How much Water Footprint left by Jeans?
We may regard a worn pair of blue jeans as an old friend, but we may not give much attention to how those trousers were created.
In reality, lot of water is used in producing cotton, washing it, and dying it blue. Cotton cultivation and wet textile processes such as bleaching, dyeing, printing, and finishing account for the lion's share of the fashion sector's global water usage, with global cotton production projected to utilize 222 billion m3/y of water. It is also estimated that 20% of industrial water pollution is linked with garment manufacture, with an annual 1.3 trillion gallons related with dyeing operations.
The fashion sector, on the other hand, is growing increasingly concerned with sustainability!
Many firms produce their jeans in a clean-energy plant that reuses 98 percent of the water.
Taylor Stitch employs organic cotton in their '68 Denim, which is made using water, energy, and chemically efficient procedures.
Levi Strauss Company is moving up with a laser dyeing technology that claims to minimize dyeing water use by 71%.
Wrangler has also released a new Dry Indigo denim. The foam approach reduces 99 percent of the water needed in the denim dyeing process. The technique was created at Texas Tech using early-stage support from Wrangler and the Walmart Foundation.
Levi's Better Cotton Initiative has been educating farmers to be more water efficient since 2001, and it’s "Water Less" methods have reused over 2 billion Lt of water and includes the use of 15% or more recycled cotton in Levi's trousers.
Cotton cultivation
While these advancements are commendable, the majority of water required for blue jeans is for cotton irrigation and is referred to as "virtual water" since it is frequently omitted in water footprint estimates.
Global textile production takes an estimated 44 trillion Lt of water per year for irrigation, accounting for around 3% of total irrigation, 95% of which is used to grow cotton. Cotton irrigation accounts for 92 percent of a pair of pants' water impact.Foreign demand accounts for around half of the local water impacts from cotton.
Most sources state that 10,000-20,000 Lt of water are required to produce 1 kilogram of cotton, while some cotton supporters argue that cotton water footprint figures are exaggerated, pointing out that cotton can thrive in extremely dry conditions.
According to the “International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)”, a kilogram of ginned cotton takes only roughly 1,214 Lt of water to irrigate, and 41.3 percent of cotton output does not require irrigation.
Water Consumption in Denim Manufacturing
Cotton is carded (processed through brushing machines), spun into yarn, and coloured, generally with a synthetic indigo, after it is taken from bales. Large cotton balls called "ball warps" are continuously dipped in a dye vat, generating colour layers.The cotton yarn is "slashed," or coated with a starchy sizing to harden it, before being woven on shuttle less looms with blue and white threads.
The manufacturing process is water-intensive, but some jeans are additionally prewashed or stonewashed, producing substances that must be disposed of, such as chlorine, as well as organic pollutants such as colour and starch. These should not be thrown into surface water untreated because the resulting oxygen shortage would endanger aquatic life.
What can Netsol Water provide?
A variety of Netsol products may assist cotton manufacturing or other fabric manufacturing in properly converting their wastewater into high-quality effluent, allowing them to recharge their aquifers or sustain themselves on brackish water reserves or properly dispose it off.
Netsol Water is Greater Noida-based leading water & wastewater treatment plant manufacturer. We are industry's most demanding company based on client review and work quality. We are known as best commercial RO plant manufacturers, industrial RO plant manufacturer, sewage treatment plant manufacturer, Water Softener Plant Manufacturers and effluent treatment plant manufacturers. Apart from this 24x7 customer support is our USP. Call on +91-9650608473, or write us at enquiry@netsolwater.com for any support, inquiry or product-purchase related query.
