Environmental Friendly Textiles- a road to sustainability

The Perspective

Textiles production and processing that is use of intensive chemical applications during the fibre production like in viscose and wet processing such as use of bleaching agents and other harmful chemicals along with dyes.  Associated social and environmental concerns growing towards increasing industrial Pollution, industrial waste disposal problems, economic and social health of the farmers and industrial workers lack of awareness and understanding of the positive effect you can have unawareness about Environmental Sustainability – Ethical, Environmental and socially responsible business structures are required.

 

Environmental Sustainability

Taking incremental steps in supply chain processes to make it happen that is need to believe in environmental sustainability; and need to be aware about the social, economical and ecological benefits of environmentally sustainable products and development processes. So the care for the Environment must influence the supply chain to use Sustainable Processes, run business operations in an environmentally friendly way, work to conserve energy and reduce waste. Exploring and implementing sustainable textile materials and products through sustainable design approach.

 

Eco friendly Textile Fibres- the green fibres

 

Organic Cotton

Cotton is one of agriculture's most water-intensive and pest sensitive crops, it is estimated to consume 11% of the world's pesticides. (Kooistra, K.J., et. al. 2006). A sustainable alternative is Organic cotton having social and environmental benefits includes:

 

·         Organic cotton cultivation helps in decreasing pollution.

·         Organic cotton cultivation helps in improving soil fertility.

·         Organic cotton farming helps in preventing water, soil and air contamination.

·         Equivalent/ better fiber properties help in diversified products development- suitable for all products.

 

Certification of Organic Cotton that provides a comprehensive system for ensuring that certain standards of organic production and processing is met. It authenticates the product and increases its credibility. Organic Organizations (European Union & USDA) & Certification Agencies certify the organic processing that typically, organic cotton standardization follow steps include:

 

·         Settings of standards

·         Inspection and verification against those standards

·         Certification: recognize the producer who successfully meet the standards

 

GOTS – Global Organic Textiles standards

A process of harmonization of these standards started in 2002 when a number of certification bodies met to form an international working group in charge of developing the Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS). These standards are being implemented since September 2006 and carry the standards and certification process from field to the final product. Labeling on the other hand, are standards provide for a subdivision into two label-grades viz. (i) "organic" or "organic - in conversion“ and (ii) "made with x % organic materials" or " made with x % organic – in conversion materials"

 

Recycled Cotton

Recycled Cotton is also an ecofriendly choice in cotton clothing since recycled cotton is cotton fabric which is made from recovered cotton that would otherwise be cast off during the spinning, weaving or cutting process. The discarded cotton waste is collected, shredded into small fibers and processed again into yarns and fabrics. Truly ecofriendly – because of waste recycling process, no chemicals used during processing, it helps in generating employment and good for the environment. No certification is mandatory; however Oekotex certificate adds credibility and authentication.

 

Recycled Polyester

Polyester fibre is one of the most non-biodegradable polymer which create environmental problems. The legislation opens the door towards working over recycling of PET. The Wellman Inc is the world’s largest Polyester recycler. Major revolution happened in 1993 when Wellman Inc. introduced the first polyester textile fiber made from post consumer PET packaging: Fortrel® EcoSpun®. A new generation of fiber that is most suitable for diversified products range such as backpacks and blankets, T-shirts, sportswear, soft luggage and socks. Whereas the certification obtained in licensed or patented yarns (eco spun) alongwith eco certification from Oekotex and SGS or any other environmental testing agency.

 

Bamboo Fibre

It's a common fact that bamboo can thrive naturally without using any pesticide. It is seldom eaten by pests or infected by pathogen. Why? Scientists found that bamboo owns a unique anti-bacteria and bacteriostasis bio-agent named "bamboo Kun". This substance combined with bamboo cellulose molecular tightly all along during the process of being produced into bamboo fiber.

 

Bamboo fiber has particular and natural functions of anti-bacteria, bacteriostasis and deodorization It is validated by Japan Textile Inspection Association that, even after fifty times of washing, bamboo fiber fabric still possesses excellent function of anti-bacteria, bacteriostasis. Its test result shows over 70% death rate after bacteria being incubated on bamboo fiber fabric.

Bamboo fiber's natural anti-bacteria function differs greatly from that of chemical antimicrobial. The later often tend to cause Skin allergy when added to apparel. Additionally, bamboo fibre has the properties of the following:

 

·         Natural anti-bacteria

·         Green & Biodegradable

·         Breathable and Cool

Other Eco friendly Fibres – New Innovations

Apart from the ecofriendly fibres mentioned above, here are some other ecofriendly fibres listed below:

·         Corn fibre

·         Soy bean fibre

·         Pineapple fibre

·         Banana leaf fibre

·         Black diamond fibre

·         PLA fibre

·         Lyocell

·         Lycra

·         Tencel

·         Organic Wool

·         Organic Silk

·         Hemp – Sustainable by Nature

 

WET PROCESSING- Environmental Concern

 

It is necessary to overview the important environmental concerns related to textile wet processing such examples are given below:

 

·         Chemical intensive wet processing– scouring, bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, printing etc.

·         Heavy metals – iron, copper, lead etc, found in dyestuffs auxiliaries, binders etc.

·         Residual dyestuffs, chemicals in water: due to poor fixation of colors.

·         PVC and phthalates: used in plastisol printing paste.

·         Formaldehyde: found in dispersing agents, printing paste and colorant fixatives.

·         Dye effluent-wastewater issue

 

Sustainable Processing of Textiles

There is need for ecofreindly wet processing that is sustainable and beneficial methods. Number of sustainable practices has been implemented by various textile processing industries such as Eco friendly bleaching; Peroxide bleaching; Eco friendly dyeing and Printing; Low impact dyes; Natural dyes; Azo Free dyes; Phthalates Free Printing.

 

Sustainable Processing of Textiles also includes Bio Processing of Textiles. Bio-processing can simply be defined as the application of living organisms and their components to industrial products and processes, which are mainly based on enzymes. Bio processing also offers the potential for new industrial processes that require less energy, less water and less effluent problems with effective results. Enzymatic Desizing, Enzymatic Scouring, Enzymatic Bleaching, Bio polishing and Enzyme based softeners are few examples of bio processing of textiles.

 

The impact of Green Chemistry in Coloration

 

Dye Chemistry: If we look into the Dye chemistry, the appreciable work has been seen by alternative synthesis, sustainable source and natural platform chemicals-will be discussed later in this section. Dyes in effluent on other hand, is reduced due to efficiencies of dye sorption and cleaner treatment technologies.

 

Auxiliary Chemicals: Auxiliaries chemicals are those which are used other than colorants (dyes and pigments). Most of the harmful chemicals have been replaced with the sustainable ones or have less effect on the effluent load and even reduction in use and emission of harmful auxiliaries (e.g. salt, reducing agents and carriers)

 

Application processes: Reduction in energy, water usage, time in the processes have also been in practice, some of the example such as use of automation in the form of controlled temperature and time of dyeing E-Control Dyeing and use of ultrasonic waves in dyeing that will gain commercially importance in near future.

 

Green Chemistry Sulphur Dyeing

Economical, good colour strength, good fastness dyeing on cellulosic, gained significant share of the colorants market annual consumption of ca. 70,000 tons. C. I. Sulphur Black 1 alone represents a substantial portion (20-25%) of dyestuff market for cotton which is the highest consumption of any single textile dye in the world. All sulphur dye molecules contain disulfide linkages and applied by reducing them with the addition of suitable reducing agent that must be sustainable. Sulphur dyes themselves have a relatively low detrimental environmental impact as the dyes are free from heavy metals and AOX.

 

Significant environmental problem with the dyeing process employ sulfides as reducing agents, 90% of all sulphur dyes are reduced using sodium sulfide. Discharge of sulfides only permissible in very small amounts (usually the legal allowance is 2 ppm), which is dangerous to life from liberated hydrogen sulfide, corrosion of sewerage systems, damage to treatment works, high pH, aquatic life down stream significantly affected, damage to the DNA of tadpoles, classed as micropollutants, over time the substance can reach high concentrations. Therefore, alternative reducing agents needed to replace this. Thiourea dioxide from both a practical and ecological point of view has been used and significantly more expensive than sodium sulfides. Indirect cathodic reduction processes successfully reduce sulphur dyes. The electrolysis is an appreciably more expensive technology used for reduction purposes. The other reduction systems are also being used including Glucose/NaOH, application of various reducing D-sugars.

 

Greener reactive dyeing of cellulose:

There are number of environmental problems encountered in reactive dyeing, such as high levels of salt (sodium sulfate/chloride) used when dyeing cotton particularly reactive dyes, high colour concentrations in effluent with high volume of water consumed. Since fibre has negative charge in water and thus repels anionic dyes – low adsorption, so addition of salt leads to overcome the repulsion between dye anions and negative fibre surface to allow adsorption. High amount of salt in effluent increase the soil alkalinity to support crops and kills aquatic. The fresh water courses turned saline downstream from reactive dyeing operations that are difficult to remove from effluent, mostly colour (unfixed dye) in effluent remain in the downstream.

Reactive dyes poor fixation of ranging 10-40% dyestuff hydrolysed goes down drain which is aesthetically unpleasant, blocks sunlight, algae overpopulate, reduction in O₂ levels in water,  suffocation of flora and fauna in watercourses. Therefore, water effluent treatment plant is now becoming prime consideration by the industry and equally important as the production of textile product itself.

 

As the matter of fact that unfixed dye from the fibre has to be removed through number washing cycles, this increase water consumption and high energy consumption, up to 50% total cost dyeing procedure. Clean effluent having high cost off course, but there are few techniques to minimise effluent load that pretreatment of cotton with certain cationic surfactants that helps increase in high level fixation of reactive dye with the cotton fibre. Pre-treatment agents Treatment of cellulose with cationic, nucleophilic polymers to enable reactive dyeing at neutral pH without electrolyte addition and ion-ion interactions between cationic groups in the agent and the anionic carboxylic acid groups in the substrate low pK_a values will be ionised at the pH values of application (pH 6-7), other forces of attraction exhibited are H-bonding and van der Waals. As a result of being cationic pretreated cotton, the number advantages recorded such as:

 

·         No requirement for salt

·         Nucleophiles in polymer more reactive than hydroxyl groups in fibre

·         Neutral pH of application

·         Hydrolysis minimised

·         Colour fixation yield maximised

·         Less colour in effluent

·         Less wash-off requirement

·         Significant reduction in operation time

·         Significant reduction in water consumption

 

 

Environmental Standards:

 

The ISO 14000

The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental management. The very first two standards, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 14004:2004 deal with environmental management systems (EMS). ISO 14001:2004 provides the requirements for an EMS and ISO 14004:2004 gives general EMS guidelines.  An EMS meeting the requirements of ISO 14001:2004 is a management tool enabling an organization of any size or type to:

 

 

• identify and control the environmental impact of its activities, products or services, and to
• improve its environmental performance continually, and to
• implement a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets, to achieving these and to demonstrating that they have been achieved.

ISO 14001:2004 does not specify levels of environmental performance. If it specified levels of environmental performance, they would have to be specific to each business activity and this would require a specific EMS standard for each business. That is not the intention.

 

Eco Labeling

Eco labeling guarantees certain ecological criteria for all sorts of textile items and their manufacturing processes.  It identifies:

·         Products are environmentally safe

·         Manufacturing by eco-friendly material and

·         Avoid harmful chemicals

Oekotex 100 is one of its classified standard.

 

Bluesign^®

The bluesign^® standard starts from the ground up. It’s not about testing finished products. Instead, before production begins, components and processes are selected to ensure they meet the specified criteria. This is the only way to guarantee maximum implementation of resource productivity and EHS – that’s Environment, Health and Safety – in the most efficient and cost-effective way for everyone involved.

 

The bluesign^® standard is practice-oriented. Instead of working with bans and restrictions, the bluesign^® standard provides solutions for EHS issues on all levels, from raw material and chemical components suppliers to manufacturers and retailers.

The bluesign^® standard is widely recognized within the complete textile production chain. To assure efficient and economical solutions, the bluesign^® standard includes all levels of the manufacturing chain. It is recognized by leading chemical companies, numerous textile manufacturers as well as well-known retailer and brand companies.

 

Made in Green^®

Made in green is a special symbol for all those who provide or who are seeking textile products manufactured with the guarantee that they are free from substances harmful to health. This certifies that the product, throughout its traceability chain has been manufactured in factories which respect the environment and the universal rights of workers. The object, therefore is, free from harmful substances, respect for the environment and respect for human rights.

 

 

 

 

Impact of REACH:

Other initiatives include REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) legislation which aims to encourage safe and eco-friendly chemical production. In the USA the Toxic Substances Control Act (TCSA) enables the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to track industrial chemicals produced in or imported into the country. Some man-made fibres, such as Lenzing’s lyocell fibre Tencel, have a minimal impact on the environment. Also, organic cotton production is growing rapidly but still accounts for only a small fraction of global cotton output. Nonetheless, organic cotton is being adopted by high profile companies such as C&A, Coop, Nike, Wal-Mart, and Woolworths. And a growing number of brand and manufacturing companies are pursuing environmentally friendly strategies. Such companies include American Apparel, Gap, Interface, Patagonia, and Wal-Mart in the USA as well as Rohner Textil in Switzerland, and a small knitwear company in India, MaHan, which was founded by an ex-teacher from the Netherlands.

 

CONCLUSION:

Though there are many environmental standards are existed and even being imposed on textile manufacturers, who is still seeking an environmental standard that one fits all- it is difficult  however but not impossible! There is need to develop integrated type of environmental standard. Only few standards are recognized Oekotex and ISO14000 so far. The new emerging standards and legislation are REACH, Blue Sign and Made in Green and can be expected more even after penetration of these standards.  The intensive work is being carried out in the fibre manufacturing around the world that are sustainable but much more attention needed at textile coloration level. Even existence of complex requirement of environmental standards and legislations, the most textile manufacturers have met those standards and leading world market today, producing eco-friendly textile with environmental friendly processed textiles and already on the road journey towards overall sustainability. “Environmental friendly textiles” will remain in the business and we to follow “a road to sustainability” for survival of our business and green environment.

 

REFERENCES:

1.      Biodegradable and sustainable fibres, edited by R S Blackburn, Woodhead Textile Series No 47, 2005

2.      Recycling in Textiles, Edited by Y Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, Woodhead Textile Series No 50, 2006

3.      Ecotextile ’98, Sustainable development proceedings of the conference, Ecotextile ’98 April 1998, Bolton UK, edited by A R Horrocks, University of Bolton, UK.

4.      Ecotextile, The way forward for sustainable development in textiles, Edited by Misaftab and A R Horrocks, University of Bolton, UK, 2004

5.      Environmental aspects of textile dyeing, by R M Christie, Herriot-Watt University, 2007

6.      EU COST Action 628: life cycle assessment (LCA) of textile products, eco-efficiency and definition of best available technology (BAT) of textile processing, Eija Nieminen, Michael Linke, Marion Tobler and Bob Vander Beke, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 15, Issues 13-14, September 2007, Pages 1259-1270