Ecological Textiles

Ecological Hazards Prevention for Textile Industry Bilge ilekar Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design 140090043 Eda Kara Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design 140080026 Gzde Arkan Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design 140080050

English 201 Glru Baykan Arslan December 15, 2010

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Ecological Hazards Prevention for Textile Industry

Thesis: With the growth of textile industry, the ecological hazards of it is increasing dangerously so this should be prevented in three ways such as reuse and recycling, waste reduction and eco-textiles. I. Reuse and recycling A. Second hand 1. Recycling banks (Friends of the Earth, 2008, p. 11) 2. Charity stores (Claudio, 2007, pp. 451-452) 3. Export to developing countries (Cohen, 2007, para. 4) B. Producing recycled textiles 1. Nonwovens from reclaimed fibres (Gulich, 2006, pp. 26-32) 2. Filling or flocking materials (Langley, Kim & Lewis, 2000, 5.3. Review of Literature on Nonwovens section) 3. Wiping rags (Claudio, 2007, p. 452) II. Waste reduction A. Air pollutant wastes 1. Point sources (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 1996, pp. 11, 14) 2. Fugitive sources (EPA, 1996, p. 14) B. Waste waters 1. Reducing used water (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, n.d., pp. 505-507) 2. Dye removal by adsorption (uteu, Blba & Zaharia, 2009, pp. 217-222)

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C. Solid wastes 1. Optimization of the processes (Barclay & Buckley, 2000, Appendices 1-6, 3-7) 2. Reuse and sale (EPA, 1996, pp. 23-24) D. Hazardous wastes 1. Heavy metals (Barclay & Buckley, 2000, Appendix 3-9) 2. Solvents (EPA, 1996, pp. 25-26) 3. Other components (Barclay & Buckley, 2000, Appendix 3-9) III. Eco-Textiles A. Eco-friendly fibres 1. Organic fibres (Scaturro, 2008, p. 477) 2. Recycled fibres (Modint & Crem, 2010, pp. 1-8) B. Sustainable processing 1. Eco friendly bleaching (Couto & Toca-Herrera, 2006, p. 115) 2. Eco friendly dying (Shin, Son & Yoo, 2010, p. 1) 3. Eco friendly finishing (Joshi, Ali & Purwar, 2008, pp. 295-303)

Ecological Textiles

Beginning from the ancient times people have been using fibres, which were provided from plants and animals, in order to meet their need to cover their body and keep themselves warm. Finding out how to use fibres to make -so called- clothes, was the first step which would in long term time turn into a great sector, textiles. After some time peoples expectations from a cloth started to change, they asked for more comfort and more variety to wear. This demand caused textiles to expand and become an industry; subsequently factories were made for more production, employers and labor started to exist. Many different types of fibres were discovered and used to provide various properties for textile materials. The growing demand for textile products led to an enlargement in the industry, so the utilization of raw materials increased. The processes applied in textile industry are hazardous for the environment because of many reasons, such as generating pollutants, consuming raw materials and diminishing the resources. With the growth of textile industry, the ecological hazards of it is increasing dangerously so this should be prevented in three ways such as reuse and recycling, reducing wastes and eco-textiles. Firstly, reusing out-dated clothes and other textile materials or recycling the suitable old textile products are the effective ways of reducing the need for textile production. To begin with, second hand trade is the most common and valid method of reusing outworn clothes. Using recycling banks is a convenient way of dealing with the old textile goods, since the owner of them does not know what to do best with those. Recycling banks can be defined as the boxes that are specially designed for keeping goods to be taken away by incumbent agencies. Recycling banks were also explained by Friends of the Earth in 2008 in other words: Households are provided with two 55 litre recycling boxes that can be filled with paper, textiles, mobile phones and toner cartridges, metal, glass and plastic bottles. There is a Civic Amenity site and many additional recycling banks for cans, glass,

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paper, clothes, shoes and tetrapaks around the city. Wastesavers operate a Cleanstream recycling method, where items are sorted at kerbside. (p. 11) So the owner of old textile materials will only have to put these old materials in the boxes. Afterwards the incumbent agencies will sort the textiles contained in these banks, so the reusable ones can be separated and prepared for second hand use. One other way to provide second hand access is using the charity stores. Charity stores take on the task of building a transporting bridge between the out-of-date cloths owner and the second hand cloth user. Charity stores enable the second hand garments to be bought with low prices or maybe for free. As stated by Claudio, the garments which are directly used or sold in the thrift stores comprise approximately 20% of the garment contributions to charities (2007, p. A452). This means that donating out-of-date garments to charity stores will make it easier to reach those second hand products. Another significant method of assisting second hand usage is exporting them to developing countries. Because of the low incomes in developing countries, people have less purchasing power so buying second hand clothes may be their only opportunity to acquire clothes. Although some people believe that selling the donated old clothes in developing countries may cause the decimation of local garment industries, Eric Stubin, executive vice president of Trans Americas FSC, tells that the worlds poorest people can afford only these exported old clothes and the charity stores also provide jobs in these countries (Cohen, 2007, para. 4). Therefore, exporting out-of-time clothes to developing countries will help people who live in those countries. In brief, out-dated textile materials should be reclaimed whether by using recycling banks or donating to charity stores or exporting to developing countries. Apart from the second hand market, another way that reduces the need for textile production is producing recycled textiles. A usage field for recycled textile materials is attaining nonwovens from those reclaimed fibres. As explained in 2006 by Gulich, some

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effective methods are used in German medium-size companies to obtain, categorize and reuse end-of-life household textiles. Producing reclaimed fibres to turn them out to nonwovens or yarns is a common way of re-using those textiles. Treating end-of-use garments in order to attain reclaimed fibres is feasible now thanks to machines of the latest technology (p. 26). In this case with the help of latest technology machines, reclaimed fibres can be re-used as nonwovens. In addition to these, recycled textile materials can also be used as filling or flocking materials for upholstery. Langley, Kim and Lewis declare how the recycled materials are used for filling or flocking; so the fabrics which are used inside the arms and backs of chairs and sofas or used for spring insulators are nonwovens and some high-loft variants of polypropylene fibre, known as fibrefill, and these fabrics are mostly used in these applications. It is inadequate to use waste cotton filling for furniture through the Upholstery Furniture Action Council guidelines followed by the furniture industry. So the synthetic fibrefill is preferred instead (2000, 5.3. Review of Literature on Nonwovens section). In that case it is possible to use recycled textile fibres in furniture fillings and flocking and this will help environment, but on the contrary waste cotton filling is not appropriate for using as filling materials while synthetic fibre waste may be appropriate instead. Moreover, recycled textile fabrics are a good subject for wiping rags production. Since the wiping rags do not require high quality and fine appearance, they are very suitable for recycled textiles usage. Claudio exemplifies this; Trans-America reported that absorbent wiping rags are produced from 30% of used clothes to be utilized in industry (2007, p.452). On account of this information, it is clear that it is convenient to use recycled textile materials for producing wiping rags. As a conclusion, it is clear that generalizing the use of recycled fibres in areas like nonwovens, filling and flocking materials and wiping rags will help to reduce the textile production.

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Another significant way of preventing the environmental hazards of textile industry is reducing the wastes which are released during the textile production processes. To start with, air pollutant wastes are one type of these released wastes and they are highly influent because of their ability to directly get mixed up with the air that people breathe every moment. The air pollutant wastes are emitted to the air through two kinds of sources: point sources and the fugitive sources. Stacks or vents emit gases to the air and they are particular ejection points, mentioned to be the point sources (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 1996, p. 11). This clarifies that point sources send out the air pollutant wastes in a great mass. The other kind of air pollutant sources in the textile industry is fugitive sources, which do not emit the gases from one single point but their emitting capabilities are spread to a large area. As indicated by EPA, fugitive sources which bring about air pollution in textile manufacturing are classified into four basic types such as solvent-based cleaning activities, wastewater treatment systems, warehouses and spills (1996, p. 14). These varieties of fugitive sources may have different pollution causing habits. It can be concluded that different types of air pollutant sources in textile industry have different gas emitting systems, also resulting to a difference between their polluting amounts. In addition to air pollutant wastes, waste waters are also a considerable environmental pollution cause. Textile manufacturer generates waste waters during most of the production processes. Primarily, by reducing the need for water consumption in the industry, less amount of water will be used in these processes so this will also cause a reduction in waste water generation. Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency indicates that the programs which take care of the precautions of the pollution have to draw attention to decrease in water consumption and more efficient utilization of the process chemicals (n.d., p. 505). Therefore, arranging the efficiency of processes will help diminishing the waste waters. Additionally, another method for decreasing the damages of waste waters is the dye removal method by

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adsorption. As stated by uteu, Blbe and Zaharia, adsorption is currently considered to be a more efficient technique than other processes which discharge colour from wastewater. It is not a difficult method using sorption in order to discharge colour and can be performed with simple materials (2009, p. 217). For this reason it is advantageous to use adsorption method for dye removal from the waste waters. Consequently, diminishing the waste water generation or removing dyes from the waste waters are convenient methods for preventing the hazards of waste waters. Aside from those waste types solid wastes are also produced by the textile industry. One way of preventing solid waste production is optimization of the processes in textile mills. Barclay and Buckley state that the process type, fertility of the process and the solid waste management consciousness are the factors that affect the amount and kind of the solid wastes that are produced. The amount of sludge can be diminished by making the operations of the wastewater works more efficient. The need for incineration will decrease by making energy conservation precautions so less fly ash will be produced (2000, Appendix 3-7). Obviously diminishing the amount of solid wastes is also useful for diminishing the amount of waste waters and air pollutants. Besides, it is important what to do with the produced solid wastes; they would better be reused or sold to other people. As suggested by EPA, textile mills should focus on some methods in order to prevent producing solid wastes, such as: purchasing the chemicals in IBCs or in batch, recycling bags, selling the expended pallets to a recycler, donating the damaged pallets and chipping then burning pallets in boilers (1996, p.24). Therefore, donating or recycling the solid wastes is also as important as preventing the solid waste generation. It can be concluded that the negative effects of solid wastes to the environment will become less with the precautions taken by the textile mills, such as reducing the solid waste production and reusing or selling the solid wastes.

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Subsequent to those mentioned waste kinds, hazardous wastes comprise the most dangerous type of textile production wastes. To begin with, heavy metals are included by hazardous wastes. As Barclay and Buckley explain, although mostly little or no hazardous waste is generated through textile processing, some operations might generate hazardous waste. Heavy metals and solvents are the primary sources generated by textile processing (2000, Appendix 3-9). These heavy metals and solvents belong to hazardous wastes. Solvents are necessary for many textile operations and are also hazardous. It is reported that the manufacturing of waterproof products, offset printing blankets, landfill liners and other engineered textile products include coating operations which are basically done with some latex ingredients and solvents that are some of the widest constituents of hazardous waste (EPA, 1996, p. 25). From this example it can be understood that hazardous waste is generated during engineered textile production. Additionally, there are some other components which are not classified in a special way. Other components include acids, alkalis, bleaches, adhesives, polymers, cross-linking agents, detergents, dye carriers, chemical finishes, biocides, weed killers, paint strippers and solvents (Barclay & Buckley, 2000, Appendix 39). These are some examples of the hazardous wastes of no type. Consequently, the hazardous type of wastes includes heavy metals, solvents and other components and those are highly damaging for the environment. Lastly, adopting the eco-textiles methodology will be a right attitude considering the environmental benefits, so the negative impacts of textile industry will be decreased. Using the eco-friendly fibres is logical because of the environmentally friendly features of these fibres. Related to these, organic fibres are less hazardous for the environment comparing to the conventional fibres. Although organic cotton is known to be excellent in ecologic terms, since it does not generate toxic materials as much as traditional cotton, it is not profitable enough (Scaturro, 2008, p. 477). In view of this information it can be argued that using

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organic fibres is not advantageous because of lower profits, but it cannot be denied that they are more harmless for the nature. Furthermore, recycled fibres also belong to eco-friendly specification because they minimize the need for rough materials. This can be exemplified as; investigation indicates that producing new polyester fiber from unadulterated supplies extracted from petroleum is considerably more harmful for the environment than generating the identical fibre by using worn out clothing (Modint & Crem, 2010, p. 3). This explains that it is better to prefer recycled fibres to lessen the negative impacts. For all these reasons, ecofriendly fibres should be chosen instead of traditional fibres. Aside from the eco-friendly fibres, sustainable processing is very efficient for the ecotextiles as well. Most processes in textiles industry are hazard giving because of the ingredients, so these processes should become nonhazardous. The chemicals used in bleaching process are usually harmful for the environment but it can become harmless by making the process eco-friendly. Couto and Toca-Herrera explain an example for eco-friendly bleaching; so enzymes have become recently the subject of interest because of their potential to replace the conventional non-biological methods. Laccase enzyme has many advantageous properties such as easing the purification processes, exhibiting stability in the extracellular environment, and having low substrate specificity (2006, p. 115). This would indicate that biological treatments would better take the place of non-biological treatments, so the process will become more ecologically friendly. Dying is also another operation that causes serious hazards for the environment and these hazards can be prevented by changing the operation type into eco-friendly dyeing. Shin, Son and Yoo assert that because of the contention in the mercantile market, energy saving technologies should be used to obtain natural dyed textile goods with good quality features. Consequently, it is very important to enhance natural dyed textiles with thermo-regulating features (2010, p. 1). Considering this information, natural dyes can be preferred to obtain more ecological products. The last step of eco-friendly

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processed production chain will be eco-friendly finishing. An example to eco-friendly finishing by Joshi, Ali and Purwar is that, some companies aid to decrease the ill outcome related to microbial growth on textile material as well as abide by legal entailments enjoined by supervising agents; therefore, exorbitant desire for antimicrobial textiles spring from environmentally friendly organizations (2008, pp. 295). This shows that also different types of products can be fabricated by applying eco-friendly operations. Concluding these, sustainable production systems are provided by eco-friendly production steps and those help the environment to be less damaged. When all these are considered it can clearly be seen that it is actually very simple to protect our precious world from the hazards of textile production. These specific methods of reducing environmental hazards can be a perfect starting point for the textile producers or the textile consumers to rethink of their role in this environmentally harming cycle and decide how to change their customary attitude about this critical issue. Once the sensitivity and feeling of responsibility become wide spread over people, the environmental impact of textile industry will have a great reduction. Moreover, the charming results of depurated environment and nature will not only benefit present generations, but also all the generations that will come after. Consequently, what to do now is to begin preventing textile industrys hazards immediately.

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References Barclay, S., & Buckley, C. (2000). Waste minimisation guide for the textile industry: a step towards cleaner production. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.c2p2online.com/documents/Wasteminimization-textiles.pdf Claudio, L. (2007, September). Waste couture. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(9), A449-A454. Retrieved October 20, 2010, from http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/ cd66/LuzClaudio.pdf Cohen, R. (2007, October 6). His and not hers. New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2010, from http://www.tranclo.com/Article2.pdf Couto, S. R., & Toca-Herrera, J. L. (2006, December). Lacasses in the textile industry. Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Review, 1(4), 118. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from http://www.academicjournals.org/bmbr/PDF/Pdf2006/DEC/ Couto%20and%20Toca-Herrera.pdf Friends of the Earth. (2008). Recycling Why it is important and how to do it?. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/recycling.pdf Gulich, B. (2006). Designing textile products that are easy to recycle. In Y. Wang (Ed.), Recycling in Textiles (pp. 26-32). Retrieved October 20, 2010, from http://divit.library.itu.edu.tr/search~S0*tur?/dtextile+wastes/dtextile+wastes/3,0,0,B/l856~b1369403&FF=dtextile+waste+recycling&1,1,,1,0/indexsort Joshi, M., Ali, S. W., & Purwar, R. (2008, September). Ecofriendly antimicrobial finishing of textiles using bioactive agents based on natural products. Indian Journal of Fibre & Texstile Research, 34. 295-304. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from

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http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/6083/1/IJFTR%2034(3)%20295304.pdf Langley, K. D., Kim, Y. K., & Lewis, A. F. (2000). Recycling and reuse of mixed-fiber fabric renmants. Retrieved October 19, 2010, from http://www.chelseacenter.org/pdfs/TechReport17.pdf Modint & Crem. (2010). Recycled fibres from virgin to eternity. Retrieved November 3, 2010, from http://www.iwto.org/news/wool%20in%20media/pre2008/ wool%20industry%20standards.pdf Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. (n.d.). Environmental guidelines for textiles industry. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.miga.org/documents/ Textiles.pdf Scaturro, S. (2008). Eco-Tech fashion: Rationalizing technology in sustainable fashion. Fashion Theory, 12(4), 477. Retrieved December 1, 2010, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=110&sid=c343b8ce -ea99-4734-9e37-e456fc3e3859%40sessionmgr104 Shin, Y., Son, K., & Yoo, D. I. (2010, July). Development of natural dyed textiles with thermo-regulating properties. Thermochimica Acta, 1(7), 1. Retrieved December 1, 2010, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THV50KC6JX-1&_user=691171&_coverDate=11%2F20%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt= high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C00003 8558&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=691171&md5=2ca25f749f66ae4899044b 317d212dad&searchtype=a

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uteu, D., Blba, D., & Zaharia, C. (2009). Hpan textile fiber wastes for removal of dyes from industrial textile effluents. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braov, 2(51), 217-222. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://but.unitbv.ro/BU2009/ BULETIN2009/Series%20I/BULETIN%20I%20PDF/Materials%20Science%20and% 20Engineering/Suteu%20D_09.pdf U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (1996). Best management practices for pollution prevention in the textile industry. Cincinnati, Ohio: National Risk Management Research Laboratory Center for Environmental Research Information. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from http://www.p2pays.org/ref/02/01099/0109900.pdf