The environmental cost of textiles - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Presentation Transcript

the addition of any substance or form of energy (e.g., heat, sound, radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than the environment can accommodate it by dispersion, breakdown, recycling, or storage in some harmless form.
Air pollution
Water pollution
Land pollution
Noise pollution
Chemical pollutants

Key issues to consider
Fibre production
Fabric production including spinning, weaving, knitting, pre-treatment, dyeing and finishing
Production of products
Retail and distribution

Natural
Sustainable resources. Biodegradable
Plant
Cotton - heavy use of pesticides. Annually 10,000 fatalities of pesticide poisoning in third world countries. Vast quantities of water required for production (?). Air pollution
Animal
Sheep - methane gas production. Scouring uses vast quantities of water
Silk – ethical/moral issues with regards to extraction of silk from the worm

Regenerated
Sustainable resource
Bio-degradable
Environmentally friendly (Lyocell production) v’s non-environmentally friendly (Viscose production)
Hot – Bamboo fibre – plant can grow 4 foot per day(?)

Spinning
Air pollution - may affect humans directly, causing a smarting of the eyes or coughing.
Noise pollution

Chemical pollution

pre-treatment include:

Dyeing
Principal pollutants: residual colour in effluent.
The pollutant load of discharged dye liquor is generally low, although reactive dyes still have relatively poor exhaustion rates. Where these dyes are used coloured effluent is still a problem.
Water usage in dyeing is relatively high since it not only includes the dye liquor, but also all the preparative, rinsing and finishing stages involved in the application of colour. Typically, from 4 to 50 litres of water is used to dye each kg of textile. This ratio is highly dependent on the type of dye machine, the fabric to be dyed and the class of dyestuff used to match the customer’s requirements.

Finishing
Principal pollutants: Fume, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), and isocyanates.
A wide range of solvent types are still used, although in much lower volumes, in coating and lamination processing. Where emissions exceed consent, which in the UK varies between 50mg/m³ and 150mg/m³ (as carbon), then process modification, such as solvent replacement or if this is not possible then some form of abatement is required. This can be done using carbon absorption or thermal oxidation/incineration, usually with heat recovery.
The formulations used in lamination and some coating processes commonly include isocyanate. The health implications of inhaling significant levels of this chemical are severe, and so strict limits are set on both workroom exposure and process emission concentrations to atmosphere.

Garment processing to include stone-washing, bleaching and sand-blasting. – see PowerPoint denim and the environment
Garment dyeing
Post-cure garments such as variants of non-iron/easy care
Research Okeo-tex