Introduction
Hook:
Textile production water usage has become one of the biggest environmental issues in the past few years. The textile industry, which uses some of the most water in the world, is notorious for using and polluting water. Polypropylene is the most popular synthetic fibre in the world, being among the fabrics that get made in bulk. It is preferred because of its durability, affordability and adaptability. But in an age of environmental vigilance, we must also study the water impacts of polyester fabric production and its role in water-related pollution.
Importance:
It’s important to know the amount of water used to produce polyester for consumers and companies that want to make better fashion sustainability choices. Polyester’s water footprint — though much less reported than naturals such as cotton — is significant, and it deserves notice. With more fashion industry pressure to be more eco-conscious, it’s critical to examine how polyester production affects water use, the sources of water pollution and how we can reduce it.
Thesis Statement:
This article is all about the water used in polyester fabric production, the impact it has on the environment, and efforts made to conserve water during the polyester manufacturing process. By looking at each stage of polyester manufacturing, from polymerization to dyeing, this article points out how much water we use, and what innovation is being done to make it less environmentally harmful.
1.How Polyester Fabrics Are Made?
- What is Polyester?
Polyester is a synthetic fibre that comes from petroleum products, the most popular being polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in plastic bottles. The fabric is made up of polymerised molecules designed to be long chains, and these are spun to make textile fibres. They are woven or knit into forms for everything from clothing to industrial products.
Key Stages in Polyester Manufacturing:
Polymerization: The precursor to polyester is PET made by polymerizing chemicals like terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG). These chemicals are heated and recombined into a polymer.
Spinnaker: Once polymer is prepared, it is melted and spun into long fibers. They are cooled and twisted to produce the desired length and thickness (crucial properties when woven or knitted into cloth).
Weaving and Finishing: Polyester fibers are then woven or knitted into textiles that are then completed by dying and coating the textile to finish the final appearance and feel.
These all form part of the total water consumption in polyester manufacturing. Water, for instance, is used to cool polymerization, spinning and, above all, dyeing and finishing.
- Use of Water in Polyester Manufacturing
There are several different stages in polyester manufacturing: raw material production, dyeing, finishing, etc. Polyester production requires less water than cotton, but although it needs a lot of water to grow the raw materials, it is a huge water-user. Particularly important when dyeing – a process that is very water-intensive – is water. Textile dyeing, estimates show, produces about 20% of industrial water pollution in the world.
Breakdown of Water Usage:
Polymerization: PET is cooled and polymerised using water which is also used to clean the raw materials of the polymer. This can depend on the facility, but only a fraction of the total water used in polyester manufacturing.
Spinning and fiber-shaping: During spinning process, the fibers are cooled down with water when extruded and calcined. We also flush out chemicals that we used in excess with water.
Dyeing and Finishing: The wettest part of polyester production. The textiles are submerged in huge quantities of water filled with dye and chemicals for dyeing. The fabrics are washed, rinsed and sanitised to remove the dyes and chemicals — all of which uses considerable amounts of water.
The water that goes into dyeing and finishing is an environmental waste but also a source of water pollution that can pollute nearby waterways with the toxic chemicals used.
2.How Polyester Manufacturing Employs Water?
- Water in Polyester Fabrication Process.
Polymerization Stage:
Polymerisation of polyester consists in the chemical reaction between TPA and EG to form PET. This is the most chemical phase, but the chemicals are cooling down using water. We also flush off impurities and chemicals in the reaction using water.
Polymerization uses less water than the subsequent steps. But the cooling and cleaning water is still a net contributor when we think about manufacturing scale.
Spinning and Fiber Formation:
After PET is made, it’s melted and spunneretted into polyester fibres. It is cooling the fibres using water to set them firm. The fibres are washed after they’ve been woven so chemicals that are left from spinning are removed.
This process is less water-intensive than dyeing and finishing, but still necessary for the total water used in polyester production. There might be closed loop water (recycled and reused water) in some of these facilities, but it is not always.
Dyeing and Finishing:
Dyeing and finishing are the most water-intensive elements of polyester fabric production. Its dyeing process involves immersing polyester cloth in huge ponds of water laced with dyes and chemicals. That uses a lot of water both for the dyeing process and also for washing off excess dye once the fabric has been finished.
The water used in finishing process is used to cure the cloth for different purposes like softening, wrinkle reduction, and stain resistance. They can also use extra water to rinse the cloth and wash away chemicals that are disposed of during treatment.
It takes up to 200 litres of water per kilo of fabric to dye, depending on how and what you dye. And there is the issue of water quality, with dyeing wastewater left untreated can carry dangerous chemicals into drinking water supplies nearby, which worsens water pollution.
- Water Use in Dyeing and Finishing Activities.
Its dying and finishing processes waste so much water that dyeing polyester fabric is one of the most water intensive operations in all of textile production. Polyester is a synthetic fibre, so it takes more water to create the color consistency and finish you want than fibers such as cotton or wool.
Polyester fabric is dyed using water-based dye solutions and chemicals are used to permanently cure the colour. : The fabric that has been dyed has to be washed very thoroughly to clean up the dye and thus uses more water. This step is a big part of polyester’s water footprint.
Environmental Concerns:
The water consumption associated with polyester dyeing isn’t just water use; it also causes water pollution. Dye chemicals (azo dyes and other synthetic dyes, for example) are toxic to aquatic animals and even deadly to humans if they aren’t adequately treated before they end up in our natural environment. Many textile plants in developing nations pump raw wastewater directly into rivers, poisoning the environment and the communities who depend on them for drinking and irrigation.
Moreover, the effluent from the dyeing often contains microplastics that leach out of the polyester fibres, which can be part of the plastic pollution of the water supply at large. These microplastics build up in marine environments and threaten marine organisms and people once they become food.
3: Environmental Effect of Use of Water in Polyester Production – Environmental Report.
- Lack of Water and Polyester Production.
Water shortage is one of the biggest environmental issues of the 21st century and most regions are in drought and water crisis. The greater the number of people on Earth and the more industrialisation happens, the greater the need for water. This water emergency is also being brought on by textiles, polyester production in particular. Polyester, one of the most commonly used synthetic fibers, needs a large amount of water during the production process which makes it even more challenging in water-constrained regions.
Polyester is mainly manufactured in China, India and Bangladesh where textiles are an economic engine. But these are also the countries with the most depleted reaches of water on earth. China’s polyester industry, for example, is mainly located in water-starved Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. These regions have an industrial requirement for water that often conflicted with agriculture and domestic demands, which lead to conflicts about water provision. With the squeezing of water from dyeing, finishing and cooling textile mills also deplete water resources at local scale and further aggrandise already high water prices.
The textile industry uses a lot of water. The estimating amount of water consumed per cotton t-shirt is 2,700 litres, and polyester, while using less water for its raw materials, uses a lot of water in production. Even the dyeing and finishing processes use most of this water. Therefore, in regions that already have water constraints, water demand in textile production can compete for resources and intensify the water crisis.
Implications for Water-Stressed Regions:
Shortages of Local Water: Textile plants frequently operate with groundwater or rivers, depleting those waters beyond control. This could mean less water for people, food, and wildlife.
Degraded Access to Pure Water: As water is drained and diverted to rivers and streams, it often turns into pollution-ridden water which can reduce the quality of water we can use for drinking, irrigation and sanitation.
In the most economically significant regions where the textile industry is dominant, water and sustainability should not be separated. But without water-saving technologies being managed and invented, this could get more dire, and ensnare local ecosystems and societies.
- Pollution of Water Bodies
The negative environmental effects of polyester manufacturing don’t stop at eroding local water supplies. Most damaging of all, they’re pollution from untreated effluent being pumped into rivers, lakes and oceans. Dyeing and finishing of polyesters are made using chemicals and synthetic dyes that are potentially invasive to aquatic life.
The Pollutants:
Chemical Dyes: Polyester fabric dyed by artificial dyes, which need a lot of water to dissolving and securing the dye. They are dyes, many of them azo-based or containing toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, which can enter waterways and do a great deal of harm to the environment if not treated.
Microplastics: Polyester fabrics break down microplastics in the washing process and those microplastics can accumulate in the water supply. This is true for all virgin and recycled polyester, but microplastics shed are more worrying in the context of water contamination.
Finishing Chemicals: Polyester fabrics are treated with finishing chemicals besides dyes including formaldehyde, flame retardants and other chemicals that can be harmful to the human and environment.
Case Studies of Water Pollution:
The Yangtze River, China: In the world’s longest river, the Yangtze, textile mills have harmed local waters. The discharge from polyester dyeing factories also has produced the toxic azo dyes, which harm aquatic life. The industrialisation of the water here in mass amounts is polluting the water both for biodiversity and human communities who drink and harvest from the river.
Ganges River, India: The textile industry of India, especially in Kanpur and Surat have clogged the Ganges River. Polyester production uses raw water from dyeing and finishing that is then dumped into the river, which already is a poison. The Ganges, a water body that millions of people depend on, is further degraded by the textile industry.
Water contamination isn’t just polluting the planet but also people. Fluxuating river chemicals travel up the food chain through fish and other aquatic life, threatening health in humans who eat or drink contaminated water. Further, polluted water only makes water shortage worse, since clean water becomes more difficult to obtain.
- Water Use of Polyester and Other Fabrics.
To understand the eco-friendliness of polyester fabric as compared with natural fibers such as cotton, wool, linen, keep water consumption of each in mind. Polyester is not an enemy of water and has a petroleum base, but it still uses water to make it, at least during the dyeing and finishing processes. This is opposed to organic fibres such as cotton, which use less water to irrigate than to make them.
Water Footprint of Polyester vs. Other Fabrics:
Polyester: Dyeing and finishing of polyester fabric uses much water. One kilos of polyester fabric (which varies depending on how the textile is produced and technologies) takes about 80-100 litres of water, according to estimates.
Cotton: Cotton is one of the most water-consuming crops on Earth, which needs immense irrigation water. We need approximately 10,000 litres of water to make one kg of cotton. But after cotton is woven, it uses less water to process than polyester, and the water use is slightly better in some cases overall.
Wool: Wool has a lower water consumption than cotton, but it is still a lot. Wool’s water use is mostly from the water consumed washing and enzymatically treating the fibers, not the water it takes to cultivate it. In an average week, 5,000 litres of water go into one kilogram of wool.
Linen (Flax): Linen is a fabric obtained from the flax plant and it is usually a better water-saving fabric. Flax doesn’t need as much water to grow as cotton, and production takes less water. But the ecological benefits of linen are likewise affected by processes and dyeing energy.
Polyester uses less water in manufacturing compared to cotton because it doesn’t require irrigation but the dyeing and finishing are also huge contributors to its water use. Natural fibres need more water to grow, but less water to process than polyester’s chemical production process. But polyester and cotton use water in quantities that are unsustainable, and water reduction efforts in textiles should look to reduce the magnitude of these impacts, whether they’re in polyester or cotton.
4: How To Save Water in Polyester Manufacturing?
- Water-Efficient Technologies
Since the water use of polyester production is a growing concern, there are new technologies in play to make production less water intensive. These technologies are essential to the fashion industry which has to keep the demands of the customer on cheap and good quality items in line with sustainability.
Innovative Water-Saving Technologies:
Waterless Dyeing Technologies: One of the most promising water-saving technologies is waterless dyeing, which means no need for heavy water during dyeing. Color-dyeing techniques like CO2-based dyeing use pressurised carbon dioxide rather than water to dye polyester fabrics – slashing water use by as much as 90%.
Closed-Loop Water System: A number of polyester plants have closed loop water system in place, in which water gets recycled and reused in the plant. These filters take sewage and filter the water that they use for dyeing or finishing, saving on fresh water.
Air-Dyeing Technology: Another waterless technology, air is used instead of water to transfer the dye on the cloth. This technology doesn’t use any water and saves lots of energy, so it’s a green replacement for conventional dyeing.
Top Brands Use Water-Saving Technology: A number of companies are using water-saving technologies in polyester manufacturing processes and the following are some of them:
Patagonia has already used waterless dyeing technology in collaboration with dyeing technology firm DyeCoo (CO2 dyeing for polyester clothing).
DyStar, the world’s largest dye manufacturer, has developed several water-saving dyeing processes, including waterless dyeing technologies, that it is trying to roll out in the textile industry.
- Sustainable Dyeing Alternatives
Hand dyeing is among the biggest users of water in textiles. Alternatives to conventional dyeing that save water and are less polluting than synthetic dyes are green.
Alternative Dyeing Methods:
Digital Fabric Printing: Digital fabric printing is an alternative to traditional dyeing process which is much water efficient. Digital printers print on fabric, without heavy washing and costly dyeing. This is a good approach for smaller runs and larger designs.
CO2 Dyeing: CO2 dyeing (as mentioned before) uses carbon dioxide in supercritical solution to dye fabrics, thus no need for water at all. The process has been implemented on polyester fabric and can create vivid colours without too much environmental damage.
Strengths and Cons: Though these options promise water savings in droves, they are not implemented on an extensive scale in the whole industry as they are expensive to implement in the beginning and require specialized technology and knowledge. But, as more sustainable fashion is demanded, these techniques are going to get adopted.
- Recycling and Circular Economy of Polyester
Recycled polyester (rPET) reduces polyester’s water footprint. Reusing polyester from clothing and plastic bottles means less virgin polyester production – energy- and water-intensive.
Recycling and Water Reduction: The Impact Of Recycling.
Closed-Loop Systems: Recycled polyester has the promise to cut down on fashion’s water use. Even retailers such as Patagonia and H&M are going to source recycled polyester for their products, and some manufacturers are aiming at closed-loop recycling systems in which polyester clothing is gathered, recycled and re-used to produce new fabric. By recycling polyester materials, manufacturers save on virgin polyester production and its associated water use.
Water Use: Polyester Recycling reduces the water consumption of polyester because it removes water-consuming dyeing and finishing. The more polyester gets recycled, the less water polyester uses in production.
5: How Consumers and Fashion Industry Can Reduce Water Impact?
- Consumer Awareness and Action
The water footprint of polyester production can be minimized by consumers. Consumption of materials that are environmentally sound and supporting brands that use water wisely can incite consumer demand for greener alternatives.
Educating Customers: Consumer education on the environment impact of their purchasing decisions are very important. And most specifically, to encourage eco-labels and certifications pointing to water-saving manufacturing such as Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and OEKO-TEX. Such certifications provide visibility throughout the supply chain, and help consumers make informed purchases when they buy polyester.
- Industry Level Engagement in Sustainable Methods.
Textiles are a big and complicated business, and large water reductions will need to be made only by working together across the supply chain. Water conservation must be brought into the fold of governments, textile companies and fashion labels.
Collaboration Examples:
The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI): An international nonprofit that engages with farmers and garment companies to promote water-efficient cotton farming and more efficient agricultural methods.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation: This is the organization that champions a circular economy, has collaborated with brands and garment makers to mitigate textile waste and facilitate closed-loop recycling which will help save a great deal of water when producing new clothes.
While the fashion industry is increasingly incorporating sustainability practices, there is a need for broad industry cooperation in meeting the water crisis and decreasing the environmental footprint of polyester and other fabrics.
Yashvi Jain, a writer by day and reader by night, is an accomplished content writer and published author of ‘Mind Under Construction. Yashvi possesses extensive knowledge of fabrics, sustainability, and literature. On occasions, you would catch her scripting for her YouTube channel, engrossed in fiction, or ardently dedicating her time to research and storytelling.