Welcome back to our blog, our ethical fashionistas! In our previous post, we took a closer look at how the textile industry is related to air pollution. Not only is the textile industry a major consumer of water, we also mentioned that the textile industry is one of the most energy intensive industries among others in the world. In fact, the industry produces 8-10% of global carbon dioxide emissions (Niinimäki et al., 2020). The case study we will be touching on today would be China. As is known to most, China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of textiles and clothing since 1994 (Wang, Li & He, 2017). Hence, this naturally translates to high amounts of air and water pollution vis-à-vis to the textile industry.
The textile industry is one of the key pillars of economic activity in China. Environmental concerns aside, it is an industry that provides employment to many and contribute to the social development of the country. Unfortunately, this industry also contributes to grave environmental problems. As mentioned in the previous post, there are different distinct processes when it comes to the textile industry. They include weaving, spinning and chemical processing. For China’s textile industries, large amounts of yarn is used in the process of weaving, which includes – warping, sizing and drawing in weaving preparation (Wang, Li & He, 2017). Energy consumed during the weaving process comes from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, diesel, fuel oil and natural gas. This is excluding the other energy energy consumption like air conditioning or illumination of lights (for workers) when they are in the process of weaving these materials together.
As for spinning, it is essentially the production of synthetic fibers or the process of making yarn from different varieties of natural fibers. Electricity is consumed the most heavily in driving the machines to make these synthetic fibers and yarn. Some of these processes are called melt-spinning, dry-spinning and wet-spinning (Wang, Li & He, 2017). I would like to make a note here that fibre production contributes to the most CO2 produced. Specifically, synthetic fibers like acrylics produce the most CO2 during the making process because they originate from fossil fuels (Niinimäki et al., 2020). Hence, the synthetic fiber production process contributes way more CO2 as compared to the natural fibers production process.
Moving on to the process of chemical processing, different types of chemicals will be used during textile production. They range from pesticides application (from the cultivation of cotton) to the addition of azo dyes to obtain different colours of clothing. Huge amounts of electricity is consumed during the drying process of textiles as drying is an essential part of the dyeing process. To elaborate, textiles need to be dried out thoroughly and completely after they are dyed. Thus, large amounts of energy are needed to aid in this drying process for the conduction of heat. For this process, mostly coal and natural gas are used to produce the heat and electrical energy needed (Wang, Li & He, 2017).
From the above 3 main processes, it has been illustrated that a lot of fossil fuels are being bunt in the textile industry. Large amounts of CO2 are being emitted into the atmosphere. Not only that, the burning of coal as seen in the aforementioned posts, greatly contributes to NOx and SO2 emissions. These gases contribute to heavy acid deposition which is said to be found in more than half of the 696 cities and counties in China (Hill, 2010).
Air pollution like water pollution can be transboundary. They are carried by wind, water or animals without considering the borders set by humans (Hill, 2010). Hence, this is what makes such pollution the scariest. Countries that hardly contribute to air pollution can be the ones suffering from the consequences of it. Thus, neighbouring countries surrounding China can be severely impacted by the pollution being produced. One example to note is that chemicals used to waterproof textiles, which is made up of the chemically stable fluoropolymers can be found in Arctic locations and in the bodies of arctic animals (Niinimäki et al., 2020). This illuminates that air pollution is transboundary and can travel through such long distances. Although there are treaties or agreements out there to curb the production of these air pollutants, they will inevitably affect other areas too.
After all that has been said, how do we improve the current situation? Given China’s reliance on fossil fuels, it is difficult to immediately halt or curb all usage. Realistically, there has to be time given for China to make changes to more sustainable sources of energy. As seen in the above diagram, the makeup of coalcoke for China’s energy structure in the textile industry has been on a decreasing trend. This is a positive sign as this points to a decrease in fossil fuel consumption in the textile industry. On the other hand, from 1990 to 2016, Thermal energy (heat) that comes from coal and coal products is still increasing. Hence, coal consumption has not been on a complete decline and more has to be done to move towards a more sustainable production process. Such strategies can range from more sustainable sources of energy like wind or hydropower or more efficient methods of textile manufacturing. With the textile industry being one of China’s main economic activities, it is worth spending the effort, time and resources to look into how the textile industry can be transformed into a more sustainable one. If the largest textile industry is able to become greener, there will be definite ripple effects across the board to ensure that the different textile industries in the world are also moving towards a more sustainable direction.
References:
Hill, M. (2010). Air Pollution. In Understanding Environmental Pollution (pp.117 – 154). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511840654.010
Hill, M. (2010). Acid Deposition. In Understanding Environmental Pollution (pp.155 – 169). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511840654.010
Niinimäki, Kirsi & Peters, Greg & Dahlbo, Helena & Perry, Patsy & Rissanen, Timo & Gwilt, Alison. (2020). The environmental price of fast fashion. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. 1. 189-200. 10.1038/s43017-020-0039-9.
Wang, L., Li, Y., & He, W. (2017). The energy footprint of China’s textile industry: Perspectives from decoupling and decomposition analysis. Energies, 10(10) doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.3390/en10101461
