All language subtitles for Riverblue(2017).en

[♪♪♪]

[Mark Angelo]:
My dad, in the late '60s,

brought home
a photograph of Earth

as seen from outer space,

and I was so impressed by it,

but one, it made me realize,
in the overall scheme of things,

that our planet is quite small
and quite finite.

The other thing
that was very noticeable

is, I mean,
clearly it's a blue planet,

but of all the water
on this Earth,

97% is saline,
it's in the oceans,

2% is locked up in ice.

That only leaves us 1%

that's found
in lakes and rivers,

and a lot of that water
is not accessible.

So really,
when you talk about it,

when you really
you come down to it,

we have a very small
amount of water,

and that's got to accommodate,

ot only the needs
that humans have,

for drinking water,

but it's got to accommodate all of those other
needs, agricultural needs, industrial needs,

so I think we have
to treat water

in a much more respectful way,

I think we have to treat rivers
in a much more respectful way,

than we have in the past.

[Kumi Naidoo]:
The wars of the future

Will not be fought about oil.

The wars of the future is going
to be fought about water.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]

[Narrator]: China: with more

than 1.3 billion people, this is
the most populous country on Earth.

The stress to supply clean water
is almost insurmountable,

as their rivers
are flowing disaster zones.

Worldwatch Institute wrote

that 70% of China's lakes
and rivers are contaminated,

which leaves little fresh water
for the people who rely on them.

China has gone through a major transformation.
Once an impoverished farming-reliant country,

it has now morphed into
"The Factory of the World."

No other country exports
more goods than China does,

but that came at a high price.

The widespread dumping
of toxic chemicals

has poisoned rivers
and groundwater.

Environmental issues in China.

You know, water pollution

is damaging
the freshwater biodiversity,

but more than that,

it's also creating
such a big public health risk.

You know, potentially now

we have hundreds of millions
of people

exposed to water pollution.

[Narrator]:
Ma Jun is one of China's

Most prominent
environmental activists.

He was named

one of the 100 most influential
persons in the worldby Time magazine.

Ma's book, titled
"China's Water Crisis,"

was that country's first book

focusing on China's
pollution problem.

So many people
live along the rivers,

and in those countrysides,
you know,

when the rivers
got contaminated,

they would dig a well,

and then the shell aquifer easily got contaminated,
then we started seeing people getting sick,

and then the extraordinarily
high rate of cancer

and other diseases
cropped up, you know,

cancer villages cropped up
along those rivers.

And acknowledged as, you know,
having unusually high cancers

associated
with poor water quality.

They do have problems
with drinking water supply,

with blue-green algal toxins,

so there's a high incidence
of liver cancers

that are associated with that.

[Tianjie Ma]: It's always
a disturbing experience

looking at these pictures,

so sometimes I choose
not to look at them too often,

but you have to go there
and you have to document them,

otherwise these people's voice
doesn't get heard,

and they need people to be aware

that the cost of development
that China is suffering from.

[Bunn]: The approach that's been
taken in China up until now

Has been, you know,

firstly focused on development
and the economy, and that's been done
with a full acknowledgment

of what that will do
to the environment,

so I think a full understanding

that the environment
will pay the price of that,

and now they've reached
the point in that development

where acknowledging
the social and environmental

and the health problems
associated with it,

ow is the time to act.

[Tianjie]:
Recently we have big cities

Where their whole
drinking water source

are being threatened
by pollution.

You have, in past years,
several cases

where, like, cities
with several million population

Because they fear that
their drinking water source

is being contaminated.

[Bunn]: They've gone through
a very, very rapid stage

Of industrialization,

so, you know,
in the last 40-50 years,

we've seen massive
industrialization,

a lot of hydropower development,

and a lot of industries
developing

without adequate
pollution control,

cities that are growing
at an incredible rate,

so, you know, the number
of cities of millions of people

has really expanded,

and so the waterways have taken
the brunt of that development,

and as you can imagine,

many of them
are in an appalling state.

[Narrator]:
In response to widespread

environmental
and health problems,

activists in China

focused their investigations
on water pollution, and discovered
one of the major sources

led them to the western markets,

with the fashion industry
as one of the key suspects

in the destruction
of China's lakes and rivers.

These activists
have produced campaigns

to create consumer awareness
on the issue.

These are toxic substances

released into our precious lakes
and rivers

by textile manufacturers,

just for printing and dyeing
our clothes.

Fashion is too beautiful to have
anything to do with this mess.

We're here to challenge it.

[Narrator]: Dhaka, the largest
city in Bangladesh,

and one of its dirtiest.

The toll of becoming

The world's second-leading
clothing exporter, after China,

can be seen and smelled

from the riverbanks
surrounding Dhaka.

Is one of the most polluted
rivers in the world,

and the manufacturers
of cheap clothing

can claim
some of this responsibility.

The outflow from Bangladesh's
garment and tannery industries

has contributed heavily

to what experts describe as
a water pollution catastrophe.

[Angelo]: Looking at the city,
what I have seen so far,

it's a sprawling city,

a huge city
of 15 million people,

sixth biggest in the world,

also I can see that pollution
is an issue here.

It was recently ranked

as the second worst city
to live in

from a quality of life
and environmental point of view,

and certainly things
like textiles and tanneries

are a part of that.

I do plan on getting
in the river in the days ahead,

I do plan
on visiting the tanneries,

and certainly it's my goal

to learn a lot more
about these issues.

[Narrator]: Mark Angelo,

A celebrated international
river conservationist

and member
of the Explorers Club,

is on a global expedition

taking him to some of
the most polluted rivers

around the world.

His goal is to document

the state of the waterways
of our planet,

and his research leads him
to Bangladesh,

where he is about to discover

the dark side
of the fashion industry.

[Angelo]: I had read a lot
about the Buriganga river.

I knew that it was

one of the most polluted rivers
on Earth.

This is an area,
and particularly, this river

is a place
that's heavily impacted

by the textile
and tannery sectors,

so I thought it was important
to come and see it

and get a feel
as to how it got to this state

and what could possibly be done
to turn things around.

And as I stand here,

When I catch the wind in the face,
the smell is unbelievably bad.

It's atrocious.

It's hard to imagine a stream
more polluted than this one.

About a third of the pollution
that comes into here is sewage,

most of the sewage in the city
is untreated,

but about two thirds
of the pollution here

is all from the tanneries
up river,

it's all industrial pollution,
chemicals, heavy metals,

so this waterway is so polluted
it cannot sustain any life,

and the pollution gets so bad
during the dry season

that there are parts
of this canal

that you can literally
light on fire.

Who speak out

against the government
and factory owners

who are ignoring costly
environmental regulations,

but there are some who take
pollution very seriously.

One such man is Pinaki Roy.

As the deputy chief reporter
for Dhaka's Daily Star,

Pinaki's beat
is the environment,

but his passion
is for the river.

[Roy]:
I have passion for them.

I was born here
and grown up here.

I love rivers.

Well, people
who live by the river,

they really feel sad
about the situation,

about the condition
of the river now,

so they say,
"Can't you do something

so that the river
is clean again?"

[Narrator]:
Pinaki investigates in areas

where textile companies
group together

behind high brick walls.

It's here where he gathers
evidence of rampant pollution.

While companies make it
difficult to see what's going on

in their guarded compounds,

tell-tale channels
all lead to outflows

that release toxic liquids

straight into the rivers
surrounding the city.

[Roy]: There are hundreds
of thousands

of garments industries
in Dhaka City,

and those industries basically,
you know,

discharging their pollution,
you know, everywhere,

so now, every part of the city,

you go to the river,
and you'll find it polluted.

This is
all the untreated effluent

Coming from the garments
and dyeing industries

and directly
going into the river.

This water is so toxic,
there is no aquatic life,

And local communities,

they cannot use this water
anymore.

They have set up industries
for years,

but they have never set up ETP,
effluent treatment plant,

so it is not
that they don't have money,

it is all about intention.

They don't have intention
about clean environment,

so that's why they don't do it.

They should respect the river,
but they don't.

They are doing this
just to increase their profit.

[Angelo]:
One of my very first days,

I walked down
and I found a boatman

and I asked him if he would
take me out on the river,

and he was happy to,

but getting out on the river
was a real eye-opener,

and it was depressing.

The colour of the water
was ink black.

The water
also had a thickness to it,

and as our oar
cut through the water,

it the water literally rolled,
almost like heavy oil.

The river was more chemical
than water.

On my journey
over the last couple of years,

I've seen so many rivers
that are so, so polluted.

Probably the Buriganga, though,

is the most polluted
of the rivers I've seen.

Some of the things

that I observed
while floating the river,

just looking at the water,
feeling the texture of it,

the smell of it,

knowing it was totally off, totally
unnatural... that saddens me deeply.

[Narrator]: Much of Dhaka's
pollution problem

emanates
from this area of the city,

Hazaribagh,

home to more than 200 tanneries.

This is ground zero
for a lot of toxic waste.

Raw material enters through
the doors of the tanneries

to be transformed
into wide swaths of leather

that will be shipped
out of the country

and used in the manufacturing
of shoes, purses,

and other leather goods.

What ends up
on the fashion runways

and in many of our own closets

has its noxious beginnings

in this filthy section
of the city.

I probably won't have
to go to Hell

to find out how it looks.

If one goes
to Hazaribagh tannery,

that would tell you probably
how Hell looks like.

[Narrator]:
Syeda Rizwana Hasan

is Bangladesh's
chief environmental lawyer.

[Hasan]: Dhaka has been ranked

as the second most uninhabitable
cities of the world,

and this extremely hazardous
export-oriented industry

is actually contributing

to that process
of making Dhaka uninhabitable.

I would say even 15 years back,
the river water was usable.

You could still
boat on the river

without having that bad smell.

We saw a living river,

what is now being described
as a biologically dead river,

and what is more frustrating
for us to see

is, despite all the movements
to save the river,

despite the court coming forward
to protect the river,

the condition of the river
is deteriorating

with each passing day.

[Roy]: If you visit those rivers
in any day,

you'll find
that different colour,

you know, blue, red, black,

all directly going to the river.

[Narrator]:
Pinaki Roy is following a lead

on a story he's working on,

taking him inside
one of the tanneries

in the Hazaribagh area.

Normally, cameras
are not allowed in,

but by focusing on Pinaki,
the reporter,

we're able to capture
a seldom-seen view

of what goes on

behind the walls of a typical
tannery operation.

Who have been dealing
with those chemicals directly,

they are touching
those chemicals in bare hands,

without any gloves.

A lot of underage children,
like below 18,

they work here,

and many of them do not have
even boots, gloves.

They complain a lot,

but they think
this is their fate.

Now, see?

Now they have a tea break,
like, a working break, so after the break,

they are having their, you know,
little snacks

in bare hands
without proper cleaning,

so in this way,

maybe they consume
a lot of chemicals. I have been doing this
for a few years now,

and time to time
I keep on visiting,

and I feel it's awful.

This is the heart
of the tanning district,

widely viewed as being

one of the most polluted
places on Earth,

and there are chemicals
everywhere.

I smell chemicals,
it totally pervades the air,

I feel like
I'm breathing them in.

My throat burns,
I feel it in my eyes,

so this is not
a healthy place to be,

and yet there are 180,000 people
that live around here,

almost 20,000 work here
in the tanneries

and get exposed to this
every day.

[Hasan]: If you go
to the Hazaribagh tannery,

if you see how people
are living there,

there are small children

who are passing through
the tannery area every day

to go to the school,

and they have lost their sensory adaptation.
They can't smell anymore. It's totally gone.

The physicians say people
often come to them with gastric,

with ulcers, with chest pain,

and obviously with skin diseases
and some diseases like cancer,

Local people won't complain,

because they know
that even if they complain,

there is hardly any relief,

but I think the consumers
have a big role to play there,

because your consumption pattern

doesn't have
to be responsible only,

you have to make sure
that it's not exploitative.

[Narrator]:
Big box retailers from the West

Look to Bangladesh

for low cost/high output leather products and clothing.
The cost in human suffering producing cheap clothing

has been well documented,

but for global brands

that buy clothing
from Bangladeshi factories,

pollution rarely
gets the same attention

as workplace conditions,

and local environmentalists

say global buyers
have done far too little.

[Roy]: Accidents happened
in the garment sector,

like a Rana Plaza accident

where more than
1,000 people died.

After that, I found in Twitter,
in social media, you know,

a lot of criticism against
those, you know, retailers,

who are buying from Bangladesh,

who are buying
from those garments,

so there are
a lot of criticisms,

and I would say, you know,

the buyer from the West,
he wants cheaper clothes.

He cannot, you know,
pollute our environment.

Buying these cheap clothes,
they are also responsible,

because they are pushing
these industries

for more and more
cheaper clothes.

This is a question of ethics.

They are not caring
about the environment.

There are some
who just want to, you know,

make their production costs
cheaper and cheaper.

For producing low-cost jeans,
shirts, t-shirts,

people around the world
buy them,

but the reality is
that low-cost clothing

has a very high cost
attached to it.

Look at what we've seen

from both an environmental
and public health perspective,

it's a calamity,

and this kind of disaster
is something that I've seen

on river after river
after river,

so once again
I think a key point

is that there is often
a very high cost

attached to low-cost clothing.

[Hasan]: Just because you want
to get something

At a lower price

doesn't mean you would allow
a precious resource like a river

Doesn't mean
you would allow people

to die
in some other part of the world

because they don't have

a regular health
monitoring system, and you would never know

that by buying something
at a lower price,

you are actually contributing

to the death, illness,
suffering of people

in some other part
of this world.

If people of Bangladesh
do not have water tomorrow,

They'll have
to find another place

to go where they'll have water,

which means
that we'll have to migrate out,

which means
that the rest of the world

will also be disturbed

if we are disturbed
in this very small country, and everyone
has a responsibility

to protect the mother Earth.

If I am an environmentalist,

I can't say I care only
about the rivers of Bangladesh.

I have to care
about the rivers of the world.

[Angelo]: These are conditions

that the workers there have to live with
every day, so you can't help but wonder

the toll that's taking
on their health,

and I don't think
it was a coincidence

that we did not see
very many older people

working in the tanneries.

I think if you have to work
with those chemicals every day,

in those conditions every day,

I think that's the recipe
for a much shorter life.

[♪♪♪]

[Narrator]: India, a nation
of extreme contrasts,

with some of the most sacred,
and dirtiest,

rivers in the world.

It's difficult to imagine today,

But for some farmers who live
on the banks of the Ganges,

there was a time
in living memory

when the water in the river
was clean enough to drink.

Today, the rivers
they revere as goddesses

are in severe decline.

Some of India's greatest rivers
begin as pristine water sources,

but not far downriver,
they become open flowing sewers.

One of the key issues

is what to do with the excrement of about 600
million people who are defecating in the open.

Studies have found
that untreated sewage

is the single
most important source

of water pollution in India.

While more
than half a billion people

rely on one of its
most holy rivers, the Ganges,

they also contribute
to its abuse

in the most elemental way.

[Angelo]:
Varanasi is an amazing city.

It's known as the eternal city.

It embodies
the essence of Hinduism,

and because of its
close proximity to the Ganges,

it's a very well-known
pilgrimage site.

More than a million pilgrims
come here every year.

Some come to take a holy dip
at this location

to cleanse their soul,
cleanse them of their sins.

Others come
to spend their final days here.

They'll die here

and have their ashes
scattered in the river in the belief

that that will aid in their path
towards heaven.

It will liberate the soul
and free them

from that never-ending
cycle of reincarnation.

This city has
an incredible spiritual energy,

and nowhere else on Earth

does life, death, and religion
blend so seamlessly.

I've always loved India,
I've been here many, many times,

but I've always
been disappointed

in the state
of the Ganges river.

It's a river that I have come
to know really well,

I've been to the headwaters,
I've been to the mouth,

I've paddled or travelled
along much of the rest of it.

It's not the biggest river
in the world,

it's not the longest,

but it may be
the most venerated,

particularly
by the 500 million people

that live within its basin.

[Sunita Narain]:
I think it's when faith,

Which is very powerful,

becomes your weakness.

I mean, there is no doubt

that the Ganga has tremendous
self-cleaning capacities;

It's why there is
such a sense of the fact

that this is a river
which can regenerate itself,

It is also something
that we have to accept

that that river is polluted.

We have defiled it
beyond its cleansing abilities,

and that we have to clean it up,

and it's crying
that it needs cleaning up.

[Narrator]:
Religion and science

Are uncomfortable bedmates
in India.

To live by the Ganges
and see obvious pollution

doesn't sway those who believe

in the river's ability
to cleanse itself.

Religious men,

who hold great influence with India's population,
believe in the river's purity and sing its praises,

while environmentalists
hope their influence

would be used
to convince more people

to clean up the river.

[singing]

[Narain]: I think it's
the people who hold the faith

that must talk to people
and make them understand

that yes, the river

has intrinsic
self-cleansing abilities,

and we have faith

that the river
is the most important being,

but yet, we as a modern society
have even breached

its own abilities
to clean itself,

and we have
to do something about it,

and you have to be able
to bring science into religion.

The fact is,

if you have dissolved oxygen
levels of zero, the river is dead,
call it what you want.

You just haven't
officially cremated it,

but it's dead.

[Narrator]: Allahabad.

Nowhere in the world
is faith exhibited

more than in this city.

Here at the confluence
of the Yamuna and Ganges rivers,

110 million people gather
to celebrate the Kumbh Mela.

[Narain]: We are a country
which holds rivers sacred,

and yet we are
committing hydrocide.

We are deliberately
murdering our rivers.

And if you worship nature,

then the last thing
that you can do

is to defile it or degrade it.

[Avikal Somvanshi]:
We are going for Kumbh Mela.

It's happening today,
and it's massive.

Like, last Kumbh Mela in 2001

saw a crowd
of almost 70 million people

turn up during the festival.

Each of the bathing days
which have passed,

the crowd has been
15% to 25% more

than what they had estimated,

so we're going to,
most probably,

we are going to have
20 million, 25 million today.

Of this size and scale
anywhere in the world, okay?

I think it's important
to understand that they come

because they worship the river,
they celebrate the river.

Growing up,
Kumbh was something spectacular,

Something
which my city is known for.

It's the biggest gathering
of human beings on Earth.

As I have aged now,

I have realized that excitement

was actually
a kind of fear which I harbour,

'cause the things
I had to live with,

before the Kumbh started
and after the Kumbh finished,

is something which is
nothing to be proud of.

[♪♪♪]

Which is called Sangam,

where the Ganges
and the Yamuna meet,

so it's that area

where all the activities
are surrounded.

[Narain]:
It's time, in India,

that we did
some very serious stock-taking

about what's going wrong

and why are we,
a generation of Indians,

becoming a generation
which is losing, to my mind,

its most sacred asset, a river.

[Angelo]: The Kumbh Mela
is this spectacle,

this great celebration
of the Ganges River,

and the fact
that all the human waste

from the 100 million
visitors there at present

is allowed to seep into the soil
or flow directly into the river,

I think that's wrong.

I love this country,
I love the culture,

I love the customs, the colours,
even the chaos,

but I've always been saddened

about the state
of the Ganges river,

particularly knowing
that it is revered so much

and it is worshipped
as a goddess,

and it seems
like a bit of a disconnect

that it can be worshipped
on one hand,

and we can allow her
to get so polluted on the other.

For them, the river is still
a goddess and still holy,

O matter
what is flowing in the river.

You'll tell them
the river is getting polluted,

they'll say yes, the river
is getting polluted,

it's very dirty,
the water is so bad,

but risking your own salvation
by avoiding to do the ritual

Is something
they cannot fathom with.

The Kumbh is a tough one,

But, I mean,
I take back from it. I mean, I'm a...

I mean, I'm a Hindu,

but not the one who would
go to the river for rituals,

more for the beauty of it,

but I take back with it
enormous awe,

and the river means so much
to so many people in my country,

and I think
that is what is beautiful.

[Narrator]:
On a day like this,

When three times the population
of New York City

gathers on the river's banks,

the government has ordered
cities upstream

to stop polluting the Ganges

so that the faithful

will have a clean river
to bathe in.

Kanpur, a city of four million,

Is among the world's
top 10 cities

with the worst air pollution,

and is the second most polluted
city in India.

It's the leather capital
of the region,

And the tanneries
have been ordered

to shut down
during the Kumbh Mela,

and, for the most part,
they have.

Today being
one of the main bathing days,

this drain seems to be closed,

but after the main bathing days,

it will be as usual.

You can see the black viscous
chemicalized water

going to the river.

[Narrator]:
The tannery district,

established
along the Ganges river

during
the British colonial rule,

is Kanpur's economic mainstay

and a major source of pollution.

[Jaiswal]: Kanpur hosts 400-odd
leather factories and tanneries,

and these tanneries
use dyes, acids,

basic chrome sulfate,

other heavy-metal
containing chemicals,

and the wastewater they generate

is a cocktail of these chemicals

which are lethal to human health
and other life also.

[Narrator]: Zafar Lari owns
a mid-sized tannery in Kanpur,

And while he understands

that the tannery district
may be suffering

from a poor reputation
among environmental groups,

he also believes that
it's a perception not deserved,

and he denies that
any of his tannery wastewater

runs into the Ganges.

I think they have
some misconceptions,

misunderstanding,

It is about more than
three kilometres far from here.

It is impossible
to send a drop of water

directly to the Ganges.

[Jaiswal]: This is a mixture
of tannery wastewater.

It contains
a variety of chemicals,

the same chemicals

which are used by leather
factories and tanneries.

I believe the water
that comes from the tannery area

is not with the effluent
from the industry.

It could be...

I hope it could be
domestic waste.

It is quite impossible

the water should directly
goes anything from the Ganges.

It is impossible.

First we have a drain system,
then we have a channel system,

then we have the municipal water
discharge system...

It is quite impossible.

Exactly it is impossible.
We can say that.

[Narrator]: At the edge
of the tannery district

Sits a holding area

containing streams and ponds filled with noxious
liquids. From this area, large pipes shoot out

and run for many miles,

heading towards
the Ganges river.

This water is being put
into this irrigation canal.

It irrigates
around 2,500 hectares of land,

And you can see

that this water
is not properly treated

and is not safe for irrigation.

In every family,

you will find someone afflicted

with some kind
of a skin problem,

ranging from rashes, boils,
numbness in the limbs.

It also contains
known carcinogen chromium,

so maybe people have cancers.

Chromium has been reported
in cattle milk

and also agricultural produce,

so this heavy metal
has entered the food chain

and is finally reaching us

and affecting
the health of the people.

[Narrator]:
This stretch of the river

is extremely contaminated,

but life in the villages
sitting on its banks

goes on as usual.

While filming there,

We observed
a man poling his boat to shore.

His small craft was filled
with a couple hundred fish.

He told us
he had found his catch

just floating
on top of the river.

Newspapers reported
that the dead fish

were the result
of a chemical spill

into the river earlier that day.

The man was cleaning the fish
to feed his family,

and took the rest of his catch

to sell at the local market
that afternoon.

[Angelo]: When a river has been
so polluted or so abused

for many, many years,

you can't turn it around
overnight.

I look at a country like India,

I look at this river
we are on now.

It's going to be a huge
challenge to turn this around.

There are huge issues

pertaining to sewage and industrial
pollution, and on a river like the Ganges,

I think the young generation
that's coming along,

I believe in the years ahead,

they will have the same
reverence for this river

that their parents had,

but as part of that

I also think they'll see
an obligation

to have a cleaner Ganges.

[♪♪♪]

[Narrator]: The Zambezi,
a true life-giving river,

worthy of its reputation

of being one of the great rivers
of the world.

Mark Angelo
has made the trip here before,

a far different river
than the Ganges,

and a place he finds
rejuvenates his soul;

a nice reminder
of what he works towards

for all rivers.

[Angelo]: The thing I love
about the Zambezi

is the diversity,

and the wildlife here
is incredibly prolific.

Animals gather in huge numbers
beside the river

and often right in the river,

and to see all of that
from a canoe, up close,

virtually at water level,

is an unforgettable experience,

so in many ways,

I look particularly at this
part of the Zambezias an example of
what a river can and should be.

[Narrator]: Mark Angelo is
an internationally celebrated

River conservationist

and the founder
of World Rivers Day,

an event held to clean rivers

in more than 60 countries
around the world.

The United Nations
has recognized his work

protecting what Mark calls

"the vital arteries
of this planet."

Mark often mentions that rivers
run through his soul,

in a journey that began

as a young boy
growing up in Los Angeles.

[Angelo]: I grew up with
an interesting background.

My parents were very much
involved in old Hollywood,

the movie industry,

and it was a...

you know, Hollywood
was a fascinating place

to grow up in the '50s,

but my interest
took me elsewhere.

You know, I happened to live
by the Los Angeles River,

a river that had been destroyed
in many ways,

totally encased
in a big concrete culvert,

and I used
to hang out there a lot,

but I didn't have to be very old
before I realized

that's not the way
a river was meant to be.

On the other side of the coin,
though,

we lived right next door
to a place called Griffith Park.

It was a 4,000-acre urban oasis,

a wild oasis
in the middle of the city,

and I could go out my door
across the street

and be up in the hills
and just hike for hours,

and I got to know

a lot of the small creeks
and streams there,

so by the time I was 15 or 16, I was really into the outdoors.
Then I went, at the age of 17, to the University of Montana,

and I got into fly fishing
and paddling

in a very big way,

and that cemented things for me,

and at that stage,

I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life
working in a field related to river conservation.

As I got older,

I started to look at rivers
in a much broader way for the many values
they possess,

and now I look at them

as literally life-lines
in the broadest sense,

and at this stage of my life,
whenever I'm on a river,

it does much to rejuvenate
my spirit and my soul,

and the world
seems a saner place.

[Narrator]:
Jakarta, a city of 28 million,

the capital of Indonesia.

Cosmopolitan,

with wide avenues and top-of-the-line
shopping, Jakarta is also at the headwaters

of one of the most polluted
rivers in the world,

the Citarum.

This river of garbage
is a shameful example

Of mankind's inhumanity
to the environment,

and the crime largely
goes unpunished by law.

The Citarum was once
a gentle flowing river

where fishermen cast their nets,

pulling in a bounty
of healthy fish

that fed their families.

Today, it's a river in crisis,

choked by the domestic waste
of nine million people,

and thick with the castoffs

from hundreds of factories
along its banks.

It's hard to imagine

that 80% of the population
of Jakarta

relies on this river
for their drinking water.

This river bubbles
like a witch's cauldron

because of the pollution
that has sunk to the bottom

and is off-gassing.

More than 500 factories,

most of them producing textiles

which require
chemical treatment,

line the banks
of this 200-mile river,

spewing waste into the water.

Everybody has the right to know

what is being discharged
by a factory,

how much is being discharged,
per day, per year, per month.

This information is important

so we know what is in our water
and we can control it.

[Narrator]:
In Indonesia, researchers allege

The textile industry
is a major contributor

to the poor health
of the Citarum River.

In Citarum, it is well known

that there are a lot of
what we call anonymous pipes,

so this kind of pipe appears
in the middle of nowhere,

like this,
so the pipe is underground.

You can not really see

this factory that is dumping this,
and also it is a shared pipe,

making it even more difficult
to know who is the perpetrators.

[Narrator]: While the source
of this particular pipe

is cloaked in mystery,

these researchers
have had success

in uncovering what they call

"a criminal case
of water pollution."

These three were part
of a larger group

who spent two years

following a trail of pollution
on the Citarum River.

Environmental activists
collected samples of wastewater

discharged from the PT Gistex
factory in Bandung,

an area known
for its textile manufacturing.

[Meutia]: Before we actually
took samples,

We did field research

making sure that this pipe really belongs to the company. We
found that this company emits toxic material to the water.

[Narrator]: In a report titled

"Toxic Threads:
Polluting Paradise,"

Greenpeace has published a story

of big brands
and water pollution

in Indonesia.

In their report,

Greenpeace states that major international brands are
conducting business with suppliers such as PT Gistex,

who has been linked
to toxic water pollution

and murky business practices.

One of these brands, they write,
is Gap,

which Greenpeace states

has been linked
to toxic water scandals before.

Here in Indonesia,
we have a textile manufacturer

That is supplying for Gap,
and Gap is a global company,

And similar to other companies

that have been
linked to pollution

in other places in Asia,

we have made demands for them
to clean up the supply chain.

[Narrator]: We reached out

to Gap head office
in San Francisco

for a comment on their
connection to water pollution

and the PT Gistex factory
in Bandung.

They wrote back stating:

"As for your question
regarding PT Gistex,

we were alerted
to the Greenpeace report

on PT Gistex in Indonesia

and confirmed to Greenpeace

that we do not source
from their textile facility,

but that we do work
with the parent company,

PT Gistex Group.

We reiterated
to the parent company

the importance of adherence

to Gap Inc's
code of vendor conduct,

including provisions
regarding environmental health

and safety and chemical
restrictions,

as well as compliance
with Indonesian law.

Gap Inc. supports
additional initiatives

that are underway
to help conserve fresh water

and improve
the environmental performance

of dyeing
and finishing facilities."

We can't do too much
about history,

but let's make sure
moving forward

that the leaders
of the fashion industry,

the leaders of all industries
that engage in pollution,

are becoming
much more aggressive

in cleaning up their act,

and to ensure that
they do not have to make money

on the basis
of environmental destruction.

[♪♪♪]

[Narrator]:
China: this country has

some of the most beautiful
rivers in the world,

but also some of the most toxic.

[Angelo]: Major river systems
are often in pretty good shape

At the very top end,

but as they move down river,
they degrade.

They pick up
an increasing number

of pollutants and contaminants,

and that's very much the case

with the Li river
here in Guilin.

In its very upper reaches,

it's one of the cleaner
waterways in China,

but as it moves along,

it eventually merges
with the Pearl.

It then becomes
one of the most polluted.

Is a fundamental human need
and a basic human right,

and yet here in China,

two thirds
of its rural population,

almost 500 million people,

have to use water

that's been contaminated
by human or industrial waste,

so gastrointestinal cancer

is the number-one killer
here in the countryside.

Has been both a health crisis
and an environmental crisis

due to a shortage

of the one resource
that no one can live without,

and that's clean water.

[Bunn]:
There are rivers there

where the chemical oxygen demand

takes out all of the oxygen,

so, you know,
these are river systems

that have no dissolved oxygen.

There are levels
of metal contamination

and other industrial effluent

that make it impossible
for any living creature,

so there are certainly places

where all of the sort of
natural features are gone,

and the water is virtually
useless for all applications.

Get this bad?

It's a question environmental
campaigners in China

have asked their government
for many years.

We need to make them
strengthen the enforcement.

We need to have our court open

to public
environmental lawsuits,

but those are deep-rooted issues

which can not be overcome,

you know, easily,

so we decided
the public must participate.

We need to have
extensive public participation

to help address this issue.

[Narrator]: Environmental
activists have spent years

investigating the root causes
for China's river pollution,

but being in a Communist state,
they've had to tread lightly.

[Tianjie]:
When we do investigations,

we tend to be more careful

because our aim
is to get the problem exposed,

but if you alert
these polluters,

or make them aware
that you are investigating them,

they might take some action
to stop you.

[Narrator]: Tianjie Ma

And teams of toxic campaigners
throughout China have been at the forefront
of a long investigation

into the sources
of chemical substances

finding their way
into China's rivers.

They've discovered
the textile industry

is a major contributor
to China's river contamination.

[Tianjie]: You can find
a lot of carcinogens in it.

A lot of the carcinogens
are related to dye,

because the industry
uses a lot of dyes,

and also you find chemicals

that may disrupt
the hormone system.

We found chemicals
that are really nasty

that can change the sex
of a fish, for example,

and these kinds of chemicals
are still heavily used in China,

even if some of them

have already been banned
in Europe or in North America.

We also find chemicals
that are persistent,

which means when they get
released into the environment,

they don't break down,

and they travel
around the world,

so one toxic chemical

being released
by a Chinese textile factory

may travel half of the globe

and end up
in the Canadian Arctic,

where you can find it
in the body of a polar bear,

so these are the really nasty
toxic chemicals

that we are talking about.

[Ma]: The textile industry

Is one of the major sources
of water pollution in China.

Every year it discharges

about 2.5 billion tons
of wastewater,

and much of that
not properly treated.

I don't think the consumers,

when they enjoy
all these products,

they would know about this,

so what we need to do

is to try to go underground
with our partners,

through
this underground research,

to really bring out
the fact of the pollution

and all its impact.

[Narrator]: Investigations
proved that toxic chemicals

were being dumped
into China's rivers,

especially
by the textile companies.

The next step
was to connect the dots

and identify the companies
responsible for the pollution.

[Tianjie]: We started
to ask this question,

"Who is doing business?

Where do these products go?

Where do people
buy these products?"

So we started
this chain of custody study

where we are trying to track
where those products go.

We got links

that some of those products
are actually sold to the world's
biggest brand names,

like Nike, Adidas, Puma,

or fashion brands
like Zara, H&M.

We started to have this picture

that when China
is providing the whole world

with all that clothing,

at the same time
we are suffering

all the pollution
that is left behind,

so we found
this really astonishing fact,

so we started
to present all our findings

to the whole world.

We want to make people aware

that every single piece
of clothing that you buy

comes with a cost.

[Narrator]: Greenpeace
took an aggressive stance

Against fashion,

staging world-wide protests

and releasing reports

documenting
the pollution problem.

They set up a campaign

challenging some of
the biggest brands in fashion

to detox their products,

while hoping that consumers
would get the message

that some fashion comes with
a large environmental price tag.

The reason Greenpeace
started a detox campaign

was we found that
our rivers across the world

were being deeply impacted

by the dumping of poisonous
toxic material in our rivers,

done with absolutely
no regulation, no oversight,

and sadly, many of the products
that were being produced

Through this dirty polluting way
of producing fashion

was actually
the direct contributor

to massive amounts
of river contamination.

[Orsola de Castro]:
There is a joke in China.

They say that you can predict
the "it" colour for the season by looking
at the colour of the river,

you know, sort of
if they've dyed more yellow,

then that's what the river
will look like.

There is really
no way out of it,

and it is depressing
talking about it.

It does make you feel
very powerless

to a certain extent.

It's particularly scandalous

how long
it's been allowed to go on

and how little has been done

to highlight this problem
for future generations,

who are ultimately the ones
that will have to foot the bill

and really
suffer the consequences.

That are very, very hidden
and very secret.

I used to think "I wonder why."

I know why now,
because the damage is so huge,

the damage that they have done
is so huge,

but we will be demanding
to know who makes our clothes,

where do they come from,

what are they made out of,
increasingly, and the industry will have
to accommodate those demands.

[Narrator]: Taken as a whole,

The textile industry is a huge,
complex global entity, but if we focus
on one iconic consumer product,

it offers a snapshot
of how we all contribute

to the issue
of industrial water pollution.

Investigators,

as well as some who work
in the fashion industry,

have long known
the dirty little secret

behind the manufacturing
of blue jeans.

This iconic product

illustrates some of the most
visible and gross pollution

caused by overseas production,

but it wasn't always this way.

From the 1960s to the 1990s,
El Paso, Texas held the title

"blue jeans capital
of the world,"

producing almost two million
pairs of jeans per week.

Now, it's just a shell
of its former self.

The once mighty Rio Grande,
a great water resource,

ran directly through El Paso
before it began to dry up,

but the real impetus

to El Paso losing the blue jeans manufacturing
base was the signing of a free trade agreement

allowing clothing brands
to look further afield

for lower-cost labour
and production.

And the great question
of this day

is how to ensure security
for our people

at a time when change
is the only constant.

I believe
we have made a decision now

that will permit us

to create an economic order
in the world

that will promote more growth,
more equality,

better preservation
of the environment,

and a greater possibility
of world peace.

We are on the verge
of a global economic expansion

that is sparked by the fact

that the United States,
at this critical moment,

decided that we would compete,
not retreat.

In a few moments,

I will sign the North
AmericanFree Trade Act into law.

NAFTA will tear down
trade barriers

between our three nations.

It will create the world's
largest trade zone

and create 200,000 jobs
in this country by 1995 alone.

[Narrator]:
Soon after NAFTA's signing,

manufacturers left for Mexico

and eventually offshore

to China, Indonesia,
and Bangladesh.

Industry also exported
immense environmental problems

simply because

the environmental regulations
in those countrieswere not nearly as strong

as what exists
in the United States.

So where did all those
jobs and jeans go?

They came here,

Xintang, the new jeans capital
of the world.

[Angelo]: Textiles
are a huge industry in China.

Last year the country exported
more than $200 billion

dollars in apparel,

and Xintang

is the blue jean capital
of the world.

They produce about 300 million
pairs of jeans a year,

a third of the world's supply.

[Narrator]:
As early as 30 years ago,

this city had
a small manufacturing base

making blue jeans.

What started off as just a few
"mom and pop" operations

has blossomed into becoming
a major exporter of blue jeans

to the world market,

with a huge
environmental impact.

[Tianjie]: I think some
consumers just don't realize

what kind
of environmental impact

or environmental footprint

one single piece of jean
would carry.

When producing
one piece of jean,

actually it uses up
a lot of water

for washing and other processes,

and also it releases
a lot of polluted water

into the environment.

[Narrator]:
Making a pair of jeans

can be a water-intensive
process.

Levi's, the iconic manufacturer
of blue jeans,

did a study of how much water

went into the making one pair
of their 501 jeans.

They discovered it took
almost 920 gallons of water,

400 megajoules of energy,

and expelled 32 kilograms
of carbon dioxide.

Levis said
that this was the equivalent

to running a garden hose
for 106 minutes,

driving 78 miles,

and powering a computer
for 556 hours.

[Ma]:
We found that this industry

Is having one of the lowest,
if not the lowest,

rate of water recycling.

They just want
to use the water once,

and then they just
discharge that into the rivers,

and they've got
so much concentrated

in some parts of China,

so with that concentration
of pollution,

the impact to that local region
is very serious.

[Narrator]: It's been estimated
that in a single year,

One large fashion brand
uses the equivalent of water

that is in 43,000
Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The textile industry

is one of the largest consumers
of water in the world,

using 3.2% of all water

available to the human race
every year.

[Angelo]:
Textiles, environmentally,

can be a dirty business,

and the fabric dyes
used for jeans

contain hazardous materials,

things like mercury,
cadmium, and lead,

and the local industry here
has long been accused

of releasing its wastewater
directly into the Pearl River,

so while China has reaped
huge economic benefits

from the textile industry,

that same industry
has been a major contributor

to its water pollution problem.

We don't own the factories
anymore.

If you own your factory,

you will have
rules and regulation,

but also an instinct

to be extremely effective
in your production,

and that includes
managing your water

and managing your waste.

If you don't own your factory,

let alone know the majority

of where your clothes
are being made,

you have absolutely no interest,

and a great facility
to go to bed at night

thinking
"That's not my problem."

[Narrator]: Orsola de Castro,

A leader in sustainable fashion,

has created a clothing line

made entirely
from discarded materials.

She's concerned
that her industry

is one of the world's
biggest polluters,

with a business model based on
high volume/low cost clothing,

what many critics
call "fast fashion."

[de Castro]: The reason why
we let fashion pollute so much

and we let it go this far

is profit,

rich fat men on boards

wanting
to make more and more money.

I don't think
that we can any longer sit by

while people are suffering,

and the planet is suffering,

for us to have economic gain.

If everybody on this planet

lived the way
North America does,

we'd need, like, eight planets.

[Eric Dickstein]:
You know, it's funny

Because these companies
can pretend like they don't know
what is going on,

but they absolutely
do know what's going on.

They don't want
to acknowledge it

because it means that
they are willing participants

of destroying the environment.

You are completely responsible
as a company

for how
you're making your product.

Are they acting that way?
Not necessarily.

For the most part, not at all.

Denim, the way
that we look at it now,

the way that we have it now,

will be seen as fashion's
greatest stupidity.

Distressed denim,
insanity made visible.

It has become a huge hazard
to the environment,

For the sake of clothing,

especially the type of clothing
that we are wearing these days,

is criminal.

Maybe it's because
the demand of the world

has gone crazy for this look

and they want stuff
to be distressed

and stripes on it, and...

o vintage jean
ever looked like that,

so there is a difference
between the early processing,

which is really just to get it
looked a little bit old,

a little bit worn
here and here, fine.

Not even whiskers.

There weren't whiskers and all that
stuff, you know? That's... come on, guys.

The chemicals used
in order to create the looks,

Whether they are called
the whiskers,

you know, the tear,

are beyond unbelievable
and continuous.

There are the ones that make it
look distressed through paint

or distressed through,
you know, sandpaper, whatever.

One of the funniest scenes I saw
in one of these denim factories

was this huge warehouse
full of people

just literally sandpapering
day in, day out.

Sandpapering denim

at 98% humidity
while they worked,

because that's what you need
to preserve the right chemicals,

which is an incredibly
unpleasant way of working.

Breathing all this acid,

and that destroys your lungs.

Okay? People die.

Do we want now, just because
we have a distressed jean,

you have,
you wear distressed jeans,

and you kill somebody.

[Narrator]:
Francois Girbaud is credited

As the man who invented
stone-washed jeans.

Early on,
he also began using chemicals

to get the distressed look
in denim products.

We make a mistake
at the beginning.

We were responsible.

When we start, first,

we don't realize
how what we did was wrong,

because we did,
we make a mistake.

We make a mistake because...

If you talk to me, okay,
if we were talking,

I don't know, before 1989,

I tried to find everything
more, more, more corrosive.

We make all these
treatments and washing,

all the processes of washing
we invent

during from '72 to '89,
continuous invention,

Using everything,
acid, etc., etc.,

but I realized
the importance of our work,

what we did,
what was the reaction,

because pollution of rivers,
everything, we invented that.

[Enrique Silla]:
The fathers of our industry,

people like Francois Girbaud,
like Adriano Goldschmied,

they invented stone wash,
they invented bleaching,

they invented
potassium permanganate,

and at that time,

they were just trying
to find a beautiful product

and a great product.

They didn't realize
that these inventions, one day,

Will damage the ecology,
the planet, and the rivers.

[Girbaud]:
We have to slow down.

We have to slow down
the chemicals.

If everybody,
the consumer knows,

this beautiful white here
is made by acid,

and this acid is something
destroying the planet,

we are committing a suicide
for the planet,

we are, surely, surely,
we know, we go, we go...

What do we talk
about new generations?

What we talk about that?
It's no future.

If we continue like this,
it's done. It's done.

Is that at the end of the '80s
or starting of the '90s,

we have a tremendous
delocalization of the production

from the U.S. to China,

from Italy, Spain, South Europe,

that were
a strong production place,

to India, etc.,

so immediately,

all the big plants
start to produce

without water treatment plants,

throwing all their dirty water
to the rivers

and destroying the planet,

and at the same time,

the consumption increased
tremendously.

In America, people
buy four jeans every year,

in Europe, 1.5 jeans every year,

so consumption
tremendously increased.

[Narrator]:
In the past 20 years,

China has effectively doubled

the amount of textiles
it produces.

At first glance, this represents
good news for the consumers,

who benefit
from cheaper clothing

and quicker turnaround
in styles,

but as the prices plummeted
in the fashion industry,

it was China's waterways
and the people who rely on them

who were paying the price

of an increasing amount
of untreated wastewater

being dumped into these rivers.

The toxic effects
of industrialization

appear irreversible,

but history has proven
that a biologically dead river

can be reversed.

40 years ago, this river
was in real trouble.

There were no signs of life,

primarily because of
the pollution in the river.

[Narrator]:
Globally, we can learn

from the massive
conservation efforts

and strict legislation
implemented in London

against the dumping of toxins

that allows rivers
like the Thames to regenerate.

[Angelo]: There are lots
of signs of life here now.

There's 125 species of fish
back in the river.

That certainly
is a cause for hope.

[Narrator]: Milan,

one of the world's
most important fashion capitals

along with London,
New York, and Paris,

but we haven't come here
to shop retail.

Rather, we've made the journey

to a small town outside of Milan

where a textile company
has adopted a new technology

in order to change the way
that denim is produced.

Forty years ago, the situation
was completely different,

o rules for the water,

so you didn't care
about the water pollution,

about the chemicals.

So, the middle of the '70s to the middle of the
'80swas, I think, a real mess in Italy for everybody.

We put money
in the water treatment,

we put money to pay attention
in what we are doing,

and only when you put money
you can understand

that you are using chemicals
that you don't need.

[Narrator]: Luigi Caccia,

the second-generation owner
of Italdenim,

manages one of the leading
companies in Europe

for the production of denim.

His company was one of the first

to embrace Greenpeace's
detox campaign.

Our first point
is to make business,

but at the end,

we can understand
only by going deeper,

to understand how many dangerous
things we are making

just to make a pair of denim.

[Narrator]: Luigi says it's hard

for his company to compete with offshore denim companies,
many who don't put any money into pollution controls.

[Caccia]: The worst are using
the chemicals in excess.

The price is lower,
the quality is pretty good,

so how can I compete with this?

This is the big difference

between us
and the rest of the world,

the way we make it.

[Narrator]: In many ways,

Italdenim follows the pattern of many
other companies in the production of denim,

but there is one major step
that Italdenim implements

in the treatment of their cotton

that eliminates toxic chemicals
and reduces water usage

by up to 80%.

The production of denim begins

with the arrival of cotton
to the processing facility,

where the raw product
is broken down

into thin strands that wrap
from machine to machine

to build up a strong yarn.

Once the yarn is spun,
the roll is ready for dyeing.

This is where Italdenim
has taken a huge turn

and changed the processing
of denim.

Italdenim turned to the ocean

for a solution
to standard chemical processing.

They learned that by using
the exoskeleton of shellfish

crushed into a fine powder
called "Chitosan,"

they could enhance
the dyeability of denim.

The Chitosan is very simple.

It's the shellfish
of the crab or the shrimp

that is thrown away
from the food industry.

It is recovered,
transformed into Chitosan,

and it goes into
the circular economy,

because we reutilize something

that someone else
has thrown away.

[Narrator]:
Chitosan is a natural

and incredibly strong
fixing agent

that reduces
the amount of chemicals used

to make your blue jeans blue.

[Caccia]:
This is the Chitosano.

It is a completely 100%

atoxic
and biocompatible product.

We use, mixing
with simply water,

so we put in the water
here, like this,

and we get, at the end,
this kind of pasta.

There is no danger in touching.

This cream goes to the machine,

and we apply it
directly on the yarn.

So here is where
we apply the Chitosano.

We don't need anymore
any fixing agent,

because the Chitosano,
with the light,

fixes like a shell
around the yarn,

and protects the yarn
and the colour too.

You don't need to put
other chemicals like PVA,

this micro plastic
that goes into the water,

that goes into the river,

and it goes into the sea,

and it goes into the fish
for sure.

It's impossible to stop.

We want to reach the 360 degrees
using of Chitosano,

and we could eliminate
a huge quantity of chemicals.

This is one step

that is a revolutionary step into the textile
denim industry, and I think it is one of the ways

to approach the future
of this job.

[Narrator]:
This is breakthrough science

in the textile industry,

and if adopted by large brands,

the positive impact
on the environment

can't be overstated.

The first point
is to make something

that helps you to save money.

If you save chemicals,

first of all, you save money,
then you save nature, but first of all,
you save money.

[Narrator]: Through cutting back
on water usage

and introducing
their water-recycling process,

Italdenim has reduced

their industrial waste
footprint.

The plant also recaptures steam
and produces its own power.

There has been
an enormous investment

in building this infrastructure

to produce an environmentally
friendly fabric.

The cost to the brands
for this fabric

is only pennies more

than fabric produced
in a third-world country.

[Caccia]:
These are all small things

That a small company like us
has made.

If a big company makes it,

it's 10, 12,
100 times more the effect.

Everybody need to push these guys.
We need to tell to the brands

that there is the possibility
to make it different.

[Narrator]: In this city

in the southeast corner
of Spain,

in an industrial park,

sits a small company
that is on the cutting edge

of eco-friendly
blue jean processing.

Using two common elements,
light and air,

they've come up
with ingenious methods

that have the ability

to replace traditional,
polluting methods

of distressing jeans.

We completely changed
the way a jean is produced.

If you look
into jeans finishing,

you have two areas:

one area we call
"wet processing,"

that includes
a tremendous amount of water,

and the other area
we call "dry processing."

Dry processing includes

a tremendous amount
of work, of labour. So there are
three technologies.

One is sandblasting,

that today is forbidden
around the world.

The second one is potassium
permanganate spraying,

which is about spraying
a chemical product

that is very dangerous
if you breathe,

so it's just spraying a product
just to create a local abrasion,

and the third one is
what we call manual scraping,

which is just scraping manually
the jeans physically,

one by one, just to create
some areas that look worn.

For just finishing
a pair of jeans, you know,

which means a lot of water
just for the finishing.

Why don't we just,
in terms of finishing,

lower that impact

so you, as a consumer,
you have the right

to ask the brand
that you are wearing

where that jean came from,

and how it's
being manufactured or finished.

[Narrator]:
Jeanologia is using lasers

as one tool
to distress the jeans.

By using light,
they are able to eliminate

the indigo blue colour
in raw denim.

It sounds easy, and it is,

but you still have
to be creative

in order to replicate

the worn look
that consumers are seeking.

[Silla]: Basically,
what lasers is doing

is using the light to eliminate,

or physically sublimate,
the indigo from jeans,

and to transfer any image
that we create in a computer

So we can make digital pictures

of authentic,
old, true, worn jeans,

and we can take the details
from there,

we can play with these images,
pictures in a computer,

And then we can transfer this

and engrave this
through the energy of the light

in a jean in seconds.

[Narrator]: Jeanologia is also
taking water out of the equation

by loading jeans

into what looks like
a commercial washing machine. To give jeans
the washed-out, worn look,

they're using an element

that we take for granted
every moment in our lives: air.

[Penades]: The G2 gets the air
from the room,

And then gets the oxygen
out of the air,

and it converts oxygen, O2,
into ozone, O3,

And it does the job
that a normal stone-wash process

would do
for hours and hours of energy

and loads and loads of water,

and many other products also
that are harmful for nature,

Efficient,
and waterless technology.

[Silla]: The good thing,

and that's the beauty
of this technology,

is that we eliminate water
without increasing the cost,

If you have two jeans,

one is damaging the planet,
the other one not,

both looks equal
and the price is the same,

I mean, no one
would choose the wrong one.

I mean, there is no excuse.

[Narrator]: To help sell
the laser and ozone technologies

to brands
who age denim with chemicals,

the company has enlisted

the help of one of
the godfathers of denim design,

a man with a newfound mission

who now wants to help clean up
the mess he helped to create.

Because when you do a garment
in the ozone,

of course you can't just
do one garment,

you have to do 11 pounds
wet or dry.

Absolutely,
but what is interesting

is completely
we are not using chemicals.

Just inside...

All there is is electricity,
an air line, and that's it.

That's it. Air.

[Narrator]:
Francois started working

with this denim facility,

a place where new technologies

are bumping into the old ways
of distressing jeans.

Francois was an innovator
with passion and sensitivity,

and I think
that's what's needed.

It's the passion and sensitivity
that drive design, and design, in a way,
shows you care.

I did create
the first stretch jean,

In my humble opinion,
in my not such humble opinion.

The first ones
were just garment washed.

There was no bleaching
or anything like that.

It wasn't necessary.

It took 40 years,

40 years before
we started to understand

that what we did was wrong.

[Golding]: We are all
a bit guilty of all that,

Francois, Adriano, or any of us,

but I think it's the degree
to which it's gone, you know?

I'm sure there's
many other examples in life

where somebody starts something
quite naively.

[Narrator]:
A young denim designer,

Eric Dickstein,

has had to learn the business
by trial and error

while keeping to his core belief

in making
an ethical jean product.

Denim is one of the biggest
commodities in the world.

If you travel to China,

where most
of the world manufactures

for the mass consumers,

well, you end up
with having rivers

that are turning blue.

They're like, illuminating

because of the chemicals
that are in the water.

It's hard to find out
the truth sometimes.

You know, what I learned
is that people close their eyes.

That's really what I learned.

I learned that no one really wants to
talkabout the little monster in the closet,

so you don't learn the details,

because people don't want
to talk about them,

because at the end of the day,
it's not a selling point.

Oftentimes you learn by someone
doing it the right way,

ot the wrong way,

because the guy who's doing it
the right way

will tell you all the things

that are going wrong
in the industry.

It's definitely people
that are trying to make change

that will often tell you
what is actually going on.

We can control the amount
of ozone that's generated,

how long we can
expose the jean to the ozone,

and really control the fading,

and still get that beautiful
kind of contrast

and highs and lows

without using
any toxic chemicals,

and without using
any pumice stone,

and that's really, I think,

one of the more detrimental parts to denim laundry.
[Narrator]: Lukus Eichmann and Eric Dickstein

are a new breed

of jean designers
and boutique manufacturerswho are committed
to transparency

and producing ethical jeans.

Their output is a microdot
in the global production

that companies like Levi's, Gap,
Old Navy and other large brands

have in the world marketplace.

What's important
is that they're on the cusp

of a growing movement

of many small ethical labels
around the world

who are concerned
with the massive pollution

being created
in the current jeans landscape.

So the option was, you know,

go with that kind of old-school mentality and
the existing infrastructure that's out there

where they're
using toxic chemicals

and potassium permanganate
and pumice stone,

which has
a huge carbon footprint

to mine and haul,

and creates a huge amount
of waste afterward,

or kind of come up
with something new,

invest money in the way
that we make the jean,

and completely control
every element

of how the jean
is processed in the wash,

and make a really
beautiful product,

and prove to the whole industry
it can happen.

When you're doing something new,

there's fewer clients
to deal with,

so basically
you're building a brand;

Wiser Wash, Eco PRK,
that's a brand,

and their brand
is healthy, lifestyle,

environment, positive,

which are awesome things,

but there is not enough people

jumping on that bandwagon
at this point,

but as soon as the big boys,

the people that probably
control most of the market,

say "Yeah, we got to jump
on that movement,"

there will be no difference
in price.

I don't think it necessarily
has to cost more,

and actually we see
a return on investment

in a larger setting, you know,

in a pretty short
period of time,

because you are subtracting
the cost of those chemicals.

You're using less water,

and so, at the end of the day,

there is going to be savings
for the manufacturer.

The challenge
that we see and hear

directly
from other manufacturers

is really just overhauling
their whole infrastructure,

'cause so far

they've just kind of
been putting bandaids on, or adding things
because it exists already,

so it is expensive
for an existing player

to refurb their whole factory,

and that's why
I think a lot of the change

is coming
from brand-owned factories,

or people who have a concern

on the front end
of the business.

[Narrator]:
In our conversations with people

Like Ma Jun, Orsola de Castro,
and Francois Girbaud,

they all voiced
the same refrain,

that big brands
and big retailers in the west

have been able
to outsource their production,

and therefore,

they think they've outsourced
the responsibility. In the past 55 years,

the U.S. has outsourced
their clothing production

to developing countries,

translating to low prices
and increased consumption.

The statistics are insane,

something like 80 billion
garments of clothes

are being delivered
out of factories,

and those are the ones
that make it out,

so we don't think
about all of the ones

for those 80 billion
amount of garments

that come out of factories,

probably an equal amount
has been made in factories,

but it's wrong,
and that's discarded,

so, you know, it's landfill,
they're discarded into water,

I mean, you know,
it just goes on and on and on.

[Narrator]:
In her book "Overdressed,"

writer Elizabeth Cline wrote,

"As any economist will tell you,

cheaper prices
stimulate consumption,

and the current
low rate of fashion

has spurred
a shopping free-for-all,

where in the United States

consumers
are buying and hoarding

roughly 20 billion garments
per year."

The consumer did not wake up
one morning saying,

"Actually, I am fed up
of spending.

I want to buy
five pairs of jeans

for a fraction of the price."

We were literally
introduced to this concept

by the fashion industry

as a new business model,

which is entirely to do
with increasing profits.

[Narrator]: We're depleting
our natural resources.

We've permanently altered
our climate.

In China, where most
of our clothes are produced

and where
a burgeoning population

is gaining a taste for fashion,

we are creating
another environmental crisis

for the planet.

But we can't blame one country.

We have to look globally

and realize that
by buying so much clothing

and treating it as disposable,

we are putting a huge weight
on the environment,

and it is simply unsustainable.

When the name of the game
is fast and cheap,

Is it any wonder that the costs
of protecting the environment

are often nowhere to be found

in the operating budgets
of companies

who supply our insatiable
appetite for fast fashion?

Critics of this trend agree
that something must be done.

The change will happen.

How quickly
is determined by the consumer.

Just choosing
to buy a responsible product

versus a conventional product,

you are going to make change.

But I think it's our job
as a brand,

and the community of designers
and brands that exist,

to help educate consumers.

I don't think
that any consumers, you know,

if they know about
what is going on in our rivers

and, I mean, all this impact
on the local communities,

sometimes they have
very serious health impacts,

I don't think they're going
to continue to be silent.

I think they will, you know,

I hope that they
can use their buying power

to try to influence...

influence the factories
and also especially the brands,

the brands, and through them
to try to push them,

pressure them,
to green their supply chain.

I think that's doable.

The only thing we would say,

just to get the historical record right,
we have never really gone after a company

before asking them politely

through reports,
through meetings, to change.

In those meetings, generally,
the CEOs would say, you know,

"Of course we agree with
what Greenpeace is saying,

we're working on it,

here's a thick plan

of our environmental sustainability
approach," and so on and so forth.

But then what we find

is once they get back into their day-to-day job,
they slip back into a "business as usual" approach.

There is no urgency.

If anything,
the best they are doing

are baby steps
in the right direction,

and we want them not to just
do symbolic greenwashing things,

We want them actually
to make the changes

that ultimately is going
to be good for the environment,

and good for
the long-term sustainability

of their businesses.

In 2025, the need of the water
for human will be double, but every day
we are killing the water

for stupid stuff
like a pair of blue jeans.

The future of the fashion
and textile industry

over the next
immediate few years,

will be looking at transparency,
traceability,

So, it all starts with a "t,"
easy to remember, you know,

let's do something about it
pretty quickly.

I think all corporations

Have to be accountable for their environmental practices, and no one, no one has a
right to damage or destroy a river, so I do think more within the textile sector

have to commit, truly commit,

to a fashion industry
without pollution.

I also think in the end
the consumer has a lot of power,

and if more and more of us
sought out clothing

that was made in an
environmentally friendly manner,

that would go a long way
to improve things as well.

[♪♪♪]