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tv   Close up  Deutsche Welle  March 3, 2020 9:30am-10:00am CET

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dear tool. the history of the slave trade is africa's history. players from the time the greeks for power and profit plummeted an entire continent into chaos and violence. this is the journey back into the history of slavery. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 9th on g.w. place. where drew me in the. us whatever i like i buy it. and these days ecofriendly right. as it is classed everything is ok adding that my bio ware contributions massively to the pollution of al horses. cut off the trees
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are still poisoning the kind of spread this how can that be and how those toxic substances end up enough food. place. a new branch of clothing chain primal openings in the german city of bone hunters about how some folks. and certain other climate protesters live a better life without crime aka chant. but there's no spoiling the coffee atmosphere inside i'm shopping at prime aka has its advantages. just when it's unbeatable into. arms
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a value for money you get really nice things super cheap goods to think you're not going to become what the clear is a perfect looking like a doesn't matter if the children get into a mess. so let's take a time out principle to the extreme we offer these close to the public for free but there is a price which gets paid here and i'll carry on which and experiment stands for the rivers in asia and this bottle of liquid represents the dollars that run into the water on tracers. that's cool is what i have to do. you pull those poison into the fish tank christian. right and oh they're living creatures i can't do that because i know the symbol suggested something poisonous i don't want to pour that in with the fish. i mean if you don't you're going to take that for daddy let's find out what the catch is it's right here. ok then ok maybe not. but won't do it why not because they're animals they're living creatures
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series and this is what i've been asked maybe the same thing happens when clothes are manufactured but you don't see it it's not like you're doing it yourself. all just panic mongering. the high street stores would no doubt see it that way times have changed they say the production of their clothing is now sustainable. it came from fate. and say it's water. we want to know the truth. we begin with is it a family in the town of met money in western germany that fairly typical shoppers then invents in terms of sports labels. mom and dad just want to be well dressed for their daughter sophia fashion is very important. we want to look at the process he's. because. did you know it takes an average of 6
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liters of water and die to color just one long sleep top die that us packed full of chemicals. so that down so bad plants and animals could die on some of the 50 feet of it's really a lot when you think of the masses of clothes that are made and how much water that consumes on the waste water that results in it. but there's more waste water to come the top still needs to be rented and that's just one item what if they add up all their clothes. each one weighs the contents of the closet because in practice the calculations are done in kilos every kilo requires 20 liters of water because it's unlimited so far i've got 30 kilos of clothing. that is not i don't wear many of these things too small for me but i think one day maybe i'll fit
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into them again. because things add up over the years it's mum who has the most clothes the family wardrobe weighs in that nearly 200 kilos we'll rounded up with some clothes are in storage and others are in the wash sophia calculates a total of $520.00 tubs of water and die and that's just one fan. what happens to that waste will. we pay a visit to bangladesh the world's 2nd biggest textile producer after china bashing the ash is said to have significantly modernized its production methods but only after disaster struck and for 2013 the mana plaza factory collapsed killing over 1100 people allegations surfaced that many factories cut corners on safety to satisfy international demands for cheap currents western companies who have the goods made here felt compelled to take action. many join the act initiative
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commissioning only to work with factories that meet standards on wages safety and the environment. the bangladesh garment association lists factories that meet the required standards. we visited one of them never capital dhaka. the mattel a factory produces clothes for brands such as c.n.a. h. and m. and sour all according to strict environmental standards the company tells us they made a major investment. from all side we need to. give a 4 to the new generation for the future. ranjan committed his modern water purification system. instead of pumping the waste water from the dying process into the river its 1st purified but has it paid off for the factory. this is very unfortunate yes we are not getting any single penny added this is this
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should be different actually from the buyers point of view should add because this is the green factory. we. invested a lot of. what in the company's customers have to say about us. see in a confirms what we were told in the tale of all investments must be calculated by the factories and reflected in the prices charged for the products. h. and m. refused to tell us what percentage of the cost that passed to ensure production standards here are environmentally friendly zara didn't apply to. the western brands make demands but it's the factories in bangladesh that bear the cost. and is the system even working we decided to take a closer look at the rivers in dhaka. by the dallas warry river we need chairman and his team some of the last fishermen here. they tell us that
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the fish have long since disappeared from other rivers and that even here there's very little left since the textile factories arrived they say more than 4000 fisherman have been put out of work it turned out years ago the water was good for thousands of fish since the factories arrived it's got bad. no fish no money and not enough to eat. many people here have virtually nothing. and it's not only the fishing industry that's taking a hit we're on our way to see an environmental activist who explains moon. to mars and tells us that the repercussions of the pollution are huge our people's lives depends on what can start with them to help with the harvest of the water to the build up of the lens of the soil the overall picture to the whole country all the way but it's all the details i have been polluting materials there and making the
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girl still be held hell they're still the people. the fishermen want to show us the cool. the problem waste water pipes from the textile factories we see them everywhere emptying straight into the river. the water looks dirty and gives off a strong chemical. we take samples at random locations both on the dot us worry and another river we want to get the water tested for having metals and have the oxygen content checked. but we're not optimistic these bubbles coming to the surface are found smelling gases. 2 weeks later back in germany we have an appointment with the world wide fund for nature the test results confirm my suspicions the textile industry in bangladesh is poisoning the reverse. the idea for this complex toward the one with it is completely dead and the other almost
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dead in the case of the one sample the values are $100.00 times higher than what a river here in europe would have. them be at your patient in euro and let a sickly means that there's no oxygen left in it at all. so no a classic life can survive in the water plants and of course people shouldn't drink the water either and it needs thinking despite improvements in bangladesh the underlying problems have clearly not gone away in other parts of asia the textile industry also pumps as waste water into the rivers every day one day the rivers might be red another blue or purple. in many areas the ground water is not suitable for drinking purposes. and yet it gets used for cattle farming. and for growing fruit vegetables and other crops. some of which can end up in europe in supermarkets.
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inspectors from the european rapid let system for food and found produce from asia containing toxins. that are also found in the textile industry such as cadmium chromium and lead. it up and i didn't know that as there's also terrible odds it's all terribly naive and i guess if we're lucky we get produce grown in germany just like you not have heard of it but you know it's difficult with ginger where would you get that when you look at many girls in asia but experts are warning of a bigger problem the lack of clean water could destroy entire societies and make parts of the wild uninhabitable it's looked legal musée will be was full of the most and mass migration with people fleeing the fabric start as an international trade fair for the textile industry it attracts bias from all brands launching small much of what is on display here will be later sold by spray as all of
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a diesel and buy discount has like little here to link on to a lot of green slogans we need to put it but you have to supply you have to make profits look or this is a no children push generation here are those to get to know what to do drink. orders whole being excited about being close and that's what we do. but does this match reality. has your controller he spent years working in fashion management now he's a university professor he says it's still money that drives the industry and he now it has a green sheen. or the name hummock on stuff companies realize that this is a market with a future and their green products are ones that appear to be green can increase sales will go forward now how disgusting ability has become a business model and it has very little to do with the idea of consuming less and being more responsible with our resources and have to communicate that to. an
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unsettling forward because the use of dyes is king for the world of fashion the textile industry produces 20 percent of the. world waste water that makes it the 2nd biggest consumer and pollution of water. but why is so little changing and bangladesh for example after all numerous factories say they've cleaned up their act we talked to one economist who studied the country's textile industry. these types of factories are very limited in number at their so far and majority of the factories are still using raw materials from textiles which are not comply with the environmental standards. even companies that install water treatment systems don't always use them as they're expensive to run one of the fear of these factories is that if one factory follow and other fact it doesn't
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follow goals which doesn't follow will be profitable bitter profitable very those which follow so that easy dilemma among the factories that the others would get benefit because of devin's of the law. so when western clothing brands talk about environmental standards and water treatment it doesn't necessarily mean much working to visit a factory that isn't using a water treatment system but doesn't take long to track one down we book an appointment. to curious to know what clothing brand is the factor it works with. this is the owner of the business we tell him where design is from germany he shows us his factory and his water treatment system which is switched off. and yet there are plenty of fabrics being died in. the directive doesn't see it as a problem he wants to discuss details of a business deal a deal that isn't actually allowed. manufacturers that want to export to the west
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are supposed to be listed with the bangladesh exporters association which in turn ensure. as labor and environmental standards are upheld. but the factory owner knows a workaround if we simply have to sign a contract with a different company which unlike his is a member of the association it will then pass the order on to him we do that all the time he says. later we learned that the authorities have officially shut down the style house for violating environmental standards clearly to no effect since the factory continues to pollute. yet. back in germany we still have no proof that efficiently shuttered factory could actually pull off the proposed workaround. but then we get a message from the diehards it looks like burma business includes the name of the other factory that were to sign the contract with. each other. that was
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called sham october garments ltd. that's the good company the one that allegedly has a certificate for europe. and sure enough the company is listed with a textile association and fulfills all the requirements for labor standards and environmental regulations on its web site we find a list of the international customers that it works with. these include taco and and things family. the factory looks exemplary so we'll go for a dirty deal we asked for a quotation of 5000 pairs of pants and mention the diehards we visited in bangladesh. shock to reply saying they worked with all the any little tin and yes the dealers no problem shocked a mood so the pants but the factory made visited will die the fabric without
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a functioning movie treatment system and officially shut down by the authorities. at this point we break up the deal. the problem has become clear. western clothing brands may say that they only work with certified companies but from an importer and from a supplier that and stings family garments are only tied and processed in certified dye houses. tucker confirms that supplier does indeed cooperate with illegal di houses but allegedly not when it comes to garments for tucker our supplies are checked every 3 months and their suppliers at least once a year. the companies deny all involvement in unsound business practices but as out sperm it showed the system can easily be exploited. and the art of struggling fisherman the pollution rivers any assessment we received from experts
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it's clear that happens a lot. it doesn't help that the big western brands pressure the factories to keep their prices low. on the name countries not every company can resist the pressure observer shadow your accounting practices lying and deceit become widespread. just all the producers can keep going and still retain their certification. or tell by the english that says i'm. back to the cedar family. so they know now that dying clothes involves toxic chemicals but is it really necessary to die so much stuff it depends on how much trading meaning we set up a symbolic closet made up of 10 boxes each ponce represents 10 percent of the wardrobe so what percentage of they would drive to most germans where i regularly. whatever's easiest think. the family soon comes to
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a decision people don't actually need that much they reckon 3 boxes that's about 30 percent in reality it's just 20. and that means that 80 percent of clothes in the closet and not. we all tend to wear things we like if i buy something what are the chances all wear it given how much i already have and look at what them for. now we ask busy just to clear out their closets we begin sophia's room. ok if you go out if you have a lot of clothes. i put a lot of it i don't wear anymore i think you know i think you need to wear out a few things 1st you're constantly buying new clothes you can possibly wear all the things you have here. that's why i've sorted them out. we tell each one to checks with a closet do i wear that piece of clothing often or not so much. that
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only when. i will not all but it's what i wear often. i'm not about these things. knowing that but this is what i wear most and so on. the few things that he wears all the time after 3 or 4 days i said ok that pillow is dirty and needs washing he doesn't vary his clothes much so he doesn't need much. so we are scary want to pick up the things that they don't really need. and we take sophia spots with us for our fashion professor to have a look at. what does he think. of the good going to shoppers are clearly like shopping. these are meant to be read to me. but in your brain is infinite and these are the young people of course tend to go
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for extremely cheap clothes. german market is very much divided on cost but we mustn't forget that on average every german spends $900.00 euros a year on clothes that spread of course across the different regions and levels of income that we are. true in europe through much of the british consume more than we do so we're not exactly role models when you look at the global comparison or even when you compare us to other big industrial nations. we're actually the victims of our own prosperity that we have nothing better to do than go shopping. so if we're the victims who are the perpetrators could they be here in the shopping malls the clothing chains with that constant cycle of new styles and cut price bargains. clothing industry sales have doubled since the year 2000 and. one of the reasons. the entire process from initial design to sewing dying and
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rinsing in asia to a sale here in germany can now take as little as $12.00 to $14.00 days that allows fashion giants like zara to bring out a whopping $24.00 new collections a year the latest trends every 2 weeks. this also increases the pressure on manufacturers an asia we're on our way to another factory in bangladesh with a long standing tradition the owner has been in the textile business for 30 years leaving dyeing selling and mixing monetize him says there are now knots of regulations and he fulfills them all but he also says it's getting increasingly difficult because his western buyers drive a hot dog and. the men doing these all of safety we need extra money everybody every day but from the bottle sight everybody sees on the big news there. price and lust $5.00 to
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$6.00 yes the degree is their prize. he shows us orders from one customer it's a major company that operates in germany too but to avoid repercussions we've agreed not to share the name. he gets 27 percent less money now than he did 3 years ago for the same order they were in interment big give me one. should meet their target price others will not get the order so sometimes. we. definitely we can move their rights but some sometimes we have given laws we take theirs. in those cases he makes a loss but can at least pay his workers the workers that the western companies are allegedly so concerned about. so we ask the companies what they pay in mandurah
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dash. h. an abscess the h. and m. group pays no less than it did in previous years. right we cannot affirm that our purchasing prices have gone down generally. c.n.a. says the prices paid for c.n.n. garments produced in bangladesh have dropped slightly. but the company argues that it now does more than previously and has invested in training in bangladesh we got no reply at all from all the little primer sarra ok. perhaps for good reason we consult european statistics and figures put out by the bandra dish text an association both confirm a clear downward trend in wholesale prices for every $100.00 kilos of clothing companies now pay 57 dollars less than in 2014 that's according to your us that prices are being pushed down in bangladesh and as a result close now cost less here in germany than they did 10 years ago. so how
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much can we buy for 50 euro we'll take the things back afterwards we go shopping at 4 big clothing chains each time now 50 euros takes us on long way. primal comes on top. trees question is one of scarcity and 3 tears of pants. the others also bring in between $4.00 and $7.00 garments for 15 year olds. no wonder our closets full. final question to visitors. what percentage of new clothes do they think ends up in the garbage within one year. benny invents and think it's about 4 or 5 boxes what 40 or 50 percent of the parents guessed that in germany about 30 percent of new clothing is discarded within a year. in reality it's actually 60 percent. it would
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have i know it was when you look at ation m. or else when see how many clothes they have you want to who's going to wear the money if you have to ask why the textile industry doesn't just produce less. and why they can't estimate more accurately how much will actually be sold that look that. the 60 percent includes overproduction and faulty goods that never go on sale . textile be something fans are drowning in clogs this one alone receives 70 tons of stuff every day from across germany much of it is any suitable for cleaning ranks or ends up in the incinerator as the quality is too poor to the office if it does begin i'm but it's obvious that people just aren't thinking anymore about where their clothes come from how is it being produced are the working conditions fair and sustainable. experts say that even if new production ceased in tiny we would still have enough to clothe the entire global population from $10.00 to
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$15.00 and. just insecure has worked here for nearly 20 years and news with a glance what's worth recycling. stuff more than if you know you have highly fashionable items this jacket is new. to the times children's clothes the cheapo brick brand new zine or clothes like these hugo boss parent seconds or support letting us from another well known brand. you find yourself thinking oh well just great that we benefit from the stuff like that but if people are buying things and then throwing them away without ever having worn out. every they're just too well off easy. almost no. hand. it doesn't mean we have to stop loving fashion or nice clothes it just means that when we treat ourselves to
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something new we need to appreciate that dissolution is to value what we hatch to buy less and as a result to waste less. to safeguard the future of our planet. and the people living in countries like bangladesh. does fast food make our break. what we eat in the. decisions. us healthy food make us last. we're beginning to realize before that what we eat that influencing what's going on on our blog. better brace.
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this is the deputy news live from berlin a new migration crisis for europe with the backing of turkey's president is letting thousands of migrants also stir torrie to try to enter the e.u. but they're running into a border that's close and defended by greek and bulgarian border guards also want to show. the new etiquette to contain the coronavirus germany's interior minister is not shaking hands with anyone as a country moves to lay down the best practices for keeping the virus affect.

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