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Cleaner Technology Projects in Denmark 1997
Logbog for bomuldsråvarer
Arbejdsrapport nr. 105, 1997, Miljøstyrelsen
The report describes the processes that a cotton material is exposed
to before it reaches the dyeworks, including cotton cultivation and
harvest, spinning, knitting, weaving and transportation. A number of parameters within the
different process steps can influence the raw cotton material’s properties and
thereby the necessary pre-treatment. Special focus is given to these parameters, which are
recommended in a forthcoming logbook.
The pre-treatment is meant to prepare the material to the subsequent colouring-,
printing- and/or aftercare processes by removing natural substances and auxiliary
substances, which have been added in previous processes (spinning, deletion, weaving,
knitting).
The pre-treatment consists of leaching, decoction, bleaching, erasing and
mercerisation. In these part-processes liquid solutions consisting of a number of base-
and auxiliary chemicals as acids, bases, salts, oxidation and reduction substances,
enzymes, detergents, foam-dampening substances, stabilisation substances and complex
creators, are used.
The pre-treatment is responsible for between 50 and 75 % of the dyeworks’
environmental impact measured as COD, and between 25 to 40 % of all water
usage.
An example of a logbook scheme with descriptive text is described and evaluated, like
the possibilities of and barriers to implementing such a system are discussed. Finally the
cost-saving potentials of implementing the logbook system are evaluated.
Based on the report it is concluded that there will be a number of practical and
psychological barriers to and difficulties with working with a logbook system. But in
return, it is not impossible since the information needed is factual information that are
known at a given time in the process, but not necessarily corresponded on to the next step
in the production chain.
When the pressure from the final steps in the production chain become sufficiently
large, it must be expected that a system like the described will be implemented. At the
same time it will aid the textiles manufacturers in their documentation work in connection
with the implementation of environmental declarations and labels.
Author/ institution
John Hansen, DTI Clothing and Textiles
This report is subsidised by the National Council for Recycling and Cleaner Technology
ISSN no. 0908-9195
ISBN no. 87-7810-936-1
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