TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN GARMENT DYEING & FINISHING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT N.W.S.Kumarasena A dissertation submitted to the Department of Textile & Clothing of the University of Moratuwa In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN TEXTILE STUDIES ' c\ 7 7 . cPV'^- Department of Textile & Clothing M -Thesis University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka 8 I S3> May 2004 University of Moratuwa 81622 8 1 6 2 2 The work presented in the thesis in part or whole, has not been submitted for any other academic qualification at any institute. N. WTS. Kumarasena (Candidate) N Mr. N. (Supervisor) Abstract Burdens to the environment with industrialization have extended to a greater extent than the assimilating capacity of it. The textile wet processing is a heavy consumer of water and energy. It also discharges environmentally hazardous substances. But the apparel sector with their affiliated garment washing and dyeing plants is one of the main income generators in Sri Lanka. Hence the discovery of any mean to mitigate those impacts while sustaining the industry would be immensely useful. This study has focused on two main approaches to accomplish the sustainable development in the garment dyeing facility. The approaches are maximizing Right First Time dyeing and Implementat ion of the Cleaner production options. Majority of the textile dyeing plants in Sri Lanka does not maintain any statistics on Right First Time dyeing. The percentage is acutely low in Garment dyeing. The root causes for the dyeing defects and shade variations in the dyed garments are analyzed in detail in this study. Cause and effect diagram, which is considered to be a powerful tool among seven quality tools, was used here as the tool for the analysis. Preventive measures are suggested for each root cause, subsequently. Application of Cleaner Production options to the industry is another approach for the sustainable development. The novel technologies, which are affordable, such as Ultra low liquor ratio machines, improved efficient washing systems, were deeply reviewed in this study. Switching on to such technology changes is utmost important for industries in order to, not only for the environmental compliance but also for sustainability in competit ive global market. Modification of processes and formulas by critically analyzing them and making trials on them was another proven mean for the sustainability. Possibilities of implementing 3R-Reduce, Reuse and Recycle on water and other resources were looked into in the project. Good house keeping procedures are highlighted options in Cleaner production and some of the quantified studies have been covered in this project. Plenty of new options in material substitutions, Process controls, new by­ products etc. are also suggested for the industries to implement in order to demonstrate world-class ecologically sound performance. n Contents Page 1.0 Overview 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 The Textile and Clothing Industry in Sri Lanka 1 1.3 Present Environmental Management in the 2 Textile Industry 1.4 Challenges to the Industry 2 1.5 The Environment and Economy 4 1.6 Garment Dyeing Industry 16 2.0 Introduction 24 2.1 Purpose of Study 24 2.2 Scope 24 2.3 Objectives 25 2.4 Methodology 25 3.0 Sustainable Development 26 3.1 Evolution of Concepts 26 3.2 Environmental Management Sys tem 27 4.0 Right First Time Dyeing as a tool of Sustainable Development 34 4.1 Introduction 34 4.2 Present Status in RFT Dyeing in Sri Lankan Industry 35 4.3 Root Cause Analysis with Cause and Effect Diagrams 35 4.4 Precautions to Overcome Causes 42 5.0 Sound Environmental Performance through reduced input resource consumption and waste 56 5.1 Introduction 56 5.2 Dyes and Chemical Consumption 56 6.0 Technological Options for Sustainable Development in the process 61 6.1 Smart Rinsing vs Conventional Rinsing 61 6.2 High Temperature Rinsing vs Soaping and 61 Neutralization 64 6.3 Mechanistic Aspects and Optimisation of Ultrasonic Washing . 65 m 6.4 Single bath dyeing and Bio polishing 67 Sound Environmental Performance through Cleaner Production 70 7.1 Cleaner Production Options 70 7.2 Implementation of CP Options to improve the Environmental Performance 74 List of Tables Table 1.1 List of banned, Withdrawn and restricted chemicals related to the Textile Processing Table 1.2 International standards for Textile Effluents Table 1.3 Summary of results provided by a study conducted for the Ratmalana Moratuwa area Table 1.4 Estimated Total waste load from the textile manufacturing sector Table 1.5 Major Manufacturing Groups in D F R (1990) List of Figures Figure 4.1 Cause and Effect diagram for dyeing defects and Shade Variations Figure 4.2 Causes of Input materials Figure 4.3 Causes of Equipment Figure 4.4 Causes of Human factor Figure 4.5 Causes of Processes and Controls Figure 4.6 Causes of Logistics rv Acknowledgement I acknowledge with gratitude my supervisor of the project Mr. N.G.H. de Silva, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Textile and Clothing, University of Moratuwa, who very generously spared his precious time to guide me in this project. I would like to extend my gratitude to Mr. D.P.D. Dissanayake, Head of Department, Department of Textile and Clothing, University of Moratuwa, who provided necessary assistance to carry out this study, playing a vital role as the course coordinator of the M.Sc course in textile studies. I am grateful to Dr. Nirmali de Silva, former Head of Department, for the assistance given to make the success in the early stages of the project. I also wish to extend my sincere thanks to the General Manager and the Environment Research Engineer of the Garment washing and dyeing facility where the study was basically conducted. I wish to express my gratitude to all other dyeing factories, which were subjected to the observation in carrying out the study. Further I extend my sincere thanks to the staff of the Department of Textile and Clothing, University of Moratuwa, staff of the Textile Training & Services Centre and Mr. V.R.Sena Peiris, Director, National Cleaner Production Centre who helped me in various ways to complete my project successfully. V