Professional guide

Cotton from field to textile

Once cotton has been harvested, it still needs to go through many stages before it becomes fibre or clothing.

When the cotton has been picked, unwanted impurities (hulls etc.) will be separated from the cotton fibre. This process is also called cotton ginning. When a large amount of cotton dust and toxic fumes are emitted it can cause the lung disease byssinosis in cotton workers. The spinning of cotton fibres also cause problems with dust. For the spinning process some producers use spinning oils which do not easily break down. These oils will be washed out of the cotton during the subsequent processes and they will thus pollute the wastewater.

One trillion gallons of water a year is used to process the 56 billion pounds of cotton

During the weaving process the environment will in some cases be affected by the use of sizing agents which are used to reinforce the longitudinal yarns so that they can survive the weaving process. The size will be washed out during the subsequent processes. In the knitting process, in some cases needle oils which do not break down easily are used and will be washed out during the subsequent process polluting the wastewater. 

One trillion gallons of water a year is used to process the 56 billion pounds of cotton used annually along with 33 trillion gallons of oil and 20 billion pounds of chemicals. 85% of the water, 80% of the energy and 65% of the chemicals are tied to dyeing and finishing processes...

Coloring cotton
Color is a very expensive additive. Cotton, which is composed primarily of cellulose, is difficult to dye compared to the protein fibres such as wool and silk. Dying one pound of cotton uses 100 gallons of water, costs 50 cents for water, power and dye and two dollars for toxic cleanup. Parts of the world without regulations dump vast quantities of toxic waste into waterways. While mills in the US, Europe and Japan are spending two dollars pr pound to clean up dye waste, their competitors in India, China, Indonesia and elsewhere are allowed to export their goods into these countries without spending the money to clean up the waste. (Source: Whitepages)