Environmental Impact of Textile Fibers : A case study of Nextiili-paja

Abstract

These days cloth and clothing are not limited to the basic need of human rather use as a standard of living and lifestyle. As the demand for clothing and textile products are increasing continuously, the production of eco-friendly textile materials and textile products are getting popular around the world. The aim of this study was to investigate an environmental impact caused by most common textile fibers during its raw fiber production stage. Six most common textile fibers were selected based on an interview with personnel working at Nextiili-paja, Tampere based recycling facility. Our main concern was on the fiber production level rather than the textile production level. The information and data were gathered from a literature review and an interview with the personnel working in the recycling facility. An impact caused by the cotton, wool, viscous, polyester, polyamide and acrylic fibers during raw fibers production was studied using ecological sustainability measure, carbon footprint, water footprint, energy footprint, and land footprint.

It was found that each textile fiber raw materials have an impact on the environment whether they are from natural or artificial fibers. However, the impacts levels vary with raw materials. Cotton and wool fiber production have the highest land and water footprint compared to other fibers. While artificial fibers have more energy, footprint compared to natural fibers. Thus, the author recommends maximizing the recycling and reusing of textile fibers to minimize the environmental impacts caused by textile raw fibers.