Sequins Fashion: Five Ways Sequins Add to Plastic Pollution

Local Correspondent, BBC World Service

Christmas and New Year is a time of celebration for many – buy shiny new clothes and decorate them with sequins.

Sequin clothing is also becoming more common in some regions of the world year after year – for example, for South Asia, the wia dame get lehenga, a long skirt and a choli, as well as embroidery and often sequin blouses, dey spread.

But experts say that sequined clothing is causing environmental degradation, and what else?

Jane Patten, campaign manager for Plastics and the Petrochemical Wit D Center for International Environmental Law Talk Am, said: “I can’t wear anything with Sewin, but I don’t. These things fall flat all the time, especially from a fast fashion or discount retailer.”

“It comes off when you hug someone or get in and out of a car or walk or dance. It’s the same when you wash.”

The problem is the same with glitter. They are generally made of plastic with a metal reflective coating. Once they enter the sewer, they stay around for ages, possibly breaking into small pieces over time.

“Because sequins are man-made and they’re made from a substance that contains toxic chemicals, any time they end up in the dam — air, water, soil — it can be dangerous,” Jane Patton Talks.

“Microplastics are a big problem. Because dams are so small and move around so easily, they can’t be cleaned or controlled.”

Researchers have discovered new microplastics in Antarctic ice, the report confirms.

Dame has not yet created biodegradable sequins, but will not begin to mass-produce them.

The charity Oxfam conducted a survey of 2,000 British women aged 18 to 55 in 2019, and 40% of them said they would buy clothes for the festive season.

Only a quarter said they would never wear it again, and on average some people said they wear the fabric five times before putting it aside.

Five percent said they put the cloth in the trash after wearing it, and Oxfam calculated that 1.7 million pieces of holiday clothing will end up in the trash by the end of 2019.

Once the landfill is dry, the plastic flakes last forever – but studies show that liquid waste from landfills contains microplastics.

“Landfill may not be the final destination for plastic, but it is the source of microplastics,” a group of researchers said in a DIA study.

Greenpeace Germany’s circular economy and toxics manager, Viola Wolgemuth, says the clothing industry does not sell 40 percent of the goods it produces. Dem fitting na ship am go oda kontris and dump am dia, she talk.

Sequin-embellished dresses are among the haul. Viola Wohlgemuth says she doesn’t look to second-hand markets and junkyards in Kenya and Tanzania.

“There are no regulations on the export of textile waste. The exports are disguised as second-hand textiles and are dumped in poor countries and end up in landfills or waterways and can pollute them,” she said.

“Under the Basel Convention, it does not prevent problems such as electronic or plastic waste, such as ODA waste.”

They usually make the seats out of plastic boards, and they get rid of the leftovers.

Jignesh Jagani Tok, a textile factory owner in the Indian state of Gujarat, said: “A few years ago, some companies tried to burn waste for their incinerators.

“And it emits toxic fumes, and the state pollution control board knows about this and makes the companies stop doing this. It is a challenge to manage this kind of waste.”

Elisa Brunato, one of the developers of Compostable Cellulose Sequins, says Don Tok started by making the material. To avoid trouble, she moved on to making sequins for individual molds.

The problem is not only sequins, synthetic materials are often associated with it.

According to the United Nations Environmental Protection Program, 60% of clothing is made of plastic, such as polyester or acrylic, and every time the clothes are washed, tiny plastic microfibers are released.

These fibers enter the waterways, and then the food chain.

According to one estimate from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, synthetic textiles are responsible for 35% of microfibers in the oceans.

George Harding of the Changing Markets Foundation said the way the fashion industry uses plastic sequins and fibers (derived from oil or gas) to use market power to tackle sustainability issues also “reveals a chronic dependence on them”. Fossil fuel industry for raw materials.

He said that by 2030, clothing production will double compared to 2015 levels, so “if there is no beta intervention, the problem will be worse.”