According to a new article from The Sourcing Journal, China’s quest to become a financially and environmentally stable world power could soon bring about a dramatic shift in the global fashion supply chain.
China’s textile and apparel industries – which produce the vast majority of the world’s cheap clothes and fabrics – are some of the country’s most polluting and water-intensive, and have been blamed by the Chinese Water Risk Council and Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection for contaminating all seven of China’s major rivers, and greatly depleting the country’s overall water supply.
And as more and more members of both the citizenry and government call for a nationwide clean-up, new environmental legislation is being introduced that could lead to national compliance standards. However, if those standards are set in place, constrained deadlines, capital expenditure requirements, and increased operating costs may cause up to 90% of China’s textile and apparel factories to shut down. Which would mean the world as a whole would need to find a new place to make cheap clothes.
You can read more about the potential end of cheap Chinese-made clothing at The Sourcing Journal.
