Environmental textiles processing

Hickman, W.S. Environmental aspects of textile processing. J. Soc. Dyers Colour. 1993, 109, 32-37. 

Textile processing houses discharge a lot of contaminated hot waste water and emit smoke, which are sources of water and air pollution. There is an inter-relationship of energy recovery and environmental protection. Increased temperature have negative effect on the organisms living in water and destroy the ecological system. The waste water and exhaust gas can be used to heat up clean, cold water and this can be returned to the production process. 

Ren, X., 20(X). Development of environmental performance indicators for textile process and product. Journal of Cleaner Production 8, 473—481. 

Last but not least, as in any other methodology of environmental evaluation, the avaUabihty of databases and models of EF application to fibers and textile processes and products is another challenge that would help in a wider application and standardization of this methodology in this particular sector. 

However, a recently performed LCA benchmarking study by van der Velden et al. (2014) on textiles made from cotton, polyester, nylon, acryl and elastane revealed that the environmental effects of different products depend not only on the base materials but also on the thickness (linear density) of the yam. The environmental burden of different textile processes such as spinning, weaving and knitting decreases with the increase in the linear density of yam. According to the cradle-to-grave analysis, cotton fibre textiles have the highest environmental impacts, followed by nylon, elastane. 

This chapter provides information about major enzymes used either in commercial textile processes or in current advanced research to improve the performance of textile materials. The use of enzymes in textiles has also been applied to textile surface design to achieve unique surface patterning. The environmental impact of the use of enzymes in the textile processing in comparison to conventional processing has been discussed. There is a bright future for enzyme-based biotechnology to be implemented in the textile industry and to make a contribution to textile sustainabihty. 

In order to convert fibers into consumer products, several processes are required in a production seqnence, as indicated in Fignre 7.1. This chapter reviews environmental impacts of each of the above textile processing steps after fiber formation. In addition, information is presented on processing auxiliary chemicals, as well as some general ideas concerning process improvements to reduce wastes and environmental impact of processing. 

There are fundamentally two approaches to environmental protection waste treatment and waste prevention. Treatment systems are well known and are beyond the scope of this discnssion. Some comments on prevention will be presented. These pollntion prevention ideas are similar to the more extensive treatment given in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Manual for Best Management Practices for Pollution Prevention in Textile Processing [1]. 

But there is an additional dimension to consider dining processing environmental pollution. Conventional textile processing is highly polluting ... 

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