Sustainable Textile

Sustainability has become the Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point (USP) for many denim jeans manufacturers in the last year or two. Considering it takes around 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce one pair of blue jeans - not accounting for the amount of water used to reach the appropriate wash– many manufacturers and brands are anxious to tell potential customers what they are doing to make their production of denim more sustainable, with the environment in mind.

What constitutes a sustainable textile?

Broadly speaking, the answer lies in four main factors:

• Raw material extraction
• Textile production
• Added chemistry
• End-of-life

Raw material extraction:

Raw material extraction for example, addresses the land and water used to grow natural fibers like cotton and wool, or the impacts of extracting fossil fuels for synthetic fibers such as polyester or nylon.Production considerations include the water and energy used for manufacturing, the impact of production waste and a company's social responsibility towards its workers and the communities that surround its production facilities. Added chemistries, including dyes, finishes and coatings, may impact the health of textile workers as well as consumers of the final product. Finally, the end-of-life scenario, including textile biodegradability and the reclamation infrastructure required to turn it into new raw material, strongly affect its sustainability.

Sustainable Raw Material:

Raw materials in garment production include Fabrics, Trims and Accessories in which fabric constitutes about 60% of the total garment cost indicating the significant role of fabric in making a garment. This indicates the importance of fabric in garment manufacturing which has led to the increased attention in producing sustainable raw materials for fabric development. In today‟s scenario there are varieties of sustainable fabrics viz. organic cotton, organic linen, banana fibre, bamboo fibre, TENCEL, Recycled Polyester and Recycled Wool Blend etc.

Sustainable Production Process:

This has a lot to do with the production machines starting from manufacturing fabrics to the end product like washing and packaging of a garment. This involves using high tech machines to ensure less energy consumption, less water usage, less emitting of hazardous chemicals, reusing the water.