Showing posts by Md Mursalin Rahman Khandaker.
-
Toxic Threads: Southeast Asia’s Textile Pollution Poses a Growing Security Threat
›August 11, 2025 // By Md Mursalin Rahman Khandaker
In today’s world of fast fashion, a $4 crop top travel across continents faster than a letter, and new trends die before a customer hits the “checkout” prompt. Yet the global obsession with cheap clothing creates apparel soaked in a cocktail of dyes, plasticizers, and forever chemicals, that linger far longer than the consumer forces that make them trendy.
The global apparel sector is valued at over $1.8 trillion, and it is the world’s second most chemical-intensive industry after agriculture. For big manufacturing hubs in Southeast Asia (particularly India, Bangladesh, Pakistan), textiles represent an economic lifeline.
