Blog: Toxics

Create a revolution in your wardrobe - part two

Posted by louise - 9 August 2011 at 2:58pm - Comments

Girls sort scrap fabric in a family workshop in Gurao, China where the economy is centered on textile production.

In the second half of our tips on greening your wardrobe - to help you clean up your clothing inspired by our Detox campaign - we look at saying no to child labour, questioning distressed denim, avoiding greenwash, spring cleaning, speaking out and spreading the word.

Article tagged as: china, clothing, Detox, fair trade, pollution, textiles, toxic chemicals, water

Create a revolution in your wardrobe - part one

Posted by louise - 2 August 2011 at 5:01pm - Comments

Daily workers at a denim washing factory in Xintang, China, search wastewater fo

Workers at a denim washing factory in Xintang, search wastewater for stones, to create stonewash denim.

Has our Detox campaign made you think about your clothes and their hidden consequences? You may already heart second hand, throwaway fashion makes you ill, and your mantra is quality not quantity. But how else can you align your sartorial and sustainable sides? Here's our first set of tips to help decrease your fashion's footprint.

Article tagged as: adidas, clothing, consumerism, Detox, feature, nike, pollution, textiles, toxics, water

Puma leaps ahead of Nike and Adidas in Detox Challenge

Posted by Gemma Freeman - 27 July 2011 at 11:38am - Comments

Activists in Bangkok streaked for an international action of over 600 people in 29 cities in 10 countries

By Eoin from our International office: Hats off to Puma, the third largest sportswear company in the world, for publicly committing today to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals from its entire product lifecycle and across its whole supply chain by 2020.

Article tagged as: adidas, china, Detox, nike, pollution, Puma, Rivers, successes, water

From China's Toxics team: Fishing Near An Emissions Pipe

Posted by Gemma Freeman - 19 July 2011 at 9:56am - Comments

Greenpeace protestors bring attention to pipes pumping toxics into China's river

Greenpeace activists protest at pipes pumping toxics into rivers

Sean of our East Asia Action and Investigations Unit in China, blogs on how toxic pollution from China's textile industry is destroying local lives - from his first hand experience.

Article tagged as: adidas, china, Detox, Field work, nike, river pollution, Testing, Toxic polliution, water pollution, Yangtze River

From our China team: how to lose a foot on fieldwork

Posted by louise - 14 July 2011 at 10:52am - Comments

Zhong Yu during the clean-up of the Dalian oil spill

Zhong Yu has worked for Greenpeace in China for over seven years and has witnessed some of the most devastating environmental disasters there from rapid glacier retreat on the Himalayas, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to last summer’s devastating Dalian oil spill. Here, she writes about the undercover research behind our latest report, which exposes the terrible impact that China’s growing textile industry is having on the country’s rivers.

Article tagged as: actions, adidas, alkylphenols, china, Detox, Fieldwork, nike, PFOA, pollution, reports, Rivers, Testing

Nike & Adidas: time to Detox the world’s water

Posted by louise - 13 July 2011 at 12:25pm - Comments

Detox: which big sports brands will ditch toxic polluters first?

Detox: which brand will eliminate all toxic chemicals from their supply chain first?

Game on, Nike and Adidas. Greenpeace is calling you out to see which one of you is stronger on the flats, quicker on the breaks, turns faster and plays harder at a game we’re calling Detox. Who’ll be the first to take action and eliminate hazardous chemical discharges from their supply chain? Who will be the champion of a toxic-free future?

Article tagged as: adidas, china, nike, nonylphenol, pollution, river pollution, textiles, toxics, water

Hidden Consequences: The unseen price of water pollution

Posted by Gemma Freeman - 26 May 2011 at 3:07pm

A boy walks barefoot in the wastewater discharge of a fabric dyeing factory in Guangdong Province, China.

Martin Hojsik, leader of the Toxics Water Pollution Project at Greenpeace International, writes on the concealed costs of pollution - on people, planet and profits.

Article tagged as: china, Hidden Consequences, philippines, russia, thailand, toxic chemicals, toxics, water

Tests find ‘gender-bending’ chemicals in toxic toys

Posted by Tamara Stark - 20 May 2011 at 1:30pm - Comments

Toxic toys: tests in China reveal hazardous chemicals

Tests in China reveal hazardous chemicals in children's products

China: a land of vast expanses, the largest population of any on the planet and, increasingly, an economic super-power rivaling that of the United States. It’s predicted that this year will see China surpass the US as the largest manufacturing centre in the world.

Deepwater Horizon - One Year On

Posted by Gemma Freeman - 21 April 2011 at 5:25pm - Comments

Scientist Charles Messing in Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida

Thursday marked the one year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. 11 rig workers were killed and 16 injured in the initial explosion. And, after nearly 5 million barrels of oil spewed in to the ocean for five months, the long term effects on the Gulf of Mexico are still being uncovered.