Accounting and evaluation of chemical footprint of cotton woven fabrics

Abstract

The major environmental impacts of textile products tend to arise from emissions of toxic substances in the production phase of the life cycle. The theory of chemical footprint (ChF) can be used to study the environmental impact of textile products and leads a new way to quantitatively assess impacts of toxic substances. In this paper, environmental impacts of 1 kg cotton woven fabric were assessed from yarn to finished fabric in terms of its contributions to the ecological system. The results showed that the total ChF in the calculation boundary associated with ecotoxicity was approximately 41526.10 PAF•m3•d. The largest ChF for cotton woven fabric mainly came from weaving process, followed by cultivation and harvesting and fabric processing phases. Sizing agent and all kinds of base potentially created the large ecotoxicity and there are considerable differences in magnitude from other materials' ecotoxicity. It also revealed that the selection of auxiliaries was more important than that of dyestuffs. ChF does well in drawing more focus on the source of industry pollution and plays an important role in improving management efficiency in assessing and choosing chemicals.