Greenpeace Cites Environmental & Child Labor Issues in Chinese Apparel Towns
Greenpeace investigations have found widespread environmental degradation, including high concentrations of heavy metals, and instances of child labor, in Xintang and Gurao, two textile factory towns in China’s Guangdong province.
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Investigations Find Heavy Metals in Factory Wastewater & Use of Child Labor
Greenpeace’s investigations found that 17 out of 21 water and sediment samples taken from throughout Xintang and Gurao have heavy metals (cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead, and copper), due to their use in fabric printing and dyeing.
Greenpeace spoke to villagers in Xintang, a town that makes blue jeans, who complained about the printing and dyeing factories’ wastewater discharge into the local river. They also complained about reproductive and fertility problems caused by working in the dyeing and washing of jeans. In Gurao, a town that specializes in making bras, Greenpeace found significant water degradation of the local river as water is discharged from the dyeing factories upstream. Greenpeace reported that villagers nearby say that the river is no longer fit for drinking or laundry, and that fish no longer live in the river. Greenpeace also found several instances of child labor in both places.
Calls on China to Monitor Textile Factory Discharge, Industry to Reduce Hazards
Greenpeace reports that Gurao and Xintang are just 2 out of 133 textile manufacturing cluster towns. Greenpeace calls upon the Chinese government to implement strict monitoring over factory wastewater discharge. Greenpeace states that industry should disclose safety information for its hazardous chemicals, clean up its discharge, and set a target and timeline to phase out its hazardous chemicals. According to Greenpeace, without substantial changes to government regulations and industry practices on hazardous chemical use and release, the environment will incur costs.