Gecco Interiors Eco Guide to Textiles – Part I
Textile production is one of the most chemically intensive and thus most polluting activities on earth. Due to the production methods involved, it remains the top industrial polluter of clean water in the world. It can take up to 500 gallons of water to produce enough fabric to cover just one sofa.
Cotton production is traditionally one of the worst offenders due to the excessive use of pesticides in growing the crop – approximately 10% of all pesticides used in the world and 25% of all insecticides are used in cotton production.*
The dyeing processes in the textile industry are also extremely harmful to the planet with many manufacturers using dyes that release aromatic amines such as benzidene and toluidine. The effluent from dye baths can contain heavy metals, ammonia, toxic solids and alkali salts.
Raw textiles are often bleached using chlorine bleach, which is known to be harmful to the environment and the end consumer.
Finally, once the textile has been produced there is the problem of fire retardancy. In Britain, we have some of the most stringent fire regulations in the World. Not a bad thing in itself, but the processes used to protect textiles from fire are highly toxic – made up of a chemical cocktail including formaldehyde, dieldrin, brominated or chlorinated compounds.
Read Part II to see what some textile manufacturers are doing to clean up their act…….
*Allen Woodburn Associates Ltd./Managing Resources Ltd “Cotton: The Crop and its Agrochemicals market” 1995