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Moving towards Social Responsibility
in the Textile and Fiber Industry:
A Diachronic Approach©
By
Christel Baldia
Abstract
The textile industry claims that safety has been much improved, many toxic substances have been identified and eliminated, or standards as to how to deal with them have been created and are enforced. Much research has been done to improve efficiency of the textile production plants or the dye houses, and the efficiency of the wastewater treatments since water use in this industry is so intense. To trace and document these changes an extensive literature search was conducted. Then, a content analysis of one trade journal The Journal of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) from 1975 and 2000 has been performed. The results reflect the changes in attitude of the industry towards the safety of the workers, the environmental impact and safety for the future. Since the range of technology within textile and fiber industry is vast, this research should be considered a feasibility study and a stepping-stone for further analysis.
Introduction
Since the industrialization, safety and working conditions have been a reason for concern. Unions were formed due to inhumane working conditions (Dickerson, 1999) and research was oriented towards finding better means to improve productivity, product and safety. Much has been improved since the industrial revolution in this country due to the activity of the unions, and yet, the outcry of the public to fight sweatshop-working conditions has once again reminded us that conditions even in our country are not necessarily, where they could be. Bill Moyer’s PBS documentary about the deceitful deeds of the chemical industry brings the industry into the line of fire and “elicited a sharp response by industry and environmental groups alike” (Reisch Marc, 2001). Obviously, from an environmentalist or union workers point of view, the industry can never do enough to improve conditions, be it working environment or safety. On the other hand, the industry seems to claim all the time that they are doing what they can to improve things. So, they searched for renewable materials (Dupont, 2001), cleaner and efficient means of running the plants (Koprivanac, Loncaric Bozic, & Papic, 1999), better ways to detoxify the wastewaters after the dyeing (Rott & Minke, 1999), recycling (Koprivanac et al., 1999) materials to re-spin into textiles (Christiani, Klason, & Shishoo, 1999a) as well as the reuse of specific liquors (Opwis, Knittel, Kele, & Schollmeyer, 1999) or the reuse of water (Rott et al., 1999), (Terras, Vandevivere, & Verstraete, 1999) to improve environmental impact overall. This research seeks to trace change of focus in the field and quantify these changes over time. Have there been changes in focus when comparing between 1975 and 2000? Has the industry succeeded and improved the outcome of their impact on the people who work for them and the environment, or is profiting still the only aim? I propose that looking at the appropriate literature form the textile and apparel industry, changes in focus of the people in charge of research or product development can be documented, and when the foci of the research changes, behaviour changes must have been preceded by a change in attitude towards safety for the peoples’ working environment as well as the environment at large.
Methodology
James Deetz suggested that artifacts are the “concrete manifestations of human thoughts” (TC 372 notes, Jakes). Keeping that in mind, the scholarly journal of the American Association of Chemists and Colorists are artifacts and should reflect indirectly what has moved the people behind the articles, and the superstructure of industry behind the people. Therefore, looking at documents and analyzing them for content should be considered a valuable means to delineate cultural changes.
To answer the question “Has the industry succeeded and improved the outcome of their impact on the people who work for them and the environment, or is profit the only aim?” an extensive literature review was conducted. The materials that ought to be covered in the context of social responsibility that pertain to the textile industry are so extensive that it would not be feasible to attempt covering them all. Therefore, the literature review was broad, and only articles from 1999 and younger were used. The study was narrowed to textile chemistry and dyestuffs trade journals, and a content analysis over a specific period was done. Textile chemistry and the dyeing industry seem to have the most detrimental impact on its surroundings: the workers and the workers’ living space or environment. The journal Textile Chemist and Colorist has been chosen, because it deals with dyeing of textiles, which carries the burden of dealing with large amounts of wastewater containing potentially toxic by-products. All issues of the years 1975 and 2000 of the “Journal of Textile Chemist and Colorist” were analysed. Initially, keywords and titles were considered to categorize articles as pertaining to social responsibility. After comparing these two though, it became apparent that important categories appeared in the title as well as the keywords associated with it. So, the search was limited to the titles that contained any of the following terms: safety, environmental regulation, biodegradation/ detoxify which seems to be used interchangeably, energy, air pollutant, and flame-retardant finishes. All articles and features or news items were considered with the exception of advertisement. Finally, descriptive statistics are used to quantify and document the findings.
Literature Review
The textile industry is a rather complex entity, and the term safety has been greatly extended from the safety of the workers to safety for the environment as well as safety for the environment in the future. The range of industry and technology that is covered when the term textile industry is used is enormous, and is closely connected to the chemical industry as well as agriculture. To understand some of the issues that would constitute socially responsible behaviour or not, the processes that take place in textile industry must be understood. Please note, that the following review only covers a small portion of these processes, and gives a rather general explanation of issues that are in reality very complex. One must look at production and the degradation of the fibers, and treatments that can be applied to the textiles between production and degradation such as dyeing and finishes among many others.
Production and Standards
Natural fibers, such as cotton, silk and wool as well as synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon are produced. Wood pulp is regenerated in rayon and lyocell fibers. The production of either fiber, natural and synthetic brings with it safety issues to the people that work with them, or to the environment. Who would have thought years ago that exposure cotton dust would be identified to cause pulmonary disease? And yet, the Harvard School of Public Health found that workers chronically exposed to cotton dust are at risk of developing chronic airflow obstruction or byssinosis much as asbestos does (Christiani et al., 1999b). These findings were initially ignored by the industry (personal communication, Dr. Noel), but eventually, there existence had to be acknowledged and the work environment was improved. For change to take place, standards must be created and enforced. Through the work of agencies such as OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), working conditions are safer than ever, even though the battle continues. The agency, established by the Nixon administration in 1971, has successfully passed standards such as the cotton standard in 1978, which resulted in a decline of “brown lung” or byssinosis from 12 000 workers to 700 in the time between its enforcement in 1978 to the year 2000. Also, according to the agency, workplace fatalities were cut by 60% and injury and illness rates by 40% from 1971 when OSHA was established to 2000, while the employment doubled from 56 million to 105 million at 6.9 million work sites. Since 1986, a policy was established to impose “instance-by-instance penalties on companies with egregious violations, significantly raising penalties for companies with many willful violations” (Fleming, 2001). Of course, OSHA does not just deal with the textile industry. However, the textile industry, chemical industry, its energy requirements as well as wastewater and hazardous chemicals management are closely related; and the documented changes in safety requirements and the outcome are self-evident.
Rayon, the first synthetic fiber, once hailed as the artificial silk, still accounts for about 4% of all women’s apparel. However, viscose rayon cannot be produced in this country anymore. The production of rayon is complicated and requires high degrees of energy and labor. According to Hatch, pollution control has been developed to recover almost completely the chemicals used throughout the manufacturing process, and yet, the production process was declared unsafe in this country because of its environmental impact (Hatch, 1993). When it comes to the environmental issues, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), which was also established by the Nixon administration, is the government agency that creates the standards and then reinforces them. The first wastewater permit was passed in 1973, and in 1978 benzene, a substance frequently used in Dye production was identified as a possible cause for leukemia. A press release by the EPA on 05/23/2001 states that administrator Christie Whitman, on behalf of the United States, signed the convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPS). In doing so, the US takes the lead globally “to eliminate and reduce these toxic compounds that persist in the environment and accumulate as they move up the food chain” (EPA). Since the textile industry does not only assemble, but also produced offshore, the setting and enforcing of standards internationally has become very important. Signing the before convention is a first step, and so is the establishment ISO 1400 (Dr. Kathryn Jakes, personal communication, (Spivak, 1998). The industry did not always welcome or appreciate the position of “control” that agencies such as OSHA or the EPA held as was expressed in a trade journal in 1975 (Goodson Jr. & Dan Rivers Inc., 1975). However, in 2001, gratitude to the EPA and several other agencies is expressed for their support in conducted research on liquid carbon dioxide, an alternative to PCE (perchloroethylene) in dry cleaning, which leads the author to believe that the controlling entities such as OSHA and the EPA are not necessarily viewed as the “big brother who is watching” anymore, but rather as a necessary entity to implement, maintain and control safety standards (Keesee, 1998), (McCall & et al., 1998).
Renewable Material, Biodegradability and Wastewater
It
has become increasingly important to recycle the materials that are used. For
many consumers that means using second stores to supplement their closets with
clothes and recycling in other ways such as sorting when trash day comes. The
issues are again more complex for the textile industry. Here, many different materials
and processes have to be considered: the materials that are used to make
fibers, as well as reusing materials that are used to treat or process the
fibers, textiles and garments such as starches, bleaches, dyes or laundry
detergents and dry cleaning solutions.
The textile industry
has been putting extra efforts into reusing materials. The production of rayon
was one of their first attempts to regenerate wood pulp (Hatch, 1993), but due
to its impact on the environment had to be stopped. Lyocell has taken its place
instead. The impact on the environment is minimal, and the fiber that was
engineered outperforms viscose rayon. The reuse of polypropylene, since it does
not degrade easily, has been a focus for much research and it can now be
re-spun up to six times before it becomes impossible to create fibers due to
changes in physical properties such as molecular weight etc.(Christiani et al., 1999a). Dupont, in
a press release from 05/02/2001, documented another break through in bio-based
materials research in making a key polymer ingredient from corn instead of
petroleum (Dupont, 2001).
The
textile processing industry (TPI) has a very high consumption of water and a
large amount of wastewater discharge. Due to the practiced processing steps
such as in desizing, bleaching, dyeing or finishing in aqueous solutions or
suspensions, the water consumption and chemicals used will differ. This also
dictates the amount of wastewater that needs to be treated, and the different
treatment processes that are necessary and feasible. The objective is to
recycle internally, and to cut down the amount as well as the chemical load
before releasing wastewater. To recycle internally, residual dye baths,
printing pastes, finishing baths such as plasticizer and polymer dispersion
baths, rinsing waters from discontinuous coloring and bleaching processes without
treating are reused. Before its release, the water is treated again by
different means. To understand the incredible complexity the surround
wastewater issues within the TPI, one must at least superficially understand
the processes that are involved.
See overview in table 1, (Rott et al., 1999).
Table 1
Wastewater is characterized by “unfixed dyes, organic pollutants much higher than regular domestic wastewater, large amounts of COD (organic carbons), high conductivity due to salts, high amounts of AOX (?), -sulphide and heavy metal concentrations due to chlorinated bleaching agents and halogen-, sulphur or heavy metal dyes, high amounts of polyphospates that are added to hard water”. As becomes apparent readily, the task is an enormous one. Waste has to be separated, degraded chemically, biologically, with or without oxygen, filtered again, degraded again etc.. Rott et al also supplies a diagram or flow chart of just the filtration processes in a small dyeing plant. Often, these processes need to automated to be economical (Porter, 1998)
Figure 1. Recycling split flows, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis (Rott et al.)
This does not include any of the
physico-chemical or biological degradation processes. Much research has gone into any one of these processes, be
it the physico-chemical such as the membranes that are used for filtration (Balanosky, Fernandez, Kiwi, & Lopez, 1999)or the feasibility of the biodegradation of specific
materials such as print paste before releasing it to the environment or not (Rozzi, Malpei, Bonomo, & Bianchi, 1999). Many times, certain elements must be traced to
understand how they could actually affect the environment. A good example of
this sort of work is documented in the work of Baughman from the University of (Baughman, 2001)that traces the different forms of copper that is
released from reactive and direct azo dyes (different types of dye all
containing at least one N=N group) in the sludge water and when released into
the environment. He shows that the use of a sequestrant or complexing agent
such EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetate) which is used to increase leveling
of color in the dyeing process will greatly change the sorption of copper and
its different forms. This in turn changes the requirements of the wastewater treatments. The following chart exemplifies the
complexity of this stage in the wastewater management as well:
Figure 2. Effluent treatment of wastewater in a small textile plant in Tuttlingen, Germany (Rott et al.).
By now, it should be
clear that the task and the problems faced by the industry are difficult. Much
has been accomplished, but there are yet more challenges to be dealt with.
Results
The
results of the content analysis clearly documented a shift toward increased
safety at the work place as well as environmental impact (see figure 3).
Table 2
|
In 1975
only 6.7 % of all the articles dealt with issues that were categorized as relevant
to social responsibility compared to 18 % in 2000, which constitutes three
times as much as in 1975. The range that was covered was spread from safe
handling of enzymes, to biological waste treatment, pollution prevention
(emphasis mine), to detoxifying protective clothing, nano filtration technology
to reducing pollution. It may be
interesting to recognize that eight articles were devoted to flammability,
which was not mentioned at all in 2000. According to Dr. Jakes, flammability is
an issue that is addressed in phases depending on what the political climate is
among other factors. Flammability certainly pertains to safety and the
treatment of textiles to be flame resistant has a large impact to the
environment. However, none of the articles in 1975 were concerned with
environmental impact of the chemical used in the treatment, but rather focused
solely on physical properties, performance of the textile under different
conditions, cost and energy effectiveness and flammability test procedures.
Discussion
As
is apparent from the results of the content analysis, the industry’s focus has
changed from 1975 to 2000; and has changed towards behaviour that is more
responsible. There are three times as many articles in the journal focused on
responsible behavior in 2000 than there were in 1975. Certainly, the political climate has changed since 1975, and
general awareness of the issues that are involved has risen in the public.
Agencies such as OSHA and the EPA have been established, created standards and
reinforced them through penalties.
As said before, this research was able to only cover a minimum of the
literature that is published. Just in the electronic journal in the OSU
holdings after some of the sources used here were found, another 88 articles
existed. It has however become clear there also, that research is done in
finding better means to deal with production and treatment of the fibers, the
search for alternate resources such as Dupond’s corn-based polymers or the
enzyme treatment made from horseradish (Bhunia, Durani, & Wangikar, 2001). Wastewater treatments were discussed briefly to
exemplify the issues at hand.
It also
must be considered that since the textile industry employs a wide range of
technology, the publishing possibilities to an interested audience are immense.
This in turn often translates into having specific research published in
specific journal such as wastewater treatment in Water Science Technology or
the spinning of recycled polypropylene in the Journal of Polymer Science.
Still, to test the feasibility of such an approach as a content analysis in
this research, the “Journal of the Textile Chemist and Colorists”, one of the
most important publications in the industry has been analysed for
environmentally responsible research, technology and standards. It is however,
not exhaustive, and to control for this sort of research, more journals should
be taken into consideration, and analysed.
Conclusion
A content analysis of one trade journal The Journal of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) from 1975 and 2000 has been performed. The results reflect that the claims of the textile industry are substantiated. Safety of the workers, the environmental impact and safety for the future have indeed been a focus of the industry. Much research has been done to improve efficiency of the textile production plants or the dye houses, and the efficiency of the wastewater treatments since water use in this industry is so intense. However, one trade journal cannot cover all of what there is, and since the range of technology within textile and fiber industry is vast, this research should be considered a feasibility study and a stepping-stone for further analysis.
Work Cited