Textile production is a huge industry and it has grown and developed in less sophisticated nations virtually unchecked for decades. This has of course lead to huge pollution damage across vast swathes of the sub-continent and restrictions have been placed on manufacturers in some areas to clean up their act.
In Tirupur, India for example, the vast amounts of salt discharged in waste water into local rivers (up to 10tonnes per day)* made the water undrinkable. The high levels of salination in the water even prevented the local farmers from using it on their land. Local government regulation has since stopped this practice and the manufacturers are forced to look at alternative methods of dyeing their fabrics with less salt.
Some would say that this can be likened to closing the door after the proverbial horse has bolted and that manufacturers need to change their methods now, before any more damage in done.
So what of those textile producers that are looking at change? What is currently being done to improve the bad name of textile production?
Raw Materials
A selection of new natural raw materials is being brought into textile production that has increasingly relied on man-made fabrics. In fact, some of these materials were used historically but went out of fashion as mass production became key. Some new materials include: organically produced cotton and wool, linen, silk, hemp, ramie, bamboo viscose, tencel and flax.
Increasingly, textile producers are looking towards recycling as a solution with the improvement in methods of recycling PET plastics and polyesters. Tanneries are even reclaiming the off cuts from their hides that would normally have gone to landfill and turning them into recycled leather.
Water Usage
The vast quantities of water needed to produce fabrics, continues to be the bug bear of many when looking at greening-up the industry. Different Manufacturers are using different methods to combat this issue. Some are looking into new methods of dyeing without using salt such as ‘continuous dyeing’ and ‘cold pad batch dyeing’, thus removing the need to rinse and dilute the salt effluents away.
Other companies such as O Eco textiles will only work with textile mills that have built their own water treatment site in order to tackle the problem at source. Camira Fabrics in Yorkshire have drilled their own bore hole on site which does not need to be treated to drinking water standards. In addition, the Jetvac continuous scouring machine recently installed, gives Camira a water usage reduction of 33%.
Dyeing & Finishing
Dystar is a leading dye supplier in the ‘green’ sector and has built a reputation on delivering an environmental answer to the chemical content of mass produced dyes. Even when using water based, solvent free dyes there are however, many other issues to consider such as the salt additives needed to fix the dyes to the textile fibres, or the bleaching methods used on the raw fibres prior to dyeing.
Once again, some companies are looking for their manufacturing partners to innovate and come up with cleaner processes. O Eco Textiles pledge that all of their partners try to use oxygen-based bleaching processes, soften their fabrics with Aloe Vera and bees wax and use biodegradable detergents and surfectants in their production.
Certification
The only way forward in this complex issue is to dig deeper when sourcing or buying fabrics for the green home. Certification is the one sure fire method of determining whether your fabric of choice meets your environmental code. Ask for details from the supplier about any certification that the fabric may have such as GOT’s, Oeko-Tex, Control Union or Soil Association. These labels are run to very strict codes and are possibly the only way that we can trust in the products we buy. For this reason we insist on listing the certification and/or environmental credentials of each of our fabrics at www.geccointeriors.co.uk. For clarification on the different certifications check out our Eco Info section.
