Sustainability Issues for Textiles
The textile sustainability issues borders the manufacture of fabric from manufactured and natural fibers. As usual, this involves processes such as blending, dyeing, weaving, knitting or stripping. In a broader context, sustainability in the textile industry focuses on social issues such as working conditions, workers safety and health. However, the environmental aspects in the production process as core elements of sustainability deserve urgent attention. The main environmental issues regarding textile sustainability comprises of chemical use, water use, pollution, and energy use. In essence, materials such as wool have strong resilience and utility, thus makes them friendly to the environment as opposed to new compounds, which are often worried about their sustainability concerns. As such, purchases for fabrics by consumers in the modern world depend on environmental and social concerns as the core elements of sustainability.
A sustainable textile comprises of four main elements including raw material extraction, added chemistry, textile production, and end-of-life. For example, raw material extraction addresses the water and land used to grow the fibers such as wool, cotton, or the impacts of fossil fuels extraction to obtain synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester.
In terms of production, the textile sustainability issues include energy and water used for manufacturing, the company’s social responsibility roles to communities and workers and the production waste impacts. Pertinently, the added chemistries such as finishes, dies, coatings have potential side effects especially about to the workers’ and end-product consumers’ health.
Similarly, it is essential to understand that the end-of-life scenario of textiles that give rise to sustainability concerns. Essentially, some of the added chemistry makes the products non-decomposable, thus remaining potential pollutants in the environment. In terms of the end-of-life aspects, the reclamation infrastructure, which is required to turn such a product into a raw material, has a strong effect on its sustainability. In addition, the biodegradability of the textile product remains key to influence its sustainability.
Typically, longevity is one of the aspects of sustainability of a fabric. The question is, “what does a high-performance fabric has?” Obviously, it is common understanding that longevity is the inherent quality of a fabric that determines whether it is classified under high-performance materials. As such, durability or the extent to which a fabric resists deterioration is a key consideration. In this context, garments that people discard after a short time are regarded as hardly sustainable. Similarly, the furniture textiles and carpets that need to regular replacement are not sustainable either.
Notably, manufacturers embed chemicals in the yarn of a material or apply coatings, or finishes to a material after the production process. For example, “Easy care” fabrics are embed with stain-resistant coatings such as perfluorinated compounds that are essential components for making cookware commonly referred to as ‘Nonstick cookware.”
Sportswear or hospital-use-textiles, the extreme use fabrics, have antimicrobial finishes, as is the case with triclocarban and silver. On the other hand, flame retardant textiles rely on halogenated flame-retardants, which are components of their fibers. Besides, improving performance, the aforementioned chemicals are hazardous to environmental and human health. For example, PCFs are bio-accumulative and persistent, properties that make them even disastrous and have been found in animals and people worldwide.
While concerns of health risks may be common in users of treated textiles, the threat of such textiles is likely to be even higher for employees in textile finishing plants or the people/surrounding communities. In some cases, epidemiological studies on PCFs link the synthetic fibers exposure to testicular cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid disease and other complications.
Alternatively, antimicrobials such as triclocarban and silver pose danger to the environment. In most cases, up to 50% of such antimicrobial finishes are washed off and drain into water bodies. Accumulations of the aforementioned antimicrobials into rivers cause water pollution. The effect of these antimicrobial agents goes beyond causing water pollution because people consume once the substances or humans in drinking water, they cause health problems such as disorders and particular diseases.
In addition to antimicrobial agents, halogenated retardants pose a similar health risk to people. The retardants are pertinent additions to particular clothing in the US in order to attain certain flammability standards. On the contrary, some studies indicate that the compounds do not enhance overall fire safety. However, the halogenated compounds affect people’s health. Virtually, all US citizens have widely used flame-retardants in their blood levels. Furthermore, in the United States, young children have the highest levels of the halogenated flame-retardants in their blood relative to other countries.
As the health implications have become more evident, it is important to identify the acceptable performance essential for fabrics. In addition, to identify the acceptable level of risk about to continuous use of detrimental additives in textiles is a milestone towards addressing sustainability issues of textiles. Nowadays, safer alternatives are in the market and in natural fibers, which ought to have been ignored because of performance attributes. The alternatives serve as immediate options towards addressing textile sustainability issues.
Certainly, bio-mimicry is one of the promising approaches. In essence, bio-mimicry involves the application the designs of nature to products made by man. For example, textiles that mimic the stain resistant attributes found in natural leaves are available in the market. Similarly, some treatments that are considered sustainable mimic antimicrobial properties of lobster and crab cells. Undoubtedly, application of such technologies in the manufacture of textiles can help in preventing deleterious effects of textile additives on the environment and people’s health.
The use of existing fibers having both sustainable and performance attributes is key to prevent environmental pollution and adverse risks to human health. For example, solution dying that is a process of locking the color into a fiber results in the production of a high-performance textile. On the other hand, the use of solution dying especially in garment applications produce clothing resistant to fading even with repeated laundering. In addition, carpet and upholstery, solution-dyed finishes can withstand regular cleaning regimes without deteriorating or fading.
Noticing that solution dying is highly cleanable obviates the use of an added stain resistant coating or finish. In addition, such an approach helps to reduce the amount of water used in the process of production-a long sustainability issue in the textile sector. Of uttermost importance, is the fact that such dyed nylon is reclaimable because there are recycling infrastructure to enhance reuse of the old fiber.
Besides the aforementioned sustainable options, the use of wool is a good approach in addressing textile sustainability issues. In fact, the use of wool is the oldest high-performance option. Usually, wool has many sustainable properties. Some of the characteristics of wool that make it sustainable include its biodegradability, recyclability and the ease with which it can be reproduced organically. Unlike perfluorinated finish, which is slippery and oil repellent, wool’s performance properties are laudable even without the added chemistry.
In conclusion, the textile sustainability issues borders the manufacture of fabric from manufactured and natural fibers. The environmental aspects in the production process as core elements of sustainability deserve urgent attention. Therefore, it is pertinent to adapt consider sustainable approaches in the use and production of textiles to minimize environmental damage and risks to human health.
Bibliography
Fletcher, Kate, and Mathilda Tham. Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion. 2015.
Gardetti, Miguel Angel, and Ana Laura Torres. Sustainability in Fashion and Textiles Values, Design, Production and Consumption. Sheffield: Greenleaf Pub, 2013.
Muthu, Subramanian Senthilkannan. Roadmap to Sustainable Textiles and Clothing: Eco-Friendly Raw Materials, Technologies, and Processing Methods. 2014.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development. The Application of Biotechnology to Industrial Sustainability. Paris: OECD, 2001.
