Water Colors: 10 Unnaturally Dyed Polluted Rivers

[Tumbulu]

5. And the US, European and Japanese textile mills spent fortunes

putting in wastewater handling systems to keep the dye wastes from entering rivers and streams, only to have trade agreements allow all these textiles into the US from countries that saved money and thus were able to slash the costs by dumping dye wastes into public waterways. The cost of dye clean-up represented dollars per pound of yarn or fabric. Our mills (along with those in Japan and Western Europe) were clobbered and most closed shop. The mills in China, India and Indonesia got the business all right, those owners make a fortune, but the people living downstream of these businesses and the wildlife all suffer, in fact we all suffer.

Dye wastes are highly toxic, many are similar in structure to pesticides and are in fact produced by the same companies.