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Greenpeace says its ‘Detox’ campaign efforts could be ruined by the circular economy idea promoted by large global brands. The argument is an effective six year-long effort to reduce hazardous chemicals from the textile global supply chain could be ruined by a premature circular economy, where recycling happens before detoxing processes and materials occur, while the overall growing intensity of production continues to pose a serious threat to the environment.
Since 2011, the NGO’s Detox campaign has been calling on major brands to phase out 11 chemical classes of concern by 2020. It says without eliminating the use and release of harmful chemicals from production chains the circular dream could well become a toxic recirculation nightmare.
It says this is also a prerequisite for high quality circularity by ensuring that clean materials are available for recycling. However, it adds, the current rates of excessive production and consumption in the industry as a whole are probably outweighing any gains that are being made.
Greenpeace warns a circular future for the fashion industry would rely even more on environmentally harmful polyester and still seek growth in material output without questioning the overproduction, overconsumption and the subsequent decrease in the quality and longevity of clothes.
Digitisation will boost India’s GDP growth by 50 to 75 basis points in the next decade and may lead India to become a $6 trillion economy, the third largest in the world says a Morgan Stanley report ‘India's digital leap - The multi-trillion dollar opportunity’. The study further states real and nominal GDP growth is expected to compound annually by 7.1 per cent and 11.2 per cent respectively over the next ten years.
Despite some short-term teething problems, including implementation of GST, there is scope for visible shifts in economic activity starting in 2018, which would eventually lead India to be among the top five equity markets in the world and the third-largest listed financial services sector globally.
India’s consumer sector is also likely to add about $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. However, GST is expected to disrupt smaller businesses causing job losses and a general slowdown in economic growth. There are also risks related to political stability and the privacy debate over the Aadhaar unique identity number.
Gross foreign direct investment inflows amounting to $120 billion by fiscal 2026-27 and robust stock markets should drive stronger corporate earnings growth. The country is also likely to witness strong domestic participation in equities. <br/
European brands don’t always source from Asia. Many go to countries like Tunisia, Greece and Portugal. These countries have provided an ecosystem that’s supporting European brands’ speed to market needs. Tunisia is prominent. The country is known for its trousers followed by intimates, swimwear and sportswear, and technical textiles.
There are 1,700 factories making textiles and apparel in Tunisia, and annual turnover in 2016 was $2.75 billion. Zara, H&M, Boss and United Colors of Benetton are some of the brands that have already picked up on that potential of sourcing in Tunisia.
In Greece, manufacturers like DMiss cater to clients like Asos, VF and Guess with fast fashion. Eighty per cent to 90 per cent of the fabrics DMiss uses in its products are made in Greece, which also keeps the supply chain short. The country is known for its jacquards and cotton quality.
More than good quality for the price, brands benefit from a much shorter supply chain, which means fewer leftovers and greater flexibility. Meanwhile Portugal is also gaining attention. It has the know-how for apparel sourcing. Somani Sociedade Textil in Portugal produces in three main categories: toweling products, nightwear and loungewear, and baby wear and nursery products. Scandinavia is one of the company’s biggest markets, followed by Germany and France.
UK-based Prima Dollar helps factories in emerging markets like Bangladesh with their local cash flow. The financier enables factories and buying houses give what buyers want, which is a purchase order without letters of credit and giving the buyer time to pay (60, 90 or 120 days).
Prima Dollar has been trading in Bangladesh for a year and has financed around 90 shipments in its first year, working with over 40 different buyers and suppliers. It has achieved a high level of rolling trades now, with suppliers sticking with it for repeat business. The company has developed a new financial product that is cheaper, quicker and simpler than letters of credit. This new system saves maybe a 1000 dollars for every 100,000 dollars of export volumes.
Prima Dollar pays factories against shipping documents -- often against copies of documents where it has an arrangement with the local bank working in the shipping process. So the factory does not wait for the money, and faces no risk from the financier.
Getting buyers to pay is trickier. There are several techniques that Prima uses to persuade buyers to pay promptly. Typically Prima works in supply chains that repeat business every month. So buyers rely upon it (as well as the factory) to ensure that shipping documents are being cleared.
"As a part of water conservation initiatives, companies are attempting ways to utilise wastewater as a resource. Among the leading companies, Lanxess has started an initiative and at present about 24,000 cubic metre of wastewater is treated with membrane elements and ion exchangers from Lanxess in the Tiruppur region in Tamil Nadu. The same methodology can be replicated by textile companies who consume huge amounts of water for processing. "
As a part of water conservation initiatives, companies are attempting ways to utilise wastewater as a resource. Among the leading companies, Lanxess has started an initiative and at present about 24,000 cubic metre of wastewater is treated with membrane elements and ion exchangers from Lanxess in the Tiruppur region in Tamil Nadu. The same methodology can be replicated by textile companies who consume huge amounts of water for processing. Leather-making and textile production use large quantities of water and generate a lot of effluent. The liquid waste can now be reduced or completely eliminated, thanks to highly efficient treatment methods using reverse osmosis and ion exchange. Lewabrane and reverse osmosis elements and Lewatit ion exchange resins from Lanxess play an important role in this.
New age conservation technique
The fruit of hard work has started showing in parts. In one textile factory in Tiruppur, a total of 154 Lewabrane ROS400 HR membrane elements and 7,500 liters of Lewatit CNP 80 WS cation exchange resin have been used since August 2016 to process about 85 cu m3 of wastewater per hour. The multi-stage ‘end-of-pipe’ method – i.e., retrofitted environmental protection measures that do not change the production process but do reduce environmental pollution – starts with biological treatment, separation of sludge and coarse filtration. This removes most of the organic content and dispersed particles, e.g., fibres. After this, the filtrate is bleached and then softened with the aid of ion exchangers. In the next step, a low-salt, colorless permeate, containing less than one per cent of the originally dissolved salts and no organic contamination, is produced by reverse osmosis. This can often go right back into the industrial process.
Alexander Scheffler, Membrane Business Director at Lanxess Liquid Purification Technologies Division, explained use of ion exchange is a highly efficient method for pre-treating water before reverse osmosis. The salt-enriched low-chloride retentate can either be re-used directly in the dyeing process or further concentrated. Finally, the salts, primarily sodium sulfate and sodium chloride, are separated into distinct solids. The sulfate can be re-used in the dyeing process and the chloride can be disposed of. With this process, wastewater is no longer produced. This not only protects the environment, but also has the potential to save the textile industry money, mainly thanks to the reclamation of salts. Experts are convinced all of this could be implemented with almost no effect on production costs if primarily regenerative energy sources were used.
Tried & tested methods
New reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements from Lanxess with ASD feed spacers have undergone trials in Germany’s largest industrial water treatment plant. More than 50,000 cu m3 of water are needed every day for pulp manufacturing at Zellstoff Stendal GmbH, Arneburg, and this is treated using reverse osmosis and ion exchange resins. The new grades impressed with their performance and consistently high level of rejection. Optimised for applications in brackish water, these Lewabrane-branded elements are characterised by very low energy consumption (LE = low energy) and high fouling resistance (FR = fouling-resistant).
Manikam Ramaswami, Former Chairman, SIMA, and CMD, Loyal Textiles, passed away at 63. He collapsed after being administered anaesthesia for a dental procedure. He leaves behind his wife and daughter. The Loyal Group includes P.Orr & Sons, a popular watch dealing and servicing company.
Ramaswami was also the past chairman of Texprocil, the association for cotton textiles exports promotion and played a key role in the Confederation of Indian Industry. He was an extremely dynamic personality and an industrialist who demonstrated great leadership to many textile units in southern India. He worked closely with the government for the introduction of the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme, the modular drawback system and the CENVAT route for the textile industry. And as chairman at Texprocil, he had taken several efforts to boost yarn exports.
A mechanical engineer from IIT, he was awarded the Banco Foundation Gold Medal. As a part of his college project, he received a patent for an oscillating piston internal combustion engine. He joined Loyal Textile Mills, his family business, full time in 1976. The company’s revenues rose to Rs 200 crores from Rs 2.5 crores in 1975. Ramaswami was passionate about education — he was the correspondent of the Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai.
The global apparel sector still has a long road ahead until it can claim it is environmentally and socially sustainable. Cotton production worldwide consumes six per cent of all pesticides and 14 per cent of insecticides sold. Millions of farmers, the vast majority of which are smallholders, are dependent on raising cotton as their sole source of income – exposing them to climate change risks and human rights violations. These are the results of a survey by the NGO Solidaridad.
The good news is that the total amount of sustainable cotton sourced by brands and retailers increased from 17 per cent in 2015 to 21 per cent in 2016, indicating that the entire industry at large is slowly changing its ways. But certification and traceability still impose huge challenges, meaning many farmers could be losing out on revenues that could make a difference in their lives. Up to 80 per cent of more sustainably produced cotton was sold as conventional, without any recognition.
There is a need to increase the amount of sustainable cotton in the industry’s global supply chain. Cotton sourcing policies need far more rigor. Companies have to communicate to stakeholders their approach to problems such as water consumption, biodiversity, human rights and recycling. Transparency is key. Companies should report annually on their policies, sourcing strategies and progress as they shift to recycled, organic or more responsibly-grown cotton.
Woolmark has unveiled an unique two-sided fabric Neulana Double. Neulana Double is a 100 per cent wool fabric with two very different surfaces, with one face smooth like a traditional outer shell, with the other side being soft, bulky and brushed.
The innovative double weave fabric provides maximum insulation, while minimising fabric weight and retaining all merino wool’s natural properties such as breathability and moisture management. The outer face of Neulana Double is constructed at high levels of thread density in warp and weft using fine merino wool yarns that have been stretched, but not set, during processing. It is only when the fabric is wet-finished that the stretch is released causing the yarns to contract, thus leading to an extreme tightening of the fabric structure and the creation of the immensely dense fabric.
The inner side of Neulana Double is soft to touch and is suitable next to skin. By using special treatment technology, a loose-yet-full structure is formed inside the yarn, raising the ratio of fabric volume to weight. The end result is an air-like, soft fabric with voluminous characteristics and an exquisitely soft handle. The fabric appears to be bonded, but is actually woven, eliminating the need for any synthetics, glue, membrane or lining, and is suitable for high-end casual jackets.
Thailand hosted an IndustriALL’s Asia-Pacific regional meeting for the textile, garment, leather and shoe sectors, September 29 to 30. Participants discussed the sector’s policies and priorities, common goals and strengthening unions through unity. IndustriALL’s global brand strategy has resulted in agreements between global labor and brands such as H&M, Inditex and Tchibo. Bangladesh’s Accord and the Act initiative illustrate the promises of collective actions to leverage change.
The fashion industry has changed rapidly; strategies of the past are no longer relevant today. IndustriALL regularly joins forces with relevant actors fighting for a sustainable garment industry. Sarah Ditty from Fashion Revolution spoke about their communication strategies and how teaming up with IndustriALL helps to amplify and share union struggles in the sector by sharing their message to their large audience of consumers.
A case study on the H&M global framework agreement was presented and brought together National Monitoring Committee (NMC) representatives from Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Indonesia. They reported on the process of creating well functioning industrial relations through the NMC mechanism.
In a growing industry with complex supply chains, transparency is vital. Human Rights Watch wants factories to publish information on their supply chains and presented its Transparency Pledge Campaign. The pledge was fully supported by participants as increased transparency means that violations of labor rights can be identified.
A clearer picture has emerged of the textile culture in Italy and Greece during the first half of the first millennium BC. There is overwhelming evidence of frequent contact between Italy and Greece during the first half of the first millennium BC, but this evidence shows their textile traditions were technically, aesthetically and conceptually different.
Textiles are relatively rare finds, especially in Mediterranean Europe, due to conditions which are unfavorable for organic material preservation. Many archaeological textile fragments do, however, survive in mineralised form. During the Iron Age people were buried with a lot of metal goods such as personal ornaments, weapons and vessels. These metals are conducive to the preservation of textiles as the metal effectively kills off the micro-organisms which would otherwise consume the organic materials, while at the same time metal salts create casts of textile fibers, thereby preserving the textile microstructure.
This is how a large number of textiles are found, even though they only exist in tiny fragments. Through meticulous analysis using digital and scanning electron microscopy, high performance liquid chromatography and other advanced methods it is possible to determine a lot of information including the nature of the raw materials and structural features such as thread diameter, twist direction, type of weaving or binding, and thread count.
