“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success” – a quote by a visionary legend, Henry Ford stands good for a common cause that the entire world is working towards. Collaboration among industry stakeholders is the way forward for sustainable fashion.
The global fashion industry in the third largest industry after automobile and technology, contributing around US$ 2.4 Trillion to the world economy, however it is the second biggest polluting industry. According to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, the textile and clothing industry accounts for 10% of global annual carbon emission and 20% of industrial waste-water pollution. As per the estimates of 2015, the textile and clothing industry used 93 billion cubic meter of water per year while it generated 17 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of textile production. It is estimated that the global consumption of apparel will increase from 62 million tons in 2019 to 102 million tons in next one decade, and its impact on the environment will certainly be disastrous if it continues to produce goods the way it does.
Looking at the enormity of environmental impact, it is imperative that stakeholders of the textile industry works together and adopt new technologies to reduce carbon and water footprints by conserving available resource.
Fashion brands are conscious and responding to consumer concerns with committed goals of sustainability, working closely with the supply chain to adopt new technologies and sustainable production processes. Brands are jointly taking initiatives with various global organisations with an eye on new developments, making mandatory for textile manufacturers to comply to new sustainability standards like of GOTS, ZDHC, Higgs Index, etc. Many textile and garment companies have pro-actively embarked on sustainability initiatives and concerned about the environmental and health impact arising from its manufacturing processes.
Technology and research are playing a key role in making the industry more sustainable. For a healthier and more sustainable future, these challenges must be tackled using innovative chemistries that are not only environmental friendly but durable and minimize the usage of scarce natural resources.
Zydex Industries, a specialty chemical company, is the pioneer of introducing innovative technologies in textile printing space, replaced PVC based ink with water-based printing solutions in early 2000. Recently, Zydex has developed a new technology for all over textile printing that replaces a major part of conventional prints which consumes large amount of water and energy. Reactive conventional printing has been the mainstay of printing fabrics due to its depth, brilliancy, soft feel and good crock and washing fastness. However, it consumes large quantities of water for washing-off unfixed reactive dyes. Also the final colour depth and tone cannot be ascertained until the fabric is fully processed, which often results into higher rejections.
Zydex has introduced Epricon, a sustainable printing solution based on next generation polymer particularly replacing reactive printings – saving around 75% of water and 55% of energy as compared to reactive printing, with increased productivity.
Epricon allows customers to achieve reactive-like feel, fastness and depth along with excellent brightness. Its simple process eliminates washing and steaming processes, and effluent treatment hassles associated with reactive printing. This not only saves overall cost but also results in higher production. Epricon package allows printing with finer meshes which can help achieve digital-look prints with brighter shades and colours at much lower costs. This offers advantages such as low fabric printing cost per meter as compared to digital, high production, lower wastages and pollution, high brilliancy, broader colour options and easy colour shade matching.
Zydex is partnering with like-minded brands and textile players to implement this innovative and sustainable printing solutions and gradually shift a range of existing reactive prints to Epricon. It is collaborating with leading textile players in the industry, offering complete technical guidance for its transition from reactive prints to Epricon. Zydex is a specialty chemicals company with the purpose of innovating to create a sustainable world through conservation of resources. For more information, please write to amirsheikh@zydexindutries.com or log in to www.zydexindustries.com