Dirty Laundry Greenpeace campaign

Water is essential for life, but it is also the world’s most threatened essential resource. New research commissioned by Greenpeace shows that residues of the hazardous chemicals nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) – used in textile manufacturing – remain in many clothing items sold by major international clothing brands and, when washed, a significant percentage of the chemicals in these clothes is released and subsequently discharged into rivers, lakes and seas, where they turn into the even more toxic and hormone-disrupting chemical nonylphenol (NP).

We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It is imperative that solutions are found to stop poisoning the precious resources we have left with hazardous chemicals. Solutions for zero discharge are proposed by many people and partly they are even implemented, however, with the shift of textile production to Asia, and the closure of most production sites of  the large  multinational manfacturers of dyes and chemicals in europe, shift to to China and India, it doesn´t get much easier to manage.

In this blog we will continue to follow the development.

Read the full story : Dirty Laundry: Reloaded | Greenpeace International.

Christian Schumacher

Dr. Christian Schumacher is the founder and managing director of StepChange Innovations GmbH, a technology development and consulting firm based in Germany. He has more than 20 years of experience in the chemical industry with global players such as Hoechst AG and DyStar Textilfarben GmbH as head of R&D, senior regional business manager Asia Pacific, head of e-commerce, head of marketing services, new product development manager and R&D chemist.

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