Improved design for textile production process based on life cycle assessment

Abstract

The textile industry has a high environmental impact, discharging significant amounts of industrial water, consuming high levels of energy, and emitting vast amounts of air pollutants. To meet the requirement of sustainable manufacturing, we built a system-oriented improved design framework based on life cycle assessment (LCA) for an existing polyester–cotton production system to reduce the environmental impacts of the production process. LCA was used to identify candidates for best available technology (BAT) development. The effect of the BATs on environmental, economic, and product performance was evaluated. LCA identified that polyester–cotton production exerted the greatest environmental impacts on marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential, global warming potential, and abiotic depletion. The printing and dyeing stages of the production process were the most damaging to the environment. Six BATs were proposed and all were feasible with clear economic and environmental benefits, as the resource depletion, ecological influence, and human health values were reduced by 50.13, 50.08, and 7.65%, respectively, compared with the existing process. In addition, the quality of the products, such as color fastness and color shade, was greatly improved. We suggest that future studies should also take into consideration the distribution and use stage using accurate and representative original data, to further improve the sustainability of the production process. Human health, fertilizer leakage, land use, and pesticides should also be taken into account within the life cycle of textiles.