Raw Materials and Wastes
General Overview
The major pollution problems presented by textile
wet processing are water pollution problems. There
are a few problems with air pollution by chemicals,
lint, etc, but these are minor . The largest impact,
especially with respect to water pollution, may be
made in the wet-processing operations, primarily
those steps taken after the construction of
unfinished fabric (commonly called gray or greige
goods), because these operations are the most water
and energy-intensive and potentially the greatest
waste-generating part of the textile industry .
Because there is such a diverse product and
application range of textiles today, the type of
processing used is highly variable and depends on
site-specific manufacturing practices as well as the
type of fiber used and the final physical and
chemical properties desired. Even for a constant
product type, no two textile mills use exactly the
same methods of production .
The information contained in the tables,
describing in more detail the characteristics of the
textile industry categories, must not be considered a
material balance. It is just a compilation of the
data found in the literature reviewed. They are
presented just to give an idea of what the order of
magnitude of the different inputs and outputs can be.
Due to the variety of process and bibliographic
sources used, the data might not be consistent (i.e.,
the sum of individual data with respect to global
data or even the values for water consumption and
water discharge from an operation might present
important differences).
In the literature reviewed, dyeing and printing
are described as a unit operation and differences
between processing operations were not specifically
found. Therefore, these two operations are described
under a separate heading rather than as a step in a
particular industrial category.