The ooze of burning garments in a Cambodian brick kiln
An Unearthed investigation has revealed how off-cuts from Cambodian factories supplying major brands are being used to fuel brick kilns – exposing workers to toxic fumes. This new investigation took place after the practice was first revealed in the Blood Bricks research and its project report published in 2018.
Dr Laurie Parsons, co-investigator on the Blood Bricks project spoke to the Unearthed team about the findings:
“The burning of acrylic garments, especially when combined with plastic bags, hangers, rubber and other waste as occurs in Cambodia, releases plastic microfibres and other toxic chemicals into the immediate environment which compromise the health of workers and neighbours on a short and long term basis. The human impacts, in particular, are substantially worse than burning wood and have been highlighted in a recent UK parliamentary report as a major problem in the industry,”
Unearthed is Greenpeace UK’s award-winning journalism project. For more information on the Blood Bricks findings, read our blog on this issue, report and open access journal article published on ‘Discardscapes of fashion: Commodity biography, patch geographies, and preconsumer garment waste in Cambodia’.