Peer Review #3 of "Double decoupling effectiveness of water consumption and wastewater discharge in China’s textile industry based on water footprint theory (v0.1)"

Abstract The viscose fiber industry forms a large part of the textile industry and is a typical water consumption and wastewater discharge industry. As a tool to quantify environmental impacts in terms of water resources, the water footprint assessment (WFA) is a control method for the textile and apparel industry to measure water consumption and wastewater discharge. In this study, the water footprints of viscose staple fiber blouses and blended men's suits were comprehensively evaluated based on the ISO 14046 standard and the life cycle assessment (LCA) polygon method. The WFA results from our study indicate that the production stage of viscose staple fiber garments has the most significant water resource environmental load. Specifically, the water footprint related to the production of viscose staple fiber for three types of clothing accounted for more than 50% of the total water footprint, with men's 100% viscose staple fiber suits having the largest impact on water resources and the environment. Furthermore, our results indicate that the water alkaline footprint is primarily influenced by the viscose staple fiber production as well as the dyeing and finishing processes. NaOH and Na2CO3 are the main pollutants that caused the water alkaline footprint. In addition, the water ecotoxicity footprint was the major driving factor of water resource environmental load. Zn2+ is the main pollutant that caused the water ecotoxicity footprint.

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Double decoupling effectiveness of water consumption and wastewater discharge in China’s textile industry based on water footprint theory

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.6937 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. e6937 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yi Li ◽

Yi Wang

Keyword(s):

Water Resource ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Water Environment ◽

Resource Consumption ◽

Wastewater Discharge ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Textile Manufacture ◽

Pillar Industry

As a traditional pillar industry in China, the textile industry has been intensifying the pressure of the water resource load and its reduction of water environment emissions over the years. Decoupling water resource consumption and wastewater discharge require decoupling from economic growth to realise the sustainable development of the textile industry. On the basis of water footprint and decoupling theories, this paper analysed the water consumption decoupling, wastewater discharge decoupling, as well as the double decoupling of water consumption and wastewater discharge of China’s textile industry and its three sub-industries (Manufacture of Textile, Manufacture of Textile Wearing and Apparel, Manufacture of Chemistry) from 2001 to 2015. In those years, the sum of the decoupling index in the double-decoupling years is 249, lower than that in high-decoupling years of water consumption (250) and wastewater discharge (325). Compared with the decoupling of water consumption and of wastewater discharge, the double decoupling is lower, which proves that the conditions for realizing double decoupling are stricter. The double decoupling analysis of water consumption and wastewater discharge, namely, the overall consideration of water resource consumption and water environment pollution, could be used to more effectively promote the realisation of water decoupling in the textile industry.

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Decoupling Water Consumption and Environmental Impact on Textile Industry by Using Water Footprint Method: A Case Study in China

Water ◽

10.3390/w9020124 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 124 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Yi Li ◽

Linyi Lu ◽

Yingxi Tan ◽

Laili Wang ◽

Manhong Shen

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Water Footprint

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A CASE STUDY FOR WATER FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT OF A DENIM PRODUCT

TEXTEH Proceedings ◽

10.35530/tt.2021.55 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 142-147

Author(s):

V. Sülar ◽

B. Soy ◽

K. Yağci

Keyword(s):

Water Consumption ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Human Factor ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Functional Unit ◽

Inventory Analysis ◽

Huge Amount ◽

Apparel Production ◽

Finishing Processes

The awareness of the fact that the leading cause of the bad environmental conditions in our world is the human factor, has been increasing in recent years. This awareness enables people, companies, and organizations to decrease water consumption, to decrease carbon emission, to decrease using harmful chemicals, consequently people who are aware of global warming and depletion of resources are taking actions to save our planet for a sustainable life. Textile is one of the big sectors affecting the environmental pollution in a very bad way. For that reason, the present water footprint research was conducted on textiles and a denim company was especially chosen to examine the water footprint because of denim sector’s being one of the biggest polluters and wasting water in a huge amount in the textile industry. Firstly, the limits of the research were obtained as finishing operations under the scope of water footprint. The production steps and wastewater occurring points were obtained carefully for different denim finishing processes. After that stage, personal water consumption during denim apparel production was examined in detail. To create a good inventory analysis, many meetings were performed, and a survey was prepared to collect the data about wastewater of the company. By the help of this water footprint evaluation, the processes that create the most wastewater and the distribution of water footprint according to processes and other sources that cause water consumption were determined for one pair of denim trouser accepted as a functional unit in the context of the research.

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Decoupling Water Consumption and Environmental Impact on Textile Industry by Using Water Footprint Method: A case study in China

10.20944/preprints201701.0124.v1 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Yi Li ◽

Linyi Lu ◽

Yingxi Tan ◽

Laili Wang ◽

Manhong Shen

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Industrial Structure ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Decomposition Analysis ◽

Production Scale ◽

Steady Stage

The rapid development of China’s textile industry leads to consumption and pollution of large volumes of water. Therefore, the textile industry has been the focus of water conservation and waste reduction in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020). The premise of sustainable development is to achieve decoupling of economic growth from water consumption and wastewater discharge. In this work, changes in blue water (water consumption), grey water (water pollutants), and water footprints of the textile industry from 2001 to 2014 were calculated. The relationship between water footprint and economic growth was then examined using the Tapio decoupling model. Furthermore, factors influencing water footprint were determined through logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. Results show that the water footprint of China’s textile industry has strongly decoupled for five years (2002, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2013) and weakly decoupled for four years (2002, 2007, 2009, and 2010). A decoupling trend occurred during 2001–2014, but a steady stage of decoupling has not been achieved yet. Based on the decomposition analysis, the total water footprint is mainly increased by production scale and inhibited by the technology. In addition, the effect of industrial structure adjustment is relatively weak.

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