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Grasim Advocates Dope-Dyed Fibres As A Solution To Environmental Pollution In Textile Industry

• By  Textile Excellence
• February 14, 2017

Textile experts from Grasim expound the virtues and benefits of using dope-dyed fibres to avoid environmental pollution caused by the textile industry.  Ajay Sardana, Chief Sustainability Officer and Amit Dayal, AVP- Textile Research & Application Development Centre of Grasim Industries Ltd., penned the below article where they substantiate their views with adequate proof and logic. 

Viscose has been a fibre adored by consumers on account of its excellent attributes of comfort, fluidic drape and aesthetic appeal. Manufactured from a renewable natural resource - wood pulp, Viscose has been a preferred choice across applications like women’s fashion wear, menswear in blends and home textiles. Grasim is world’s leading producer of this fibre and offers a wide range of fibre choice to their customers across the globe including dope dyed fibres.

Why Dope-dyed Fibres?

Wet processing, a common step in the textile industry, has the potential to cause a significant impact on the environment and human health. Large amounts of chemicals and dyes are used in the wet processing operations resulting in generation of effluents with a complex chemical composition.

The cellulosic textile industry consumes a large quantity of water in wet processing operations like desizing, scouring, mercerizing, bleaching and dyeing employed during conversion of fibre to fabric.

The last decade has seen a growing concern about environmental issues, which have increased many fold because of increasing industrial pollution, waste problems, effects of global warming, etc.

Dope dyed Viscose is the right solution to reduce environmental pollution and waste water discharges in a textile processing factory.

Benefits of Dope-dyed Viscose:

Sustainability – In order to verify this, a qualitative life-cycle assessment between Viscose dope dyed knitted fabrics versus Viscose piece-dyed knitted fabrics has been completed by the North India Textile Research Association (NITRA).

It is clear from this independent study by NITRA that:

1. Greenhouse gas emissionsare reduced up to 20% by using spun-dyed Viscose as compared to the conventional dyeing of Viscose

2. Waste water generationis reduced up to 10% and a significant reduction is noticed in heavy metal concentrations in the effluent generated by spun-dyed Viscose

3. By adopting the dope dyeing process, less chemicals and energy are needed as the process is short and less waste water is generated. This enables direct savings on production costs and ensures a substantial reduction of the environmental footprint of the final products

Quality – Dope dyed Viscose based fabrics havebetter wash and perspiration fastness (rating of 4-5 for both wash & perspiration fastness against rating of 3 for piece-dyed fabrics) against piece-dyed viscose fabrics, though there is no significant difference in rubbing and sublimation fastness.

Cost – Apart from the above advantages, on the cost front, dope dyed Viscose fabric is about Rs 15-20 per kg cheaper compared to piece-dyed viscose fabric.

Ease of processing –As the fibre is already dyed, the process of dyeing is completely eliminated leading to the saving of a large amount of resources such as water, energy and chemicals. This results in less loading of effluents into the environment.

Regulations –In a recent development, China is planning to introduce an environmental tax on printing & dyeing companies. The law, to enter into force on Jan. 1, 2018, will be key to fighting pollution. The law will target enterprises and public institutions that discharge listed pollutants directly into the environment.

So, dope-dyed Viscose can be very helpful to the manufacturers who are using piece dyeing processes and facing the issues of environmental pollution, shade consistency and cost in their production. Dope-dyed fibre can be a significant part of the solution to all such problems.

Applications of Dope-dyed Viscose:

Dope-dyed Viscose applications include dress pants, work wear, uniforms, leggings, knitted tops, thermal wear, carpets and nonwoven wipes. In all these applications, consumers will value the benefits brought about by dope-dyed fibres through their enhanced performance and the conservation of scarce natural resources.

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About the Authors:

Ajay Sardana

Chief Sustainability Officer

Grasim Industries Ltd., Aditya Birla Group.

Ajay Sardana has rich experience of more than 20 years in the global textile industry. He has an overall exposure of entire textile value chain from Pulp to Garments. Presently he heads Customer & Market Intelligence, Liaison & Sustainability of Pulp & Fibre Business of Grasim.

Amit Dayal

AVP- Textile Research & Application Development Centre

Grasim Industries Ltd., Aditya Birla Group.

Amit Dayal has over 20 years of experience in textile field and his major areas of work involve application development, customer value propositions for new product developments, seasonal collections & technical storylines for product and market promotion

Textile Excellence