While the crusade is on about plastic bags and other non bio degradables around us, one most important thing we forget about is the footprint of our clothes. I had this post in mind for a really long time now. However, I could not sum up my thoughts to speak about our clothing choices.
Even the green crusade brigade gives very little thought to the earth friendly-ness of the clothes worn. Little do we realize that all the polymer based products - Rayon, Nylon, Terricot, chiffon, synthetic crape (crepe), spandex, Acrylic etc are all non bio-degradable.
I have seen women in my family and around me wear Nylon Sarees (Nylex) and it hit me a few years ago, that the whole wardrobe is an eventual toxic landfill. That is just a part of the whole deal. Clothes for men and children fall under this category as well. The issue includes every easy to maintain fabric we find on shelves.
I go blank as to how this silent, most ignored and most dangerous plastic contribution may be stopped...If we all were to shift to cotton, hemp, jute or wool, the demand for these natural fiber would explode and lead to issues associated with over consumption and over production, processing and what not...I would appreciate your thoughts.
Note: And another point to note here is that routing non biodegradable junk/garbage to landfill is not a sensible solution. It is as bad as dumping our trash into the nearest water source (lakes, rivers, oceans). We need to understand the impact of leeching, plastic breakdown and the resulting impact on the fertility of the land (the landfill and a few kilometers around it), safety of water sources (running and ground), and the air near the landfill.