IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i11p4818-d1663008.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Water Unequal Exchange: Embedded Groundwater, Chemicals, and Wastewater in Textile Trade from Bangladesh to the EU and the USA (2000–2023)

Author

Listed:
  • Kamille Hüttel Rasmussen

    (Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), United Nations University, 5 Chome-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan)

  • Martiwi Diah Setiawati

    (Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), United Nations University, 5 Chome-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan)

Abstract

Textile dye production requires significant amounts of water and chemicals, generating substantial wastewater, which places significant burdens on local environments and water resources. Bangladesh is a global textile dye hub, exporting primarily to the EU and the USA. This research explores Water Unequal Exchange (WUE), which arises when high-income countries (HIC) externalize water use and pollution from consumption and production to low-income countries (LIC), driving environmental degradation beyond their borders. To determine WUE, this paper measures wastewater, groundwater, and chemicals embedded in Bangladesh’s textile trade to the EU and USA between 2000 and 2023. This is based on the net weight of the top 18 textile imports from Bangladesh, provided by the UN Comtrade Database. This paper finds that 3,942,091 million liters of groundwater, 10,792,675 million grams of chemicals, and 2,860,420 million liters of wastewater are embedded in these textile imports. The prices per kg of textiles differ depending on product type, and the highest volume of textile product categories have the lowest price per kg. In conclusion, the textile trade from Bangladesh to the EU and the USA represents a case of WUE, where Bangladesh disproportionately internalizes resource over-extraction and environmental impacts from dye production for low economic gain.

Suggested Citation

  • Kamille Hüttel Rasmussen & Martiwi Diah Setiawati, 2025. "Water Unequal Exchange: Embedded Groundwater, Chemicals, and Wastewater in Textile Trade from Bangladesh to the EU and the USA (2000–2023)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-24, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:11:p:4818-:d:1663008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/4818/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/4818/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoe Mellick & Alice Payne & Laurie Buys, 2021. "From Fibre to Fashion: Understanding the Value of Sustainability in Global Cotton Textile and Apparel Value Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Althouse, Jeffrey & Cahen-Fourot, Louison & Carballa-Smichowski, Bruno & Durand, Cédric & Knauss, Steven, 2023. "Ecologically unequal exchange and uneven development patterns along global value chains," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    3. Tunç, Gül İpek & Akbostancı, Elif & Türüt-Aşık, Serap, 2022. "Ecological unequal exchange between Turkey and the European Union: An assessment from value added perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Jared B. Fitzgerald & Daniel Auerbach, 2016. "The Political Economy of the Water Footprint: A Cross-National Analysis of Ecologically Unequal Exchange," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Zhai, Guangyi & Li, Keke & Cui, Huwei & Wang, Zhen & Wang, Ling & Yu, Shuxia & Shi, Zhi-Hua, 2024. "Ecological unequal exchange: Evidence from imbalanced cropland soil erosion and agricultural value-added embodied in global agricultural trade," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    6. Mengqi Gong & Weike Zhang, 2024. "Exploring the Impact of FDI and Technological Progress Path on Ecological Unequal Exchange within Manufacturing Industry in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-24, April.
    7. Yuqi Liu & Junsheng Chen & Dianrong Duan & Ziyang Zhang & Chang Liu & Wei Cai & Ziwen Zhao, 2024. "Environmental Impacts and Biological Technologies Toward Sustainable Treatment of Textile Dyeing Wastewater: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-22, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luca Tausch & Jeffrey Althouse, 2024. "Towards a theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) as a multi-tiered hierarchy," FMM Working Paper 100-2024, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    2. Olk, Christopher, 2024. "How much a dollar cost: Currency hierarchy as a driver of ecologically unequal exchange," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    3. Smith, Matthew & Christopoulos, Dimitris, 2025. "GVC participation and carbon emissions – A network analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    4. Wei, Long & Li, Wenjing & Jin, Zhida, 2024. "Global value chains participation and trade-induced carbon inequality: A comparative analysis of developed and developing economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    5. Steven A. Mejia, 2023. "Global inequities in the prevalence of undernourishment," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 104(3), pages 329-344, May.
    6. Marco Bortolini & Mauro Gamberi & Cristina Mora & Francesco Pilati & Alberto Regattieri, 2017. "Design, Prototyping, and Assessment of a Wastewater Closed-Loop Recovery and Purification System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-12, October.
    7. Guojing Li & Xinru Han & Qiyou Luo & Wenbo Zhu & Jing Zhao, 2021. "A Study on the Relationship between Income Change and the Water Footprint of Food Consumption in Urban China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Chih-Hao Wang & Hongwei Dong, 2017. "Responding to the Drought: A Spatial Statistical Approach to Investigating Residential Water Consumption in Fresno, California," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, February.
    9. Hekmatpour, Peyman & Leslie, Carrie McLachlin, 2022. "Ecologically unequal exchange and disparate death rates attributable to air pollution: A comparative study of 169 countries from 1991 to 2017," OSF Preprints racms, Center for Open Science.
    10. Kurniawati, 2023. "Sustainable Textile Practices by Integrated Viscose Rayon and Yarn Producers: An Empirical Study," GATR Journals jfbr210, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    11. Wei Li & Guomin Li & Rongxia Zhang & Wen Sun & Wen Wu & Baihui Jin & Pengfei Cui, 2017. "Carbon Reduction Potential of Resource-Dependent Regions Based on Simulated Annealing Programming Algorithm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Jesús Ramos-Martín & Fander Falconí & Pedro Cango, 2017. "The Concept of Caloric Unequal Exchange and Its Relevance for Food System Analysis: The Ecuador Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, November.
    13. Pang, Qinghua & Liu, Xuan & Zhang, Lina & Chiu, Yung-ho, 2024. "Temporal-spatial evolution of environmental inequality of embodied energy transfer within inter-provincial trade of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    14. Xian Guo & Yujie Pei & Hong Xu & Yang Wang, 2024. "Mapping Urban Expansions along China–Europe Railway Express with the 30 m Time-Series Global Impervious Surface Area (GISA-2) Data from 2010 to 2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Du, Huibin & Liu, Huiwen & Zhang, Zengkai, 2022. "The unequal exchange of air pollution and economic benefits embodied in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei's consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    16. Regueiro-Ferreira, Rosa María & Alonso-Fernández, Pablo, 2023. "Interaction between renewable energy consumption and dematerialization: Insights based on the material footprint and the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    17. Giovanni Dosi & Federico Riccio & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2024. "Decarbonisation and Specialisation Downgrading: the double harm of GVC Integration," LEM Papers Series 2024/17, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    18. Rhyllary Coelho e Silva & Ricardo de Siqueira Camargo & Gabriel da Silva Medina & Mariana Gatti & Eva Sevigne-Itoiz & Lorenzo Di Lucia & Onesmus N. Mwabonje, 2022. "Fashion Market Niches for Organic Agroforestry Cotton: Market Potential for Promoting Sustainable Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    19. Josep Pinyol Alberich & Leandro J. Llorente-González & Mohammad Javad Ramezankhani & Meletios Bimpizas-Pinis & Benjamin H. Lowe, 2023. "Using Macroeconomic Indicators to Enact an Ambitious Circular Economy," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1515-1544, September.
    20. repec:osf:osfxxx:racms_v1 is not listed on IDEAS

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:11:p:4818-:d:1663008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.