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EDIPTEX - Environmental assessment of textiles

2 Choice of products for EDIPTEX

• 2.1 Criteria for selection of EDIPTEX products
• 2.2 An EDIPTEX sister project on woollen furniture fabrics
• 2.3 Bills of materials for the products
• 2.4 Textile enterprises in EDIPTEX

In order to establish a representative and useful number of textile unit processes, six products were selected and followed through their entire lifecycle.

As can be seen in the process tree in figure 2.1, the production phase from yarn spinning to making-up is a very complex phase in the lifecycle of textiles. In this process, all end products will go through several unit processes. One example is that both fibres and fabric are dyed, and so are made-up garments. The production phase is also the phase where the Danish textiles sector is active, and the database must therefore be very differentiated and detailed for this phase.

Figure 2.1 Basic process tree for many types of textile product

For each EDIPTEX product, bills of materials have been prepared, listing the sub-products used, and a process tree from cradle to grave has been made for each EDIPTEX product. The six EDIPTEX products form the mainstay of the database and can form the basis for further work by the part of the textiles sector that sells finished goods to retailers.

Table 2.1 Overview of EDIPTEX products

For each sub-product in the six EDIPTEX products, bills of materials and process trees have also been made - and these form the basis for the actual data collection and for the further work at the individual enterprises producing the sub-products (or carrying out part of the production, such as a knitting mills, dye houses, etc.).

Details of the individual EDIPTEX products can be found in the six case stories in annexes 1-6.

2.1 Criteria for selection of EDIPTEX products

As the majority of Danish retail trade within textiles involves imported goods and the majority of the Danish textile production is exported, it has not been a criterion for all sub-products of an EDIPTEX product to be produced in Denmark. The Danish textiles sector has the production facilities as well as the expertise to produce all sub-products. Therefore, in situations where sub-products of an EDIPTEX product are not currently being produced in Denmark, we have applied production and emission data from existing Danish production facilities that could have produced similar sub-products.

The overall criteria for selecting the six EDIPTEX products that constitute the mainstay of the EDIPTEX database were:

• Together, the products must represent relevant types of fibre in Danish textile production.
• The lifecycles of the products must include environmentally important refining processes in Danish textile production.
• The products must be significant for Danish textile processing enterprises - and the enterprises showing interest in the project and participating in the data collection will have great influence on the choice of products.

It must be possible to illustrate the usefulness of the database through a number of relevant and up-to-date cleaner technology-scenarios - e.g. organic versus conventional cotton and dry cleaning versus washing.

The following literature references were also included in the selection of the EDIPTEX products:

• Statistics Denmark's commodity statistics for the textile industry in 1997. Unfortunately, the statistics are not very detailed as regards fibre types. The category "Blouses (including shirts), knitwear; of synthetic fibres for men/boys" is a typical example. The categories are often very general; for example, there is only one overall category for clothes for infants ("Garments and accessories").
• "Profil af den danske tøjindustri" (publication from the Federation of Danish Textile and Clothing about the Danish clothing industry, November 1992) contains a statement of significant product categories. It also uses overall product names such as "children's clothing" and "dresses".
• The updated product and enterprise archive of the Federation of Danish Textile and Clothing (www.textile.dk). This archive is based on the member enterprises' own information about their business area (fibre types, products/semi-finished goods), but it contains no figures for amounts or revenue.

The steering group of the project has evaluated the selection of products, and the selection was presented at an information meeting for the textiles sector arranged by the Federation of Danish Textile and Clothing in Herning.

Comments from the steering group and the enterprises led to the selection of the six EDIPTEX products described in table 2.1.

Acrylic

The enterprises show very little interest in products made of acrylic, which is described as a marginal product on the way out. Therefore, the EDIPTEX project did not include products containing acrylic. However, the most recent available data for production of acrylic fibres were entered in the database so that others who do wish to work with acrylic products have the possibility of benefiting from the data.

2.2 An EDIPTEX sister project on woollen furniture fabrics

Only producers of floor coverings, rugs and blankets state an interest in wool. No producers of garments made of wool or blends thereof have showed an interest in participating in the project, and several important links in the production chain for wool for garments are missing in the Danish group of enterprises.

However, a large part of the lifecycle of wool products is covered by the project "Livscyklus i salg, design og produktudvikling" (lifecycle in sales, design and product development – only available in Danish) carried out by the textiles enterprise Gabriel A/S in cooperation with COWI and Dansk Kvalitetsrådgivning.

The project dealt with woollen furniture fabrics and it was based on the EDIP method.

On the basis of this, wool products have not been included in this project.

2.3 Bills of materials for the products

On the basis of the product choices, "bills of materials" were prepared. A bill of materials lists the intermediate products and processes of which the end product is composed during production, use and disposal. The bills of materials together gave an overview of the intermediate products and processes for which unit processes in the EDIPTEX database needed to be established.

The bills of materials were reviewed in cooperation with relevant enterprises so that each intermediate product was related to up-to-date and current processes. Each enterprise was allocated one or more reference products for which data was collected in cooperation with the project participants.

2.4 Textile enterprises in EDIPTEX

The enterprises that participated in EDIPTEX are listed in table 2.2.

The enterprises contributed in various ways. Some contributed with comments on product models and processes - others were directly involved in collection of data and contributed with valuable data on e.g. chemicals being used, energy consumption and waste.

Tabel 2.2 Overview of EDIPTEX enterprises.

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Version 1.0 July 2007, © Danish Environmental Protection Agency