Implications

Many implications have developed from the manufacturing and importing of textiles and clothing. However, I do believe that the environmental cost exceeds all others. In 2019, a study showed that 62 million metric tons of clothing were consumed throughout the world. Over these couple decades, clothing manufacturing has increased at an extremely high rate. Manufacturing clothing has had an extreme effect on our world's water supply, and has led this industry to be it's second-largest consumer. Have you bought a cotton shirt? Just to make that, it took 700 gallons of water. What about a pair of jeans? 2,000 gallons. Just to produce one pair of jeans. And not only this, 10% of the carbon emissions our world has been facing have emerged from the fashion industry. As the purchasing rates have continued to go up, and even though 60% more clothing purchases were made in 2014, from 2000, these clothes were kept for only half as long. This has reached the extent that the equivalent of a garbage truck of clothing is burned or dumped every second.

The next major implication of these mass imports is social. China, being the world's biggest exporter and manufacturer of clothing, now produces 65% of the world's textiles. This clothes is delivered to our door or bought in a store, but we don't commonly think of where it comes from, or more importantly, who's making it. The answer to both of these is whenever labor is the cheapest. Workers are exploited, and are being payed at less than minimum wage, barely being able to support any family. Not only this, but day after day they are being exposed to toxic chemicals in these giant factories. Again, even if there are thousands of jobs being provided, the health and safety risk is extremely high, and it may not even be considered “worth it”. Finally, those who labor in the fields are affected by a major part of clothing manufacturing, dyes. Groundwater contaminated from pesticides through cotton cultivation is extremely harmful, as it can leak into waterways, and pose a large threat to farmers and workers.

The final implication is that of political and cultural. Political leaders have chosen to overwhelmingly focus the Hawaiian economy on tourism. Tourists, when they visit, almost always purchase a token or article of clothing to take home as a connection to their trip and cultural experience. Unfortunately, in order to satisfy this significant tourist demand, Hawaii has relied on an abundance of cheap imports of clothing , which drives a cycle of greater imports of supposed “Hawaiian” clothing. Politicians have depended on the millions of visitors the islands get each year, and between hotel, excursion, shopping, and meal expenses, the attention to Hawaii’s number one industry has prevented us from focusing on what affects the locals and native Hawaiians.