Textiles and clothing trade in the next decade

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A river turned multi-colour from a textile factory dumping dye.

GKM Towfique Hassan
Over the years textile trade has become a centre of discussion due to its globalisation integrating developing countries and LDCs (least developed countries) and its impact on the global environment. The trade has been a centre of controversy, as it has contributed to economic growth, job creation, poverty alleviation, while at the same time has negatively impacted environment, especially global warming, destruction of bio-diversity and ecological balance.
Today consumers have become more aware of the need to protect the environment and companies use the terms eco-friendly to promote their goods and services with eco-labels. Establishment of Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and avoidance of hazardous chemicals in the textile processing have been discussed so much in workshops and seminars that stakeholders are aware of these issues. Therefore, these issues have been set aside in this article. Rather issues that have not been much discussed shall be dealt with here which also have had profound impact on the environment while trading in textiles and clothing.
We know that the term environment-friendly generally refers to eco-friendly, nature-friendly and at time green to refer to goods and services claiming no harm to environment. Clothing is not only an integral part of our lives but also one of our physiological needs that has a direct relationship with environment. Environmental concerns started to draw more attention in the textiles and clothing sector owing to global warming and destruction of bio-diversity. Global pollution supported by increased awareness is prompting consumers to seek healthier living choice. So what we see is more emphasis in getting momentum in green supply chains. Studies conducted by Moore and Ausley stated that productivity could be increased through greener production induced by cooperative stakeholders' actions, i.e. green supply chain and management drivers such as organisational support, social capital and government involvement including cooperation with customers, eco-design and investment recovery.
Besides recovery of energy from cotton ginning waste with greenhouse gas emissions reduction could be a step for competitiveness and eco- friendly production process. This has been revealed by a study conducted by Zabaniotou and Andreou in Greece. Textile industry globally produces around 60 billion Kg of fabrics per year and contribute significantly to international trade, employment generation, GDP growth and economic development. At the same time this production process contributes significantly toward industrial carbon foot prints generally known as "an elephant in the house" responsible for global warming. It is estimated that through the production of fibres, both natural and synthetic, dyeing, bleaching and finishing around 132 million metric tons of coal are burnt every year and around six to nine trillion litres of water are consumed. Every year about 120 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide and around 40 million tonnes of nitrogen oxides are released by industrialised nations. In 2011 around 38.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide has been released into the environment by industrial units globally.
Eco-labelling: Eco-labelling systems for textile products have been studied and a simple structure was developed as a base for labelling. They are energy consumption levels during fibre production, spinning, weaving, knitting, wet processing, determining transportation in Kilo miles, investigating raw materials in Kg according to renewable or non-renewable, investigating water consumption, controlling industrial emissions, to water, analyzing use of harmful substances, evaluating working environment in the aspect of noise level and temperature.
Here are some interesting aspects of the magnitude of the negative impact on the environment by industrial units. A study undertaken by University of Copenhagen in 2008 revealed that by simply reusing the second-hand unused 1.0 kg of clothing rather than going for producing a new one, we can reduce 3.6 kg of CO2 emissions, save 6000 liters of water consumption, 0.3 kg of fertiliser use and 0.2 kg of pesticide. In many African countries over 80 per cent of the population dress themselves in unused second-hand clothing.
WHO findings: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a significant number of deaths occur annually in developing countries from use of poisons pesticides used in crops. Cotton alone uses about one fourth of the world's insecticides. It has now been observed that synthetic fabrics and clothing fibres processed with heavy chemical agents are facing declining popularity because of the harmful effects on our planet and on our health.
More than a million tons of textiles are thrown away each year, most of which by households rather than industry. Today many recycling centres, charities and collection projects accept textile goods. Clothing, blankets, curtains and other items made of fabric can be reused if they are in good condition or converted into new products. Presently 50 per cent of all textiles collected are reused and 50 per cent are recycled.
Vast amount of fibres produced are synthetic which are actually by-product of petro- chemicals (nylon, polyester, rayon). They consume huge energy to create.
In addition to that chemicals used in manufacturing end up as toxins, polluting air, soil, water. Besides cotton fibre production requires huge use of pesticides, chemical fertiliser and water. Dyeing and bleaching of fabrics involves chemicals, energy and water. It is estimated that every year around 1.0 million metric tons of chemicals and dyes are used for bleaching and dyeing. All these issues will be significant factors all over the world including Bangladesh in the next decade. This may be a wake up call for our textile and clothing producers now. Without properly addressing these issues it would be difficult to have buyers' acceptance and remain competitive and sustain.
The global apparel market has been changing under the influence of many factors. For example, developed economies have been shifting textile and apparel production to developing economies and four major production blocks have emerged as contenders. They are China, India, Bangladesh and Pan European and Mediterranean region.
Eco-friendly clothing: One thing textiles producers here should remember that eco-friendly clothing is created from resources that are environment-friendly and sustainable and efficient management of obtaining them requires to consider all stages starting from designing for the environment, obtaining raw materials, producing garments, distributing them to the channels, stores and considering their reverse logistics and waste management and disposal. Future customers in the big chain shall emphasise on those and also at the same time like to see as to how the vendors handle issues listed below that impact environment negatively. However, organisations do not have to consider each product and component or raw material input individually. They may select categories of activities to relate to their environmental aspects. They are:
* Carbon emission to air
* Release of chemicals & dyes to water
* Release of contaminated water to land
* Quantum of use of raw materials and natural resources
* Amount of energy used
* Amount of energy emitted
* Waste and by-product disposal
* Other physical attribute
Consideration shall also be given to aspects related to organisational activities such as:
* Design and development of product & factory layout
* Manufacturing process
* Workplace safety
* Packaging and transportation
* Environmental performance
* Waste management
* Extraction and distribution of raw materials & natural resources
* Distribution to consumers/ buyers
* Wildlife and bio-diversity protection.
Many textile experts and environmentalists believe that current production process in many textile producing countries is not sustainable in the long run due to significant rise in environmental awareness. They felt that there is a strong need to go for energy efficiency production process. Many new inventions in the field of technology have taken place to have environmentally acceptable production process. At the same time new generation chemicals and dyes are available in the market which could be used for eco-friendly production. This may increase cost of production and lead to higher prices of the products, but the final consumers probably would not hesitate to pay as long as the produce is eco-friendly. Big retailers also would be agreeable to pay higher price for clean production process. Even small changes as outlined below may save money, resources as well as environment. They are:
* A need to raise awareness for eco-friendly product and production process
* Choose organic cotton over conventional cotton and avoid synthetic fibres
* Go for innovative processing system
* Restructure and redesign production process to integrate environment and competitiveness.
Bangladesh perspective: So far our discussion and analysis was confined to global production process and its impact on the environment. Now let us look into Bangladesh perspective. Bangladesh textile sector as a whole has very little negative impact on environment. It is only the Dyeing, Printing, Finishing sub-sector which has some impact as they are the only sub-sector that go for the use of chemical and dyes use. Beside that textiles raw materials are mostly imported where anti-pollution actions are beyond the realm of Bangladeshi textile producers. What they can do is try to convince the buyers and ultimate consumers that to have environment-friendly clothing, they shall have to pay slightly higher price. Developed countries applied environmentally improvement programme for cost saving, especially in textile sectors, through reduction of chemical waste and water use by 95 per cent and 85 per cent respectively. This achievement has been possible due to introduction of environment protection production programme and improved technology action plan.
Environmental degradation has historically occurred due to ignoring pollution, diluting waste water into water bodies, and land/soil, rampant use of chemicals and dyes. So textile dyes, printing and finishing should continue in an integrated manner using preventive environmental strategy in processes, products and services to augment eco-efficiency and to reduce risks for humans and the environment. For manufacturing processes, environment preventive production should include:
* Conserving raw materials, water and energy
* Eliminating toxic raw materials, chemicals and dyes( New generation dyes & chemicals )
* Reducing the quantity and toxicity of all emissions
* Reducing waste at source
All these could be a powerful combination of higher efficiency, increased competitiveness, huge financial cost savings, greater customers' acceptability including improvement in environment. While going for textile dyeing and printing we need to take into account textile wet processing. In most of the cases textiles effluents are coloured and saline, so they contain non-bio-degradable compound and are high in BOD and COD (Biological & Chemical Oxygen Demand). When combined together, they entail serious complex problems to treatment work and add to extra costs.
In the next decade heavy pressure will come all over the world from government regulators, consumers and multinational buying houses and corporations for the introduction of waste and pollution management practices. At present some companies are focusing on reducing pollution or wastage or recycle wastage for some other purposes globally.
Here in Bangladesh we should strive to go for prevention rather than developing expensive treatment schemes. In addition to that a plan may be drawn up with measurable reduction in water, energy, chemical inputs and effluent discharge, Also we should go for transfer knowledge on environment protection production plan and build local capacity to sustain the process. Further we need to create awareness on environmental problem s and the possibilities of solving them through effective plan. We shall have to introduce environment audit at least to satisfy our customer that we are aware of the issue and trying to go green and have clean production. The competitive environment forces industries throughout the textile producing world to redesign and restructure their existing production process. In such a situation we cannot sit idle. The wakeup call has been sounded, and we need to rise to the sound for a better tomorrow.
The author is a part-time faculty at BUFT, Primeasia and South East University & an adviser to BTMA. Views expressed are that of the author's and they have no link to the organisations he represents. He was a former Director General (Textile) at EPB. hassan. youngconsultants @ gmail.com