Pollution in the fashion industry impact on the environment, the natural crop growing fibers also have been contributing to pollution through the form of agriculture. Cotton production requires a large amount of pesticides and water use. Cotton is considered the world's dirtiest crop because it uses 16% of the world's pesticides. Two of the main ingredients in pesticides are nitrates and phosphates. When the pesticides leak into stream systems surrounding the cropland the nitrates and phosphates contribute to water eutrophication. Water eutrophication is an environmental phenomenon that causes a depletion of oxygen when the nutrient overload from pesticides causes a boom in plant growth and
Baltic Sea hypoxia lack of oxygen (anoxia) kills bottom-living organisms and creates dead zones. The rapid increase in hypoxia in coastal areas around the world is due to the excessive inputs of plant nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus by human activities. The sources of these nutrients include agriculture, sewage, and atmospheric deposition of nitrogen containing compounds from the burning of fossil fuels. The nutrients stimulate the growth of algae causing problems with eutrophication. The algae sink to the bottom and use the oxygen when they decompose. If mixing of the bottom waters is slow, such that oxygen stocks are not renewed, hypoxia