Bombay Dyeing Textile Industry

The textile industry has been condemned as being one of the world’s worst offenders in
terms of pollution because it requires a great amount of two components:
• Chemicals:  as many as 2,000 different chemicals are used in the textile industry,
from dyes to transfer agents.
• Water:  a finite resource that is quickly becoming scarce, and is used at every step
of the process both to convey the chemicals used during that step and to wash
them out before beginning the next step. The water becomes full of chemical
additives and is then expelled as wastewater; which in turn pollutes the
environment:
o by the effluent’s heat;
o by its increased pH;
o and because it’s saturated with dyes, de-foamers, bleaches, detergents, optical
brighteners, equalizers and many other chemicals used during the process.


 Bombay Dyeing textile industry uses dyes that release aromatic amines (e.g., benzidine,
toluidine). Dyebath effluents may contain heavy metals, ammonia, alkalai salts, toxic
solids and large amounts of pigments - many of which are toxic. About 40 percent of
globally used colorants contain organically bound chlorine, a known carcinogen.
Natural dyes are rarely low-impact, depending on the specific dye and mordant used.
Mordants (the substance used to "fix" the color onto the fabric) such as chromium are
very toxic and high impact. The large quantities of natural dyestuffs required for
dyeing, typically equal to or double that of the fiber’s own weight, make natural dyes
prepared from wild plants and lichens very high impact.

It uses low-impact reactive dyes in a closed-loop system. While they are the
lowest-impact fiber reactive dyes available, the dyes are by no means low impact. At
best, about 80 percent of the dyestuffs stay on the fabric, while the rest go down the
drain (although the water is contained and treated before returning to the ecosystem).


PVC, Harmful solvents used in glues, to stick plastic coating to some water proof fabrics.Dyeing alone can account for most of the water used in producing a garment; unfixed dye then often washes out of garments, and can end up colouring the rivers, as treatment plants fail to remove them from the water. Dye fixatives - often heavy metals - also end up in sewers and then rivers. Cloth is often bleached using dioxin-producing chlorine compounds. And virtually all polycotton (especially bedlinen), plus all 'easy care', 'crease resistant', 'permanent press' cotton, are treated with toxic formaldehyde (also used for flameproofing nylon).