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Solid Waste Management in Textile Industry

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 J. Res. Technol. Eng. 3 (1), 2022, 1-7

MINI-REVIEW
Solid Waste Management in Textile Industry
Nadeera W.A.A.P, Karunarathna D.D.A, Madushan D.M.H, Ferdinando K.P.M.D.D.L,
Perera G.D.V, Abeyunawardhana W.L.K

Faculty of Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

[email protected]

Received:01 Nov 2021; Revised: 15 Nov 2021; Accepted: 30 Dec 2021; Available online: 10 Jan 2022

Abstract: Textile is one of the primary needs of human beings in the modern world. The Textile industry has a vast production
capacity across the globe. Regarding the production capacity, it generates a considerable amount of solid waste. Under
sustainable development, most textile industries pay attention to implementing a proper waste management system. The
importance of reducing, reusing, recycling, and managing waste is motivated by the increasing cost and decreasing availability of
dumping areas, and the diminishing of natural resources. The central government imposes several regulations, protocols, and
structures to guide the process of textile industries towards being environmentally friendly. Most textile industries worldwide
tend to establish a sustainable development department to implement the waste management process. But the main barriers to
managing wastes are lack of technology, lack of equipment, and lack of consumer awareness about recycled and upcycled
products. It is essential to give knowledge to consumers about the value of buying recycled and upcycled products. It will help
ensure a good market for these products and motivate textile industries to manage their waste correctly.

Index Terms: Fabric waste, recycling, textile waste, toxicity, upcycling, wastewater

1 INTRODUCTION
Waste is directly affecting the human world socially, technologically, economically, and environmentally. It
is essential to manage solid waste to ensure environmental protection and protect natural resources for
future generations. This paper focuses on significant waste generation activities in the textile industry, basic
waste management concepts used in the textile industry to implement a proper waste management system,
waste management techniques, global market demand for recycled and upcycled textile products, and
negative impacts on the environment from waste. It is essential to have discussions, researches, specific
studies, and inventions to reduce the impact of waste on the environment.
In the textile industry, there are two significant paths to generating waste. The first path is all the production
processes that create waste and the second path is employee activities that make different types of wastes.
Identifying these two paths is the key to solid waste management in the textile industry [1]. In large-scale
textile industries, there are thousands of employees working inside the industry. So individually, a
considerable amount of solid waste is generated by them. It is essential to capitalize on those areas to
identify the waste generating activities in the industry [2].

Solid waste generated by the production processes

Waste from the fabric store
Fabrics for production are stored in a fabric storehouse and dispatched when needed. These fabrics are
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coming from outside sources and can be damaged or not to the required quality. Through the desired
inspection process, these damaged fabrics can be identified.
Waste from the cutting room
Fabrics are issued to the cutting room by the fabric storehouse. Several sources generate solid waste in the
cutting room, such as cutting waste, marker utilization, roll surplus, etc. This is a significant production
process that produces waste.
Waste from the bundling room
Fabric pieces are issued to the bundling room before it goes to production floor. In here some inspection
steps can be happened but not a good inspection process. Considerable amount of waste can be generated in
a bundling room.
Waste from the production floor
This is the major area that generates waste. According to the operation, loader loads the production lines
with fabric bundles. In here a desired inspection process is happened and defective fabric pieces are found
by the operators [3].
Waste from the aqueous systems
Aqueous systems are used in the textile industry for fabric preparation steps, including de-sizing, scouring,
bleaching, and mercerizing purposes. An extensive amount of water is being used in the textile industry.
Especially finishing chemicals and other chemicals are applied to textile substrates from water baths. When
the water is coming out from the system, it contains several pollutants. Also, faulty valves, leakages, and
mismanagement of aqueous systems can generate a considerable amount of wastewater in the industry [4],
[5].
Waste from the chemical process
Several chemical processes are launched in the textile industry. Chemicals are applied to the fabric for
several purposes. This generates toxic chemical waste, which desperately needs to be managed inside the
industry [4], [5].

2 WASTE MANAGEMENT
Waste management includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its
final disposal. When practicing waste management, most textile industries use a basic concept of waste
management to implement a proper waste management system. Most textile industries use a waste
management hierarchy, zero waste concepts, and 3R waste hierarchy to implement their waste management
system.
1. Waste Management Hierarchy
Fig. 1 represents the waste management hierarchy and its basic steps. Also it includes some basic
information about this waste management concept. In this concept, the most favorable option is
‘REDUCE.’ Simply, it minimizes the amount of waste produced from each production process. Disposal is
the least promising option in this hierarchy. From top to bottom mainly there are five options here. Reuse,
Recycle and Recover are the other three options. According to the industry and its facilities, we can apply
this waste management concept to implement a proper waste management system [6], [7].

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Fig. 1. Waste management hierarchy [6]

2. Zero Waste Management

In the industrial sector, the zero waste concepts are a successful concept for solving waste problems. Rather
than managing waste inside the industry, this aims to eliminate waste. Also, the zero-waste concept can be
defined as a systematic process of eliminating waste at the source. A closed-loop circular system is modeled
in zero waste, and one-way linear resource use and disposal culture is rejected. Zero waste creates more job
opportunities compared to waste incineration [8], [9].

3. 3R Waste Hierarchy
Fig. 2 shows the basic steps of the 3R waste hierarchy. The 3R waste hierarchy can be
identified as a management tool to guide the allocation of resources and policy formation. The 3R waste
hierarchy extracts the maximum value from already produced products and minimizes the amount of waste
disposed of. This waste hierarchy grew in popularity during the early 21st century due to global
environmental issues and the depletion of natural resources. 3R waste strategy generates both economic and
ecological benefits [10], [11].

Fig. 2. 3R waste hierarchy [10]

Reduce
When upcoming fast fashion models and trendy products supply to the retail stores as quickly as
possible, the traditional fashion retail methods are moving away. So seasonal fashion trends, fast fashion
retailers constantly introduce new fashion of textile throughout the year. So social media display new styles
of fast fashion Textile. As a result, customers are buying new fast fashion Textiles at a lower price. So, to
reduce strategies, these textile wastes introduce education and awareness campaigns. These campaigns
should be to educate customers about sustainable purchasing and use decisions. So, they can adjust their
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purchasing and consumption to cultivate environmental concern and encourage by recognizing the impact
of environmental degradation. So, this campaign helps to remove the connotation of consumers these
textiles are disposable. It can reduce the demand for textile and reduce textile waste [12], [10], [13].
Reuse
Reuse waste focuses on reusing and used items prolonging their life. So, this extends the life of
textile and its reduced water, carbon, resource, and waste footprints. The most common example for this
can be described as second-hand reuse market. But the problem is there are a lot of textiles in the bales that
are unsellable. So, they end up thrown out. Most countries have textile donation centers, but people through
away items because they think donation center doesn't accept them. Most people appear to be lack
understanding about the donation and reuse process. So, the industry focuses on two components for reuse
strategy, information campaign, and collaboration. People have too low knowledge about this recycling
strategy. So, the industry should expand the awareness campaign to include information on reusing textiles
[10], [14].
Recycle
This involves recovering valuable raw materials from products by using chemical or mechanical
recovery processes and use to make a new product. This process keeps unnecessary textile waste from
landfills. The industry should develop a comprehensive collection and handling system with demand for
recycled products and technologies, and second, the industry increases the investment for recycling process
and support initiatives or that and doing awareness programs and discuss how the products containing
recycled materials are benefited and how these products help to reduce raw materials, save energy and
reduce CO2 emissions [10], [7].

4. Zero waste management in the textile industry

This process has more employment opportunities when compared to waste incineration by;
increasing recycling and reuse will reduce the production of air pollutants compared to incineration and
landfilling. Industries selected a few strategies to prevent the Generation of waste. This research study was
developed by addressing existing waste management strategies and issues and suggestions to achieve zero
waste management goals. This Framework was developed under 3 headings as planning and design
Production and sales stages. These zero waste goals mean avoiding waste before its Generation and
environmental sustainability, eliminating landfilling and resource efficiency.

Planning and design stage

In this stage, there were several Organizational Strategies to prevent or minimize generation waste.
So, Industries following things identified as inspecting the raw materials before sending in the production
stage, preventing damage by the proper ranking system, checking goods when buying from suppliers.
Production stage
In this stage use new technological machines, giving training to employers to improve awareness.
Reuse of materials, given responsible for workers and keep well-trained staff and good quality control
team.
Sales stage
In this stage prevent waste generation can be summarized as increasing the utilization of cardboard,
reuse and recycle of package materials. There are some issues in this stage, difficulty to increase the
efficiency because of customer constraint, order issues in planning effect to the generated waste. To
overcome this issue can change the opinion on customers to increase the efficiency, send back remaining
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packages for suppliers, check carton quality, use reusable packages and recycle materials can minimize
generation textile waste [8].

5. Upcycling off-cuts into valuable products

The procedure of cutting and separating some raw fabric materials for quality and quantitative
verification of the raw fabric materials resulted in the first fabric waste generation, which began in the
store. After that, the fabric inspection process was followed before production began. A random selection of
10% of raw fabric materials from each allocation is cut and segregated for color shading and shrinkage
testing purposes [15]. Upcycling is a recycling technique in which a waste product is recycled into a raw
material with a higher value than the original. To put it another way, upcycling is the process of changing
waste material into a new product of the same or better quality than the old one. William McDonough and
Michael Braungart were the first to introduce the concept of upcycling items. They proposed that, unlike
recycling, there should be a procedure in which the finished product has a value that is at least equal to that
of the original product [16]. Textile off-cuts can be reused for pillow stuffing, shredding, felting purposes.
Nonwoven sound and thermal insulation mats can be produced from waste wool, recycled polyester. High-
value added upcycled luxury handbags could be designed for fashion markets by using textiles offcuts.
Insulated building material can be produced by using cotton waste and fly ash together with cement and
water [16].

6. Demand for recycled textiles in world market

Numerous Technologies can steam line the textile Recycling Process, but they are commercially
viable. One major thing is the investment and demand needed for recycling Textile waste. So, it can ensure
a stable market for final recycling products. In the UK, there are two recycling applications. They were
wiping cloths and non-woven products. These wiping cloths have a declining market. Non-woven products
are mainly used for car manufacturing, mattress spring coverings that are mature markets. Textile recycling
plays a significant economic role in the global marketplace while having many positive entities and
significantly contributing to social responsibility. However, the textile industry can work to achieve
economies of scale, reduce their overall production cost. There is a barrier to this because cheap fabric
available to the textile markets. Production cost, uncertain supply chain, lower-quality fiber are additional
challenges for textile recyclers in the market. However, some large retailers introduced recycled fiber into
their products to ensure a stable end market that needs more demand by manufacturers [10], [17], [18].

7. Negative impact of waste on the industry and environment

7.1) Impact on Industry
The generation of waste in the textile manufacturing process is a significant challenge facing
the industry. Dispose of some of the valuable raw materials used in textiles as waste also contributes to the
increased production costs. Reworking, replacement production, and inspection occur wasteful handling
time and effort. Increasing the percentage of waste generated also increases energy loss. It requires extra
effort, energy, and cost to transport, dispose and adequately manage the generated waste. If an institute or a
factory is not able to properly work this waste, it will face many legal, environmental, and social problems.
It can directly affect the existence, image, and profitability of the organization. [16]
7.2) Impact on the environment
Textile industry impacts several environmental pollution problems directly and circularly.
Water Pollution
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Millions of gallons of water are used in the textile industry daily. They are used for washing the fiber,
bleaching, dyeing and then cleaning the finished product. Water mixed with more chemicals and other
solvents during the above processes. Most dyes and chemicals used are synthetic. They are not readily
biodegradable. Most of the time that wastewater is discharged into water bodies without appropriate
treatment so the BOD value of water bodies is increased. This disturbs the aquatic environment and
aquatic lives. [19]
Air Pollution
Gaseous wastes with solvent vapors such as ammonia and formaldehyde are normally diffused to the
atmosphere from many textile industries. In addition, carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas is
released into the atmosphere in significant quantities through the textile industry. The release of
cotton dust into the air can be a health hazard. It can cause acute respiratory diseases and the air
emissions include damage to animal life, vegetation. Furthermore, air pollution contributes to global
warming and global climate change. [20]
Noise Pollution
Excessive noise has threatened the life of workers and the residential areas around them from textile
manufacturing industries. High noise level causes psychological effects and physical damage,
including irritability, loss of concentration, anxiety, and increased pulse rate. [21]
8. Environmental and economic benefits of managing textile waste
 As a benefit of maximizing fiber reuse reduces the cost of purchasing the material and the use of the
generated solid waste for by-products such as paper production increases additional revenue and
reduces the amount of waste added to the environment.
 The textile industry collects a large amount of wastewater compared to other industries. Therefore,
improving the quality of wastewater contributes to reducing water pollution.
 Impact of Global Warming potential
Methane emission from landfills to generate electricity and emitted by combustion can
be used as a source of heating. Therefore, the effect on the environment from these
emissions can be reduced and a significant amount of energy can be saved.
 90% of discarded fiber by the consumers can be recycled. Achieving sustainable fashion can be
economically viable and greatly contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and has
enormous environmental benefits. [22][23]

3. CONCLUSION
Pollution and harmful textile waste are increasing. Because a lot of textile release by several industries like
garments, second-hand market, bales. Air, noise, water pollution is the most common environmental
pollutions that can happen by textile waste. So, sustainable developed waste management system is needed
for these industries. So, enterprises look forward to a 3R waste hierarchy, zero waste management options
to develop textile waste management. So, the industries invest in Reuse, reduce and recycling and try to
manage textile waste. And there are lots of employees work in the industry, by giving proper training and
give responsible for them and improving awareness try to manage waste before they generate by zero waste
management theory. Discarded waste fabrics are now new resources and wealth potential. Textile recycling
plays a significant economic role in the global marketplace, and the textile industry can work to achieve
economic scale by reducing its production cost. Further research is needed for analyzing and identifying an
eco-friendly waste management system. The waste-to-energy approach in the textile industry could be
potentially considered for waste minimize and sustainable renewable energy.
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