A textile company has started a program to recycle textiles so they are not added to a nearby landfill as part of the waste stream. The company collects old T-shirts, sorts them by color, breaks
down the fibers, and respins the fibers into yarn which is used to make new shirts. The recycling process is different from traditional manufacturing because it does not use dyes and it reduces
the amount of water used in the manufacturing process to make new shirts
(a) One drawback of traditional textile manufacturing is that it can release dyes into nearby rivers
( Identify an ecosystem service provided by rivers.
(1) Assuming the dyes are dark in color, describe how photosynthetic algae living in the water would be affected by the release of dyes into rivers.
(18) Textile dyes often contain heavy metals such as lead, chromium, and cadmium Describe how heavy metals in nearby rivers could affect predators at the top of the food chain

ii. Photosynthetic algae living in the water would be affected by the release of dyes into the rivers because dyes can block sunlight and prevent photosynthesis. Algae is the base of most river ecosystem so without direct sunlight due to the dye in the water, the entire ecosystem would be in jeopardy.

iii. Heavy metals in nearby rivers could affect predators at the top of the food chain because the metals consumed by primary and secondary consumers would be digested by the predators on top. The toxins from the heavy metal build up the higher in the food chain.

Explanation: