Cleaner production evaluation system for textile industry: An empirical study from LCA perspectives

Chenye Xu; Hang Yu; Siyuan Zhang; Chensi Shen; Chunyan Ma; Ju Wang; Fang Li

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169632

Cleaner production evaluation system for textile industry: An empirical study from LCA perspectives

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Feb 25:913:169632. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169632. Epub 2024 Jan 1.

Authors

Chenye Xu¹, Hang Yu², Siyuan Zhang², Chensi Shen², Chunyan Ma², Ju Wang³, Fang Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
³ Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
⁴ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address: lifang@dhu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38171459
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169632

Abstract

The contradiction between the rapid textile expansion and intensive energy consumption, highly environmental pollution calls for the adoption of cleaner production (CP). However, current evaluation system mainly targeted on CP at production stage, guidance and support on the life cycle assessment is still in its infancy. Meanwhile few studies brought the combination of water conservation and carbon reduction into considerations. This study compared the existing CP evaluation systems including guidelines for the whole industry, standards for textile industry and indicators for the dyeing and finishing sector by quantifying the differences of indicator score compositions. Comparisons analysis from six aspects suggested that all the evaluation systems had relevant indicators regarding "pollutant emissions". "Management", "process equipment and techniques" and "resource and energy consumption" have also been well concerned while "product characteristic" seemed to be overlooked at current stage. From the perspective of whole life cycle, the key of textile processing is the "printing and dyeing" (44.23 %) followed by "fabric manufacturing"(28.85 %) and setting (15.38 %). With regards to the environmental impacts, resources depletion gained the highest attention since their indicator scores reached up to 25.71 %, 18.47 % and 20.62 % for EMAS, ERG 2018 and HJ-1852006. Cleaner production awareness and social impact also played significant roles in ISO 14031:2021 and WMG. Subsequently, a set of new comprehensive CP evaluation indicator system was established, including 3 scopes and 7 goals. The newly-built indicator system incorporated with life cycle perspectives gave a powerful tool to measure the CP level in textile industry and of CP will benefit from water reuse and energy utilization with high efficiency.

Keywords: Cleaner production; Environmental impacts; Indicator system; Life cycle; Textile industry.