What are the effects of sweatshops on the environment?

Question

I'm doing a small project for one of my classes, and I need to do some research on what some of the environmental effects of sweatshops are. I don't know much about the issue, and I've tried all my usual venues of research without much luck. Does anyone have a reputable source to help me out? Thanks!

Answer 1

joecool does raise a good stink that is valued. He is right that human labor becomes to concentrated in many places. He is too under-estimative of how condensive the human condition can become. We-as humans- have the capacity to -be come less than c**k-roaches,-to survive to propagate a next generation.

Answer 2

Well, for one, countries that have weak enough labor laws to allow sweatshops also tend to have very lax environmental regulations. So they pollute and don't manage their waste.

Sweatshops also pay extremely low wages (obviously) and people who are living in poverty are hardly interested in the environment when they are more focused on where their next meal comes from, understandably. People who have a higher quality of life are more able to focus on larger issues.

Finally, people who are forced into working in a sweatshop are at the same time forced out of their traditional methods of sustaining themselves, usually by small scale subsistence farming. While not glamorous, it is perhaps the most sustainable style of living available next to hunter gatherer societies.