Facing The Severe Environmental Pollution Problem, How Should The Textile And Garment Industry Do?

Recently, Sun Ruizhe, President of China Textile Industry Federation, introduced the 2019 climate innovation and fashion summit, after the oil industry, the textile and garment industry has become the second largest polluters in the world. Faced with this grim situation, some garment enterprises began to transform and use environmentally-friendly fabrics. Can it solve the problem of pollution in the industry?

Environmental protection is imminent

Since the 90s of last century, the number of textile and garment production and exports has ranked first in the world. The rise of the textile and garment industry has played an important role in the development of economy and people's livelihood, but the pollution problem also follows.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said that the production of a cotton shirt requires about 2700 liters of water. The production of a pair of jeans needs about 7500 liters of water, while a person drinks only about 1000 liters of water a year. At present, the textile and garment industry has become the second largest industry in the world, and the annual wastewater volume accounts for about 20% of the global wastewater. In addition, the emissions of greenhouse gases from the textile and garment industry have exceeded the total emissions of international flights and shipping.

At the same time, with the rise of fast fashion industry, more and more clothes are forgotten in the innermost part of the wardrobe, and the treatment of old clothes has also become a part of environmental problems. According to data from China Circular Economy Association, about 26 million tons of old clothes are thrown into trash cans each year, and the data will be raised to 50 million tons after 2030. At present, most of the old clothes are treated by landfill or incineration, and these two ways will cause serious environmental pollution.

In this regard, the thirteenth five year plan outline of People's Republic of China's national economic and social development (hereinafter referred to as the "13th Five-Year plan" (2016-2020 years)) clearly pointed out that in 2020, the energy consumption of industrial added value of Enterprises above Designated Size in the textile industry reached a cumulative decline of 18% and two, and the cumulative emission intensity of carbon dioxide decreased by 22%, water consumption decreased by 23%, and the total utilization of textile fibers reached 12 million tons.

At the same time, after the implementation of the new environmental protection law, the requirements of the textile and garment industry in terms of environmental protection are constantly improving. It is reported that the new environmental protection law stipulates that the direct discharge of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in textile enterprises needs to be controlled at 80 mg per litre. This is the increase in the emission threshold of the textile and garment industry once the COD straight row standard has been raised to 100 mg per litre in 2013.

In addition to paying close attention to environmental protection issues in the textile and garment industry, more and more consumers' environmental awareness is also increasing. Many consumers in an interview with China Daily News reporter said that the textile and garment industry's environmental problems are increasingly grim, and the introduction of sustainable materials can attract consumers.

Environmental protection revolution of garment enterprises

In fact, many enterprises have realized that green environmental protection will be a new trend in the development of textile and garment enterprises. Most textile and garment enterprises also regard environmental protection as corporate social responsibility, and want to ease environmental problems from production materials and environmental investment.

Fast fashion brand H&M has the highest voice on sustainable development. It is understood that at present H&M has launched organic cotton, recycled polyester fiber and Tencel fiber made of environmentally conscious action series. Xia Yanhong, director of sustainable supply chain and stakeholder relations in the Far East of H&M group, said that the company plans to use renewable or sustainable materials in 2030. The plan has been completed 57% last year.

As a competitor, Zara launched its first environmental brand Join Life in 2016. On the product packaging, Zara uses 100% recyclable paper plates, while online orders use recycled recycled cartons to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. C&A, who is also fast fashion, promotes green production by documentating organic cotton.

In terms of domestic clothing brands, Jiangnan cloth clothing launched a brand new fashion environmental brand "REVERB" last year to expand business horizontally with the strategy of multi brand extension.

According to Chen Baishun, vice president of the supply chain center and technology center of Pathfinder group, Pathfinder has developed a number of sustainable environmentally friendly products, including chitin fiber, dyed products, etc., to extend the life cycle of products, and implement the concept of environmental protection to products and convey to consumers.

It is worth mentioning that companies producing raw materials for clothing are also making efforts to contribute to the cause of environmental protection. It is reported that the new Tianyuan color spinning is currently the world's largest supplier of color woven woven fabrics, and its general manager, Sun Wei, said that the new Tianyuan color spinning is implementing the four stages of fashion sustainable strategy, creating the concept of "zero dye" and "regeneration".

Environmental protection trend

Climate change is changing the business environment and pattern of market competition, Sun Ruizhe said, which not only affects the operation of enterprises, but also affects the supply chain and market demand of enterprises.

From the present point of view, the upstream company of textile and garment industry, namely raw material company, is stepping up its technological force to expand the intelligent environmental protection production line, and improve its competitiveness through reducing pollution and using environmentally friendly chemical technology. Regarding this, Chen Yufeng, an analyst at Huatai Securities, believes that environmental protection policy is tightening gradually, and the upstream textile enterprises are limited in start-up. Among them, leading enterprises with scale advantages and high technical barriers can take advantage of this opportunity to take advantage of the market.

It is undeniable that for the textile and garment industry, old clothes recycling is a difficult problem. At present, some enterprises have adopted new fiber dissolution technology to melt old clothes recovered.

In the view of the industry, building sustainable clothing production with the help of raw materials will be the key to win the trust and expand the market share of the garment industry.

Nowadays, the development of textile and garment industry can not turn around two words of environmental protection. Sun Ruizhe believes that China's fashion enterprises should clarify the development trend of the world, countries and industries in changing circumstances, so as to grasp opportunities and plan the future in changing circumstances.

Gao Yanmin, director of the consumer goods industry department of the Ministry of industry and information technology, said that the textile and garment industry is an important part of the industry, connecting production and consumption. Therefore, the attitude and action of the textile and garment industry will have a wide impact on the industrial field and even the global market in the course of dealing with climate change.