by reducing excessive consumption, evaluating long -lasting products [instead of buying new goods] and purchase of used articles. He added: “We need young people and civil society to continue to use their voices and power to demand changes through advocacy.”
In a first insight report, 62 percent of the buyers of Gen Z stated that they prefer to buy from sustainable brands, while 73 percent explained more to pay for sustainable products. In addition, Z and Millennials are most likely to make purchasing decisions based on personal, social and environmental values.
Governments have to set up guidelines, regulations and subsidies in order to promote sustainability and no waste practices in order to encourage companies to create positive practices, said Guterres. Such efforts “offer” decent jobs and enable everyone – not only the rich – to do products that are concerned, “said the Secretary General.
While fashion is only the tip of a “toxic iceberg”, he said that waste is a problem in every sector, with humanity producing more than 2 billion tons of garbage every year. At this speed, the annual waste production is expected to be 3.8 billion tons by 2050. Guterres said that negotiations on a legally binding contract to end plastic pollution (the UN Treaty) in August are due and “have an important chance for governments to advance”.
Eleven percent of the plastic waste comes from clothing and textiles, and according to the UN Environment program, only 8 percent of textile fibers were made from recycled resources in 2023. Every year, 92 million tons of textile waste are produced every year. Production doubled between 2000 and 2015, since the duration of the garment decreased by 36 percent.
Guterres emphasized how more than 1 billion people live in slums and “informal urban settlements in which waste management is not available and the disease is widespread”. He also said that the “rich world floods the global south with garbage, from outdated computers to one-way plastic and more”.
In addition, many countries do not have the infrastructure in order to “even process a fraction of those unloaded on their banks”, which burns recyclable materials or burned or sent to landfills and “waste pickers”, which are exposed to “potentially dangerous materials under horrific conditions”, such as “potentially dangerous materials”. Crazy clothing of numerous brands was found in massive piles in Chile’s Atacama desert.
When asked about the potential effects of Guterres’ comments on Monday on Monday, Jeff Garner, director of the documentary “Let her naked”, and a book of the same name that will inevitably be skeptic. “It is a relatively new idea that what we wear on our skin [based on research from Stockholm University’s Giovanna Luongo]”, He said.” I am naturally designer [through the Prophetik company]. We have no protective organisms to filter something through our skin. “
However, his hope is that Guterres’ remarks will lead to material changes. “If you insert guidelines and enter the government, this is a stamp of ‘We shoulder look-at-this’. [on the matter]. People then state all of these studies and research that scientists have carried out to warn us. This gives him credibility because there is a liability problem that comes about. They start to address and regulate it, ”said Garner.
He noticed how he advised the Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle last year, introduced the change 57 in the British Parliament for the safety of clothing, which would regulate and ban toxic chemicals for school and work uniforms. Garner has also awarded Sacramento’s fashion -Environmental responsibility law [AB 405]An invoice that is intended to reduce the role of the fashion industry in the production of textile waste, contamination of natural resources and exploitative work practices. He also has contact with supporters of this legislation that will be presented in California next month.
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