ECO-FIBRES AND ECO- FRIENDLY TEXTILES R.B.CHAVAN DEPARTMENT OF TEXTILTECHNOLOGY INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HAUZ-KHAS, NEW DELHI 110016
Dec 16, 2014
ECO-FIBRES AND ECO-FRIENDLY TEXTILES
R.B.CHAVANDEPARTMENT OF TEXTILTECHNOLOGY
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
HAUZ-KHAS, NEW DELHI 110016
PRESENT CONCEPTPOLLUTERS MUST PAY
CRADLE TO GRAVE NOT ONLY FINAL PRODUCT BE ECO FRIENDLYRAW MATERIALS, PRODUCTION PROCESSES, PACKAGING, ECO FRENDLY EVEN AFTER DIPOSALMEET EMS 14000 AND SAS 1800 STANDARDSECO FRIENDLY PRODUCTS INDENTIFIED BY ECO LABLESWOMB TO TOMB
•GREEN MINDED CONSUMER PREFER ECO PRODUCTS EVEN AT HIGH COST
THREE ECOLOGIES
•PRODDUCTION ECOLOGY
•USER ECOLOGY
•DISPOSAL ECOLOGY
USER AND DISPOSAL ECOLOGY
•USER ECOLOGY REFERS TO• AESTHETICS
•PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS •EFFECTS OF TEXTILES ON HUMAN BODY.
•DISPOSAL ECOLOGY REFERS TO •DISPOSAL OF TEXTILES AFTER USE
•RECYCLING, •COMPOSTING,
•DUMPING, •INCINERATION
•LEAST POSSIBLE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT .
PRODUCTION ECOLOGY
COMPRISES OF
•CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING OF NATURAL FIBRES
•THE MANUFACTURE OF REGENERATED AND SYNTHETIC FIBRES
• SPINNING, WEAVING, KNITTING
•TEXTILE CHEMICAL PROCESSING
•GARMENT MANUFACTURE
•PACKING
ECO FIBRES
–CONVENTIONAL COTTON–CONVENTIONAL COTTON IS NOT ECO
FRIENDLY– USE OF FERTILIZERS, PESTICIDES AND
VARIOUS CROPS RELATED CHEMICALS DURING COTTON CULTIVATION.
–INHALATION DURING HANDLING AND SPRAY APPLICATION-HEALTH HAZARDS
–PRESENCE OF THESE CHEMICALS AS RESIDUE ON COTTON BOLLS
–WASHED AWAY DURING PREPARATORY PROCESSES
–WATER POLLUTION
KING COTTON
COTTON BUD
COTTON
FLOWER
Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides
Chemical Name
Agri. Use Human Toxicity
Environ. Toxicity
Chlorpynfos Insects Brain and fetal damage, impotence, sterility.
Bees, birds, crustaceans,&mollu
sks
Cyanazine Weeds Birth defects,
cancer. Bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish.
Dicofol Mites, insecticide.
Cancer, reproductive damage, tumors
Aquatic insects, birds, & fish
Ethephon Plant growth regulator
Mutations. Birds, bees, crustaceans, & fish.
Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides
Chemical Name
Agri. Use Human Toxicity
Environ. Toxicity
Metam Sodium
Insects, nematodes, fungus, weeds.
Birth defects, fetal damage,
mutations
Bees & fish.
Methyl Parathion
Insecticide. Birth defects, fetal damage, reproductive & immune system.
Birds, bees, crustaceans, & fish.
Profenofos Insecticide & miticide.
Eye damage, skin irritant.
Birds, bees, & fish.
Prometryn Herbicide. Bone marrow, kidney, liver, testicular damage.
Bees, birds, crustaceans, fish, & mollusks.
Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides
Chemical Name
Agri. Use Human Toxicity
Environ. Toxicity
Propargite Miticide. Cancer, Fetal & eye damage, mutations, tumors.
Bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish.
Sodium Chlorate
Leaf drop & weeds.
Kidney damage & methemoglobinemia
Birds & fish.
Tribufos Leaf drop. Cancer, tumors.
Birds & fish.
Trifluralin Herbicide. Cancer, fetal damage, teratogen, suspect mutagen.
Amphibians, aquatic insects, bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish.
It takes one pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to
conventionally grow the three pounds of cotton needed to
make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
COTTON SUICIDES-INDIA•Excerpted from "Cotton, Pesticides and Suicides," by Jitedra Verma,
posted in the Earth Island On-line Journal. Verma is a reporter for Down to Earth magazine (Centre for science and environment
•"Since the beginning of the new year, not a single day has passed
without one cotton farmer committing suicide," says a farmer in
Warangal, where almost the entire standing cotton crop has been
devastated, placing communities on the brink of starvation. Faced with a
raging attack on the cotton crop by Spodoptera litura (tobacco cutworm)
and Heliothis armigera (American bollworm), frantic Andhra Pradesh
farmers were sitting ducks for pesticide suppliers offering to sell
pesticides on credit. But the indiscriminate application of pesticides only
led to increased resistance in pests. While pests continued to ravage
crops, expenses mounted and the noose tightened.
beneath cotton's natural fiber lies a long chain of chemically-intensive,
"unnatural" processes.
To bring this delicate plant to harvest, it is heavily sprayed - 8 to 10 times a
season - with pesticides so poisonous
they gradually render fields barren. And that's just the beginning.
To create finished goods, fabrics are often colored with toxic dyes and
finished with formaldehyde.
Need for organic cotton
Like most technologies, pesticides are not neutral.
Yet many people insist that they can behave selectively, wiping out undesirable elements and
leaving others unharmed.
The list of tragic accidents involving chemicals used on cotton, however, is lengthy.
The 1984 gas leak at the Union Carbide factory
in Bhopal, India - which included chemicals used on cotton - speaks to the question of
pollution during manufacturing. An estimated 25 million people worldwide are
poisoned by pesticides every year, which translates to 48 per minute.
It is almost universally agreed that pesticide
exposure heightens the risk of cancer.
So much is made of the economic advantages of pesticides by chemical
companies interested in sales But little is said of the hidden costs, the contamination of soil and ground water,
as well as the negative effects on farmers, farm workers and wildlife.
Organic agriculture offers the choice to
Because the hidden costs of conventional agriculture will eventually surface
As frightening as it might seem in the face of crop loss, organic farmers maintain a balance of
"good" and "bad" bugs. They depend upon beneficial
insects to become parasites or predators on the pests that could
destroy their cotton. Beneficials can be released in
case of infestations, but it's best to have them permanently residing
on the farm. Once a farmer applies pesticides
to a field, however, beneficials are usually eliminated, triggering the
need for repeated spraying throughout the season. One of the organic farmer's
friends. A 'Catolaccus grandis' parasitizing a boll weevil larva
Organic food now symbolizes the highest and freshest quality available.
Suppliers of organic cotton are not far behind.
If we are really concerned about environmental issues today,
our ideas of excellent product design must include impact on the earth.
Yet so much of this environmental quality might not be immediately
visible to the naked eye.
We have to see beyond the clothes themselves and look to the
landscapes - the air, water, soil and wilderness - where the real
differences are made.
COTTON CULTIVATED WITHOUT USING
FERTILIZERS PESTICIDES AND OTHER CHEMICALS
(ORGANIC FARMING) RESIDUE OF THESE CHEMICALS REMOVED DURING
FIRST TWO SEASONS OF CULTIVATION COTTON FROM THIRD SEASON ONWARDS IS ECO
FRIENDLY INDENTIFIED BY LOGOS ORGANIC COTTON GREEN COTTON NATURAL COTTON
ECO FRIENDLY COTTON
ORGANIC COTTON CULTIVATION
CLEANER APPROACH•Organic farmers use biologically-based rather than chemically-
dependent growing systems to raise crops.
Soil •Organic farming starts with the soil. Compost, frequent crop rotations and cover crop strategies replace synthetic fertilizers to keep the soil healthy and productive. Fields must be free of synthetically-derived
chemicals for three years to achieve organic certification.
Weed Control •Weeds are controlled by innovative farm machinery, hand labor or
flame devices rather than herbicide applications.
ORGANIC COTTON CULTIVATION
Insect Pests
Rather than attempting to eradicate all insects with
chemicals, organic farmers cultivate a diversity of natural
enemies which prey on insect pests, and lure pests away
from cotton by planting trap crops. Insect pests can be
effectively kept in balance with well-timed introduction of
beneficial insects to fields.
Organic cotton certification
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE MOVEMENT [IFOAM]
has formulated standards and guidelines for
organic cotton cultivation and are
followed by many labelling agencies to certify
organic cotton and other farm produce.
Merits of organic cotton cultivation
Environmentally Friendly Technology
Reduction in Cost of Cultivation
Management of Insecticide Resistance
INDIAN COTTONIndia is the third largest producer of cotton
Percentage of agriculture land under cotton production in India:
5 per cent (8.9 million hectares)
Percentage of total pesticide used for cotton cultivation:
54 per cent
cotton makes for 70 per cent of the textile sector's raw material
Organic cotton in Indian
Organic cotton production in india makes for not even a miniscule percentage of the total cotton production. and while production of insecticide-intentsive cotton farming hits a platuea, organic cotton
production is yet to pick up
Organic cotton in IndiaFive to seven decades ago, most of the cotton cultivated in the country was ‘eco-friendly’ with little or no use of toxic
chemicals in its production.
Even today, there are many pockets in India, where it is produced without the use of agrochemicals, e.g., areas growing Wagad cotton in Gujarat, Y-1 desi
areas growing Wagad cotton in Gujarat, Y-1 desi cotton of Khandesh region of Maharashtra,
Maljari in Madhya Pradesh,
part of areas growing Jayadhar and Suyodhar in Karnataka
Nandicum in Andhra Pradesh and
parts of cotton areas in north eastern hill region.
Vidarbha organic farmers Association(VOFA
1993 Visit of Envirnmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) Hamburg Germany to Central Cotton Research Institute, (CICR) Nagpur
To confirm organic cotton farming in Vidarbha EPEA confirmed organic cotton in Vidarbha
EPEA confirmed organic cotton in Vidarbha
•1994 Organization of 135 farmers from five districts Nagpur, Wardha,
Yavatmal, Amravati and Akola
•1995 commitment of 12,00 hectares land for organic cotton cultivation
1995 Formation of Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association
1996 Bumper crop of organic cotton
Present status of VOFA
205 Members
90 Practicing organic farmers
3500 Acres area under organic cotton farming
Purchaser: Fare Trade Company Japan
Volauntary organizations in organic cotton
production
VOFA (VIDARBHA ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION), MOFA (MAHARASHTRA ORGANIC FARMERS
ASSOCIATION), SHRIDA-BIORE etc. have been formed either by farmers groups interested in
organic cotton cultivation or to assist such groups by offering technical assistance.
yield level of 500-750 kg/ha. The technological properties of various cultivators grown
under the organic cultivation such as micronaire (3.8-5.0),
span length (25.5-29.9 mm) and fibre maturity parameters
similar to fibres produced by conventional methods
Maikaal bioRe Ltd.
Madhya PradeshMaikaal bioRe Ltd, which claims to be the largest organic
cotton venture in the world,
in Bheelaon, Madhya Pradesh
has over 1,000 farmers involved in organic cotton production
The production of organic cotton started in 1991 as a private
initiative of Mrigendra Jalan, Managing Director of the spinning mill,
Maikaal Fibres Ltd, and
•Patrick Hohmann, Managing Director of the Swiss cotton yarn trading company, Remei AG
Organic cotton production in India
14-15 lakh bales of uncertified organc cotton (Cotton
corporation of India)
Estimated certified organic cotton 1000
Total world production 8150
15% of total world production
37% Asian countries production