ECO-FIBRES AND ECO-FRIENDLY TEXTILES

R.B.CHAVANDEPARTMENT OF TEXTILTECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

HAUZ-KHAS, NEW DELHI 110016

PRESENT CONCEPTPOLLUTERS MUST PAY

CRADLE TO GRAVE NOT ONLY FINAL PRODUCT BE ECO FRIENDLYRAW MATERIALS, PRODUCTION PROCESSES, PACKAGING, ECO FRENDLY EVEN AFTER DIPOSALMEET EMS 14000 AND SAS 1800 STANDARDSECO FRIENDLY PRODUCTS INDENTIFIED BY ECO LABLESWOMB TO TOMB

•GREEN MINDED CONSUMER PREFER ECO PRODUCTS EVEN AT HIGH COST

THREE ECOLOGIES

•PRODDUCTION ECOLOGY

•USER ECOLOGY

•DISPOSAL ECOLOGY

USER AND DISPOSAL ECOLOGY

•USER ECOLOGY REFERS TO• AESTHETICS

•PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS •EFFECTS OF TEXTILES ON HUMAN BODY.

•DISPOSAL ECOLOGY REFERS TO •DISPOSAL OF TEXTILES AFTER USE

•RECYCLING, •COMPOSTING,

•DUMPING, •INCINERATION

•LEAST POSSIBLE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT .

PRODUCTION ECOLOGY

COMPRISES OF

•CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING OF NATURAL FIBRES

•THE MANUFACTURE OF REGENERATED AND SYNTHETIC FIBRES

• SPINNING, WEAVING, KNITTING

•TEXTILE CHEMICAL PROCESSING

•GARMENT MANUFACTURE

•PACKING

ECO FIBRES

–CONVENTIONAL COTTON–CONVENTIONAL COTTON IS NOT ECO

FRIENDLY– USE OF FERTILIZERS, PESTICIDES AND

VARIOUS CROPS RELATED CHEMICALS DURING COTTON CULTIVATION.

–INHALATION DURING HANDLING AND SPRAY APPLICATION-HEALTH HAZARDS

–PRESENCE OF THESE CHEMICALS AS RESIDUE ON COTTON BOLLS

–WASHED AWAY DURING PREPARATORY PROCESSES

–WATER POLLUTION

KING COTTON

COTTON BUD

COTTON

FLOWER

Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides

Chemical Name

Agri. Use Human Toxicity

Environ. Toxicity

Chlorpynfos Insects Brain and fetal damage, impotence, sterility.

Bees, birds, crustaceans,&mollu

sks

Cyanazine Weeds Birth defects,

cancer. Bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish.

Dicofol Mites, insecticide.

Cancer, reproductive damage, tumors

Aquatic insects, birds, & fish

Ethephon Plant growth regulator

Mutations. Birds, bees, crustaceans, & fish.

Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides

Chemical Name

Agri. Use Human Toxicity

Environ. Toxicity

Metam Sodium

Insects, nematodes, fungus, weeds.

Birth defects, fetal damage,

mutations

Bees & fish.

Methyl Parathion

Insecticide. Birth defects, fetal damage, reproductive & immune system.

Birds, bees, crustaceans, & fish.

Profenofos Insecticide & miticide.

Eye damage, skin irritant.

Birds, bees, & fish.

Prometryn Herbicide. Bone marrow, kidney, liver, testicular damage.

Bees, birds, crustaceans, fish, & mollusks.

Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides

Chemical Name

Agri. Use Human Toxicity

Environ. Toxicity

Propargite Miticide. Cancer, Fetal & eye damage, mutations, tumors.

Bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish.

Sodium Chlorate

Leaf drop & weeds.

Kidney damage & methemoglobinemia

Birds & fish.

Tribufos Leaf drop. Cancer, tumors.

Birds & fish.

Trifluralin Herbicide. Cancer, fetal damage, teratogen, suspect mutagen.

Amphibians, aquatic insects, bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish.

It takes one pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to

conventionally grow the three pounds of cotton needed to

make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

COTTON SUICIDES-INDIA•Excerpted from "Cotton, Pesticides and Suicides," by Jitedra Verma,

posted in the Earth Island On-line Journal. Verma is a reporter for Down to Earth magazine (Centre for science and environment

•"Since the beginning of the new year, not a single day has passed

without one cotton farmer committing suicide," says a farmer in

Warangal, where almost the entire standing cotton crop has been

devastated, placing communities on the brink of starvation. Faced with a

raging attack on the cotton crop by Spodoptera litura (tobacco cutworm)

and Heliothis armigera (American bollworm), frantic Andhra Pradesh

farmers were sitting ducks for pesticide suppliers offering to sell

pesticides on credit. But the indiscriminate application of pesticides only

led to increased resistance in pests. While pests continued to ravage

crops, expenses mounted and the noose tightened.

beneath cotton's natural fiber lies a long chain of chemically-intensive,

"unnatural" processes. 

To bring this delicate plant to harvest, it is heavily sprayed - 8 to 10 times a

season - with pesticides so poisonous

they gradually render fields barren.  And that's just the beginning. 

To create finished goods, fabrics are often colored with toxic dyes and

finished with formaldehyde.  

Need for organic cotton

Like most technologies, pesticides are not neutral. 

  Yet many people insist that they can behave selectively, wiping out undesirable elements and

leaving others unharmed.   

The list of tragic accidents involving chemicals used on cotton, however, is lengthy. 

  The 1984 gas leak at the Union Carbide factory

in Bhopal, India - which included chemicals used on cotton - speaks to the question of

pollution during manufacturing.  An estimated 25 million people worldwide are

poisoned by pesticides every year, which translates to 48 per minute. 

It is almost universally agreed that pesticide

exposure heightens the risk of cancer.

So much is made of the economic advantages of pesticides by chemical

companies interested in sales But little is said of the hidden costs, the contamination of soil and ground water,

as well as the negative effects on farmers, farm workers and wildlife.

Organic agriculture offers the choice to

Because the hidden costs of conventional agriculture will eventually surface

As frightening as it might seem in the face of crop loss, organic farmers maintain a balance of

"good" and "bad" bugs.  They depend upon beneficial

insects to become parasites or predators on the pests that could

destroy their cotton.  Beneficials can be released in

case of infestations, but it's best to have them permanently residing

on the farm. Once a farmer applies pesticides

to a field, however, beneficials are usually eliminated, triggering the

need for repeated spraying throughout the season.  One of the organic farmer's

friends. A 'Catolaccus grandis' parasitizing a boll weevil larva

Organic food now symbolizes the highest and freshest quality available.

Suppliers of organic cotton are not far behind. 

If we are really concerned about environmental issues today,

our ideas of excellent product design must include impact on the earth. 

Yet so much of this environmental quality might not be immediately

visible to the naked eye.

We have to see beyond the clothes themselves and look to the

landscapes - the air, water, soil and wilderness - where the real

differences are made.

COTTON CULTIVATED WITHOUT USING

FERTILIZERS PESTICIDES AND OTHER CHEMICALS

(ORGANIC FARMING) RESIDUE OF THESE CHEMICALS REMOVED DURING

FIRST TWO SEASONS OF CULTIVATION COTTON FROM THIRD SEASON ONWARDS IS ECO

FRIENDLY INDENTIFIED BY LOGOS ORGANIC COTTON GREEN COTTON NATURAL COTTON

ECO FRIENDLY COTTON

ORGANIC COTTON CULTIVATION

CLEANER APPROACH•Organic farmers use biologically-based rather than chemically-

dependent growing systems to raise crops.

Soil •Organic farming starts with the soil. Compost, frequent crop rotations and cover crop strategies replace synthetic fertilizers to keep the soil healthy and productive. Fields must be free of synthetically-derived

chemicals for three years to achieve organic certification.

Weed Control •Weeds are controlled by innovative farm machinery, hand labor or

flame devices rather than herbicide applications.

ORGANIC COTTON CULTIVATION

Insect Pests

Rather than attempting to eradicate all insects with

chemicals, organic farmers cultivate a diversity of natural

enemies which prey on insect pests, and lure pests away

from cotton by planting trap crops. Insect pests can be

effectively kept in balance with well-timed introduction of

beneficial insects to fields.

Organic cotton certification

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE MOVEMENT [IFOAM]

has formulated standards and guidelines for

organic cotton cultivation and are

followed by many labelling agencies to certify

organic cotton and other farm produce.

Merits of organic cotton cultivation

Environmentally Friendly Technology

Reduction in Cost of Cultivation

Management of Insecticide Resistance

INDIAN COTTONIndia is the third largest producer of cotton

Percentage of agriculture land under cotton production in India:

5 per cent (8.9 million hectares)

Percentage of total pesticide used for cotton cultivation:

54 per cent

cotton makes for 70 per cent of the textile sector's raw material

Organic cotton in Indian

Organic cotton production in india makes for not even a miniscule percentage of the total cotton production. and while production of insecticide-intentsive cotton farming hits a platuea, organic cotton

production is yet to pick up

Organic cotton in IndiaFive to seven decades ago, most of the cotton cultivated in the country was ‘eco-friendly’ with little or no use of toxic

chemicals in its production.

Even today, there are many pockets in India, where it is produced without the use of agrochemicals, e.g., areas growing Wagad cotton in Gujarat, Y-1 desi

areas growing Wagad cotton in Gujarat, Y-1 desi cotton of Khandesh region of Maharashtra,

Maljari in Madhya Pradesh,

part of areas growing Jayadhar and Suyodhar in Karnataka

Nandicum in Andhra Pradesh and

parts of cotton areas in north eastern hill region.

Vidarbha organic farmers Association(VOFA

1993 Visit of Envirnmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) Hamburg Germany to Central Cotton Research Institute, (CICR) Nagpur

To confirm organic cotton farming in Vidarbha EPEA confirmed organic cotton in Vidarbha

EPEA confirmed organic cotton in Vidarbha

•1994 Organization of 135 farmers from five districts Nagpur, Wardha,

Yavatmal, Amravati and Akola

•1995 commitment of 12,00 hectares land for organic cotton cultivation

1995 Formation of Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association

1996 Bumper crop of organic cotton

Present status of VOFA

205 Members

90 Practicing organic farmers

3500 Acres area under organic cotton farming

Purchaser: Fare Trade Company Japan

Volauntary organizations in organic cotton

production

VOFA (VIDARBHA ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION), MOFA (MAHARASHTRA ORGANIC FARMERS

ASSOCIATION), SHRIDA-BIORE etc. have been formed either by farmers groups interested in

organic cotton cultivation or to assist such groups by offering technical assistance.

yield level of 500-750 kg/ha. The technological properties of various cultivators grown

under the organic cultivation such as micronaire (3.8-5.0),

span length (25.5-29.9 mm) and fibre maturity parameters

similar to fibres produced by conventional methods

Maikaal bioRe Ltd.

Madhya PradeshMaikaal bioRe Ltd, which claims to be the largest organic

cotton venture in the world,

in Bheelaon, Madhya Pradesh

has over 1,000 farmers involved in organic cotton production

The production of organic cotton started in 1991 as a private

initiative of Mrigendra Jalan, Managing Director of the spinning mill,

Maikaal Fibres Ltd, and

•Patrick Hohmann, Managing Director of the Swiss cotton yarn trading company, Remei AG

Organic cotton production in India

14-15 lakh bales of uncertified organc cotton (Cotton

corporation of India)

Estimated certified organic cotton 1000

Total world production 8150

15% of total world production

37% Asian countries production