Water pollution is disturbingly rampant in China, and it has become one of the country’s greatest environmental challenges as it struggles to rank among the world’s top industrialized nations. The textile industry is a significant source of pollution in China, and it is largely driven by the worldwide demand for cotton products.

just how polluted is china?

The World Health Organization estimates that polluted water causes 75 percent of diseases in China, and over 100,000 deaths annually. Cancer rates among villagers who live along polluted waterways are significantly higher than the national average.

According to information in a Scipeeps.com article, 70 percent of lakes and rivers in China are polluted, as is an astounding 90 percent of the groundwater. More than 320 million Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water – that’s more than the entire population of the United States.

Recently, a Chinese photographer won the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his photos exposing the horrific instances of industrial pollution and its effects. Here is just a sample of Lu Guang’s extraordinary work and examples of how desperate the situation is in China:

the cotton problem

Go into any discount retailer such as like Wal-Mart or Target, and you’re sure to find inexpensive cotton T-shirts and other products. While low-cost goods please American consumers, the effects on the environment and population of countries like China are staggering.

China produced an average of 36 million bales of cotton each year from 2006 through 2008, making it the world’s largest producer of cotton. But it’s not the leading exporter. In order to meet its enormous domestic demand for cotton, China buys 45 percent of the yearly exports by U.S. cotton growers.

Each year, cotton growers account for more than 25 percent of worldwide insecticide usage, and 12 percent of all pesticide usage The crop requires seven times more fertilizer than insecticides, and the runoff from all these chemicals pollutes the rivers and lakes, leeches into the groundwater, and leads to China’s abnormally high water pollution. Farmers in China are using more than six times the amount of pesticides and fertilizers than growers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cotton also is a remarkably water-intensive crop. Eco Fashion World estimates that to grow enough cotton for a single t-shirt requires 2,700 liters of water. The expansion of cotton farming is leading to increased desertification in areas of the world. The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan is an example of how cotton farming can turn lakes into deserts. In China, cotton farming is increasing the size of the Taklamakan Desert because an unsustainable amount of water is being diverted to grow the crop.

tainted textile production

The textile industry in China is a big business. The Chinese State Development and Reform Commission said that in 2005, textile and apparel exports exceeded $117.5 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 17.3 percent. According to the Danamex China Business Resource, China provided 24 percent of the global textiles and apparel in 2005. And as bad as growing cotton in China is currently, the textile industry is far more environmentally damaging.

In addition to heavy metals, carcinogens, fabrics, dyes, organic materials, starches, and bleach, the industry uses a large amount of water and energy. According to information from Bluesign Technologies, growing cotton for use in textiles requires between 8,000 liters and 40,000 liters of water per kilogram of cotton. Producing textiles creates up to 600 liters of wastewater per kilogram of textiles. The chemically-saturated and toxic wastewater is what makes textiles such an environmentally damaging industry in China.  Miller-McCune, a consultancy, estimates that only 10 percent of dye wastes are recycled. According to an article on textile pollution in the Wall Street Journal, treating contaminated water can cost more than 13 cents per metric ton. In order to keep prices low, many textile dye houses build pipelines that dump industrial runoff either underground or directly into rivers and lakes. In China, people often joke that to know what colors are currently in fashion, one need only look at the rivers.

In the same article, Andy Xie, former chief economist of Morgan Stanley Asia is quoted as saying, “Prices in the U.S. are artificially low. You’re not paying the costs of pollution, and that is why China is an environmental catastrophe.”

Although China’s national leaders have environmental guidelines and policies to curb pollution, local agencies routinely ignore violations because of economic development incentives. There is little enforcement of national environmental policies at the local level, and companies who conduct business with dye houses and textile mills often have a greater ability to influence change.

moving forward

It is clear to Chinese leaders that pollution is becoming a drag on the country’s economy. China’s Development Research Center commissioned researchers from around the world to create pragmatic solutions and policies that worked with the market. The researchers concluded that China would benefit from a “Green Trade Policy” to encourage sustainable cotton growing, supply chains, and textile production. One proposal recommended instituting a “green tax” on cotton and textile goods to pay for wastewater treatment and recycling, though this measure is not favored by industry.

The Chinese cotton and textile industries are coming under increased scrutiny as people around the world are becoming conscious of the country’s environmental catastrophes. Several companies have worked with textile partners to impose higher environmental standards, but that is not the norm. Most companies either are not aware of–or ignore–the true environmental costs associated with their products.

Some Chinese activists are taking it upon themselves to add transparency to the textile supply chain by publicly linking polluting factories with the overseas companies that purchase their products.

Ma Jun, a Chinese water pollution activist who posts pollution data on a website, told the Wall Street Journal, “We want them to know we’re watching from China.”

A company who is found doing business with major polluters could suffer reputational damage to its brand as customers increasingly demand products that are “better” for the environment. Pollution from cotton growing and textile production may become what sweatshop labor was for the industry in the 1990s.

Companies interested in avoiding brand damage should work with dye houses to ensure that better environmental standards are met. Another option is to use dyeing technology that doesn’t use massive amounts of water, energy, or toxic chemicals that can be dumped into waterways. Textile companies looking to establish sustainable supply chains need to seriously reexamine the cotton-growing, garment dyeing, and textile treatment operations in China.

photo credit: Lu Guang / Pollution in China

Interest in creating a sustainable textile industry is growing. At Colorep and Transprint we work with designers and manufacturers serving a variety of markets: from hospitality to health care to fashion. More and more often we’re hearing that these companies are examining the impact of their products cradle-to-cradle and looking for creative solutions to reduce waste, green house gases, and water use.

While we have a suite of solutions around eliminating water and reducing energy demands during the dye process, there are many other opportunities to “green” the textile industry along the entire supply chain.

To bring more people into the conversation and be able to help our customers and colleagues broaden their professional network, we’ve started the LinkedIn Sustainable Textiles group. Membership is growing nicely and has attracted people from the across the U.S., Canada, India, and Pakistan.

The Sustainable Textiles group will quickly become a valuable resource as members post relevant news, ask questions, engage in conversation, even post jobs–all with building a more sustainable textile industry in mind.

Certainly you have something to contribute. Won’t you join us?

This guest post is by Becky Davis. As one of our Transprint staff members, Becky explains the important work of the Transprint Color Office and her recent trip to New York City, along with a visit to the Design Studio.

Becky Davis (right) with her sister Deb Thompson

I work in the Harrisonburg, Virginia manufacturing facility’s Color Office and have been the Ink Jet Coordinator and Office Assistant since 2004. Our main task is the input of sample order requests received from sales offices located in New York, New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rancho Cucamonga, California. We also receive sample requests from sales agents worldwide, often sent through the New York sales team before coming to us.

The Color Office is a team of six people dedicated to sending out customer specific, high quality design samples. To accomplish this, each sample is reviewed for ink rotation and color correctness within established standards, then given a detailed print variables review, which are design specific. We currently have the option of printing samples using engraved cylinders or digital printing.

My role gives me the opportunity to be one of the first to see a new design printed on fabric and see the results of new technologies as they are implemented in the digital print process. I serve as a contact for New York Engraving and Harrisonburg Engraving with our digital print team. As new designs are made available, we get a request to print digital samples for the engrave preview before actual sampling is permitted. This allows data revisions or corrections to be made before the design goes any further in the process. This is a much simpler, faster, and less expensive process than to re-engrave a new cylinder.

Since our team is in frequent contact with sales and the design studio in New York, I really wanted to see their office and meet everyone in person. I had that opportunity when my sister treated me to a trip to New York for my birthday. In making our plans for “must do things” while in the city, number one for me was to visit the studio. Indeed, immediately after checking into our hotel, we enjoyed the 12-block walk on Broadway, then along Fashion Avenue to the Transprint Design Studio. I noticed the medallions placed in the sidewalk to honor the Garment District and fashion designers. On my list of things to do now, is to read up on the history of this area.

I wasn’t disappointed in my visit to the Studio either. The lobby decor included upholstery and a display printed with the AirDye® process. Animal print fabrics that had just been printed earlier that week in Harrisonburg for the Studio, were already on display as clothing. I was impressed: New Yorkers really do move very fast!

I enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people and to see those I had met before when they visited the plant facility. It’s nice to now have a face to go with the voice on the phone or when reading an e-mail.

One of the surprises of the visit was that while I never considered myself to work in the fashion industry before, now I do.

The textile industry has a big pollution problem. The World Bank estimates that 17 to 20 percent of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment. They’ve also identified 72 toxic chemicals in our water solely from textile dyeing, 30 of which are cannot be removed. This represents an appalling environmental problem for the clothing designers and other textile manufacturers.

With consumers eager to purchase eco-friendly products, water pollution from dye houses and coloration treatments could be a major hurdle for apparel manufacturers. How can a company claim to sell a “green” shirt if the dyeing process used to color the garment wastes and pollutes water? Some companies have taken action and removed dyes from certain garments, but it seems unlikely that everyone would be happy with off-white or beige as the only choices at the store. Consumers want color and variety in their clothing.

Fortunately, for companies producing goods with synthetic fabric there is a solution: AirDye®. AirDye is a dyeing process that uses air instead of water to dye garments, allowing companies to create garments with vivid designs and colors, without polluting our water and environment.

Here are the facts about AirDye technology:

• Uses 95 percent less water
• Emits 84 percent less Green House Gases (GHG)
• Requires 87 percent less energy
• Reduces damaging of goods (Up to one percent of goods are damaged using AirDye compared to 10 percent of traditionally dyed garments)
• No Rules Wash®.  Wash at any temperature, with whites or colors, with or without bleach
• Allows for new designs. Dye different sides of a single piece of fabric different colors or designs

When creating eco-friendly clothing, drapes, or even carpet, it is important not to forget the role dye plays as an environmental ill. Consumers are becoming quite conscious of how bad traditional textile dyeing is for the environment but have put up with it until now because there has not been a viable alternative. AirDye is that alternative.

Here’s an example of how AirDye compares to the traditional wetdye process for 25,000 medium mens t-shirts:

This unique dyeing process is already used to create vibrant, double-sided swimsuits for Miss Peaches Swimwear, used with 100% recycled PET for eco-chic t-shirts by A Lot To Say, ground-breaking hospitality industry window coverings from Hunter Douglas Hospitality, designer handbags by JulieApple, and mostly recently, the runway fashions of New York design house Costello Tagliapietra.

In the race to “go green,” companies need an advantage. The companies above have found theirs. What will yours be?

Learn more about AirDye’s environmental benefits detailed in our Environmental Profile / Life Cycle Assessment.

Each year the team at Merrell Apparel attempts to create new and innovative concept pieces. This year was no different. For the 2009 Outdoor Retailer Show, Merrell created a concept it calls NADA, or Not Any Dye Applied. This particular concept focuses on eliminating the water, chemicals, energy, and pollution associated with dyed garments. Textile dyeing happens to be a tremendous source of industrial water pollution. The World Bank estimates that 17–20 percent of industrial pollution comes from textile coloring and treatment. Seventy-two of the top most toxic chemicals in our water come solely from textile dyeing and, of those, 30 cannot be removed. Removing dye from clothing, as Merrell has done with NADA, can vastly alter the environmental impact of a garment. Merrell claims that by purchasing a single small woman’s NADA jacket a consumer would save:

• 1.6 kg of carbon dioxide from being emitted
• 115.2 liters of water
• 0.18 kg of chemicals
• 2.47 kilowatt-hours of energy

apparel’s dirty little secret

Merrell’s concept may not incorporate a new fiber or design technology, but it is groundbreaking in that it calls attention to a major environmental issue within the textile industry. Compared to its dyed counterparts, each NADA garment represents a clear and quantifiable difference in resources used and pollution avoided. What is remarkable to us is that an apparel company has endeavored to highlight and discuss a dirty and poorly kept industry secret: just how bad dyeing clothing is for the environment.

Jordan Wand, Merrell Apparel vice president and general manager, puts it this way:

During the development process, our team was amazed by the staggering statistics of just how much water, energy, and chemicals are used to create one jacket. We are thrilled to create a garment that’s stunning from the outside yet gives you modern outdoor performance on the mountain or street. The NADA pieces perform exactly the same as any of our other technical jackets while saving a vast amount of natural resources.

nada choices expand

When Merrell introduced the NADA concept at the Outdoor Retailer Show back in January, the jacket received some much deserved attention—apparently enough attention to inspire the company to expand the concept across multiple styles for spring 2010. The upcoming spring NADA line features four categories: the “Ride of Your Life” Horizon Collection of consumer cycling inspired designs, “Performance Made Beautiful” styles that include the brand’s first-ever collection of dresses, “Trail Mix” running apparel, and UPF protective styles in “Salute to the Sun.” Merrell is also making 15 jacket styles in the spring ‘10 collection available as a NADA option.

The NADA concept introduced earlier this year began as a step toward acknowledging an environmental issue and creating an alternative. The fact that Merrell expanded the line for the upcoming spring collection is indicative of a concept that resonated with the Outdoor Retailer Show attendees. With companies and consumers alike examining the environmental impacts of actions and products, the timing of NADA’s release could not be better. A tremendous amount of water, chemicals, and energy are required to add color, which adds aesthetic value but contributes no performance or technical benefits.

Using NADA as the beginning of a conversation with consumers about the impact of textile dyeing is both commendable and a refreshing change from companies that attempt to hide environmental issues. We believe that Merrell has taken a brave and important step toward producing apparel with less of an environmental impact, and we applaud them for expanding the NADA collection and educating consumers. Look for NADA clothing starting in January at retailers worldwide, and be sure to share your thoughts with us on this very important step toward environmentally friendlier apparel.