428 pieces of clothing are ditched by the Taiwanese population every minute
台灣人每分鐘就有428件衣服被丟棄
| Compared to other issues such as air pollution or food safety, the environmental impact of textile waste has long been ignored
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Mass production and consumption in the textile industry have made clothes easily disposable, and in Taiwan, it is estimated that 438 pieces of clothing are thrown away every minute. A report published by the Global Views Monthly quoted Tang Chien-hsiung (湯劍雄), who runs a textile recycling business, as saying that on average 72,000 tons of garments are ditched every year by Taiwanese people. Tang said if one kilogram of recycled garments was constituted 3.2 pieces of clothing, then approximately 230 million pieces annually or 438 pieces per minute are discarded in the country. Other reports, such as one from the Epoch Times, also suggest that at least 60,000 tons of apparel are recycled on an annual basis on the island. The huge amount of clothing being recycled year after year is related to the fact that the production of garments has rapidly increased while the cost of clothing has steadily decreased over the years. According to the data from multinational consulting firm McKinsey & Company, clothing production around the globe doubled from 2000 to 2014. During the same period, however, both the average price for a piece of clothing and the duration it was kept decreased. Although people are encouraged to donate and recycle unwanted clothes to charities or recycling businesses, most of the recycled clothing ends up being burned as waste instead of being re-sold or re-used. The Epoch Times reports that 30 percent of the recycled clothes are sent to charity organizations, while 70 percent go to recycling factories. Among the clothing collected by recycling factories, only a small portion is re-sold to other countries such as Africa while most of it goes to the incinerator. However, due to competition from other countries, particularly China, which produces even more textile waste, many recycling businesses in Taiwan are now facing financial difficulty. The Global View Monthly even estimated that in 2018, only 2 recycling factories would survive out of 36, and the textile waste, if not properly managed, could be a big problem for the country. Compared to other environmental issues such as air pollution or food safety, the impacts of textile waste have long been ignored. Lo Ko-jung (羅可容), project manager at Greenpeace, told the Global Views Monthly that it's not just Taiwan. Throughout the world, the issue of textile waste has never gained much attention, partly because the fashion industry tends to keep this type of data secret. |
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| Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2018-01-07 |
