Water Pollution

The textile industry uses high volumes of water throughout its operations, from the washing of fibers to bleaching, dyeing and washing of finished products. On average, approximately 200 L of water are required to produce l kg of textiles (Table 3) . The large volumes of wastewater generated also contain a wide variety of chemicals, used throughout processing. These can cause damage if not properly treated before discharge to the environment. Of all the steps involved in textiles processing, wet processing creates the highest volume of wastewater.

The aquatic toxicity of textile industry wastewater varies considerably among production facilities. The sources of aquatic toxicity can include salt, surfactants, ionic metals and their metal complexes, toxic organic chemicals, biocides and toxic anions. Most textile dyes have low aquatic toxicity. On the other hand, surfactants and related compounds, such as detergents, emulsifiers and dispersants are used in almost each textile process and can be an important contributor to effluent aquatic toxicity, BOD and foaming. Detailed information on the sources of wastewater for the wet processing of different fibers (cotton, wool and blendes, synthetic fiber) includes, main pollutants, volumes, wastewater characteristics and pollution impact is also available.

Solid Waste Pollution

The primary residual wastes generated from the textile industry are non-hazardous. These include scraps of fabric and yarn, off-specification yarn and fabric and packaging waste. There are also wastes associated with the storage and production of yarns and textiles, such as chemical storage drums, cardboard reels for storing fabric and cones used to hold yarns for dyeing and knitting. Cutting room waste generates a high volume of fabric scraps, which can often be reduced by increasing fabric utilization efficiency in cutting and sewing. The following table (Table 4) summarizes solid wastes associated with various textile-manufacturing processes.

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