Ethical Issues.

I care allot about where I get my yarn from. I admit, that I take a great deal of time to learn about wool processes and I know where most of the wool of all the major companies are produced and take a keen interest of all of that, I get the majority of my wool processed in the UK because we have good regulations which protect the environment, there are also some other countries that are good with their regulations but there are some which I can not guarantee are as good.

Hmm why am I telling you all this, well one of my mission statements for Fyberspates is the importance of the traceability of my yarn, and to make sure that when its processed it has as little impact on the environment as possible. I get asked quite alot if I would sell cashmere yarns. I currently do not sell them because if I had it spun in the UK it would be so expensive no one would even consider buying it. So the other option is to get it from china and well, I can not guarantee that yarns made there are going to up to my ethical standards, especially when I read this report this evening I debated whether to post about it and then I thought, yeah I will. So here it is, you can make your mind up.

June 14th The Wool Record Weekly Market Report

Contamination closes 17 mills in Wuxi

Seventeen wool-scouring mills are reported to be to be temporarily closed in Wuxi city, of jiangsu province, in Eastern China, due to a severe outbreak of contaminated water caused by algae in the nearby Lake Tai. The city is one of china’s major wool-processing centers. The closed plants are understood to be small operations with old machinery which pump out effluent. Sources close to Wuxi say that major wool-processing plants have not been affected. The algae bloom, which smothered Lake Tai at the end of May, lasted six days until it was flushed out by rain and water from nearby Yangtze River. Wuxi draws it water from the lake. Experts expect Wuxi to suffer from contaminated water for the next few months, and some residents have begun fleeing the city. Tap water had become undrinkable, and reports have emerged of organised protests. Residents near the lake have campaigned for years for the closure of polluting factories. Last week, the government demanded that officials close "several hundred" lake side factories by the end of the month.

Although local officials blame the problem on natural conditions, Chinese state media and government experts have criticised officials for ignoring pollution and its effects.