WASTE fashion material from top brands such as Nike and Clarks is burned in toxic kilns by “modern day slaves” in Cambodia, environment campaign group Greenpeace said today.

Apparel and footwear for the fashion firms are manufactured overseas, including in factories in Cambodia.

But Greenpeace said that instead of being disposed of in an authorised way, waste from the factories was used to fuel kilns for the brick making industry.

It said that a large proportion of clothing is made up of synthetic materials which release toxic chemicals when burnt. 

This is despite many of the companies having made high-profile pledges to cut waste and emissions and crack down on modern-day slavery. 

Burning garments in kilns causes local air pollution and exacerbates the carbon footprint of clothes destined for Europe and the US, Greenpeace said.

And the group warned that the black plumes of smoke often seen rising out of the kilns endangers the health of vulnerable workers, with reported health impacts including coughs, colds, flus, nose bleeds and lung inflammation.

Greenpeace said the Cambodian brick sector is infamous for human rights abuses, including debt-bondage, the most common form of contemporary slavery, according to the United Nations.

Viola Wohlgemuth of Greenpeace said: “If Nike, Clarks and other corporates mean a word they say about waste and human rights, they should finally question their wasteful business model and clamp down on any form of modern-day slavery and environmental destruction anywhere in their supply chain.”

Clarks told the investigators that it believed there had been “an exceptional occurrence” of burning waste, and that the waste was sent to “a government-approved waste services company.”

A Clarks statement said: “What is alleged goes against our values as a business, our policies, and our business practices.”

Nike was invited to comment.