Eco fibres and eco friendly textiles 1

ECO FIBRES–CONVENTIONAL COTTON –CONVENTIONAL COTTON IS NOT ECO FRIENDLY – USE OF FERTILIZERS, PESTICIDES AND VARIOUS CROPS RELATED CHEMICALS DURING COTTON CULTIVATION.. ORGANIC COTTON

FIBRES AND

ECO-FRIENDLY TEXTILES

R.B.CHAVAN

DEPARTMENT OF TEXTILTECHNOLOGY INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HAUZ-KHAS, NEW DELHI 110016

PRESENT CONCEPT

POLLUTERS MUST PAY

• CRADLE TO GRAVE

• NOT ONLY FINAL PRODUCT BE ECO FRIENDLY

• RAW MATERIALS, PRODUCTION PROCESSES,

PACKAGING, ECO FRENDLY EVEN AFTER DIPOSAL

• MEET EMS 14000 AND SAS 1800 STANDARDS

• ECO FRIENDLY PRODUCTS INDENTIFIED BY ECO LABLES

• WOMB TO TOMB

•GREEN MINDED CONSUMER PREFER ECO PRODUCTS

EVEN AT HIGH COST

THREE ECOLOGIES

•PRODDUCTION ECOLOGY

•USER ECOLOGY

•DISPOSAL ECOLOGY

USER AND DISPOSAL ECOLOGY

•USER ECOLOGY REFERS TO

• AESTHETICS

•PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

•EFFECTS OF TEXTILES ON HUMAN BODY.

•DISPOSAL ECOLOGY REFERS TO

•DISPOSAL OF TEXTILES AFTER USE

PRODUCTION ECOLOGY

COMPRISES OF

•CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING OF NATURAL FIBRES

•THE MANUFACTURE OF REGENERATED AND SYNTHETIC

FIBRES

• SPINNING, WEAVING, KNITTING

•TEXTILE CHEMICAL PROCESSING

•GARMENT MANUFACTURE

•PACKING

ECO FIBRES

–CONVENTIONAL COTTON –CONVENTIONAL COTTON IS NOT ECO

FRIENDLY

– USE OF FERTILIZERS, PESTICIDES AND

VARIOUS CROPS RELATED CHEMICALS

DURING COTTON CULTIVATION.

–INHALATION DURING HANDLING AND SPRAY

APPLICATION- HEALTH HAZARDS

ON COTTON BOLLS

–WASHED AWAY DURING PREPARATORY

PROCESSES

–WATER POLLUTION

KING COTTON

COTTON BUD

COTTON

FLOWER

Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides

Chemical

Chlorpynfos Insects Brain and fetal

damage, impotence, sterility.

Bees, birds, crustaceans,&mollu sks

Cyanazine Weeds Birth defects,

cancer.

Bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish

Dicofol Mites,

insecticide.

Cancer, reproductive damage, tumors

Aquatic insects, birds, & fish

Ethephon Plant

growth regulator

Mutations. Birds, bees, crustaceans, & fish

Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides

Birth defects, fetal damage, mutations

Bees & fish

Profenofos Insecticide &

Bees, birds, crustaceans, fish,

& mollusks

Major Cotton Pesticides and Herbicides

Chemical

Name Agri Use Human Toxicity Environ Toxicity

Propargite Miticide Cancer, Fetal & eye

damage, mutations, tumors

Bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish

Sodium

Chlorate Leaf drop & weeds

Kidney damage &

methemoglobinemi

a

Birds &

fish

Tribufos Leaf drop Cancer,

tumors Birds & fish

Trifluralin Herbicide Cancer, fetal

damage, teratogen, suspect mutagen

Amphibians, aquatic insects, bees, birds, crustaceans, & fish

It takes one pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to conventionally grow the three pounds of cotton needed to

make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

COTTON SUICIDES-INDIA

•Excerpted from "Cotton, Pesticides and Suicides," by Jitedra Verma,

posted in the Earth Island On-line Journal Verma is a reporter for Down

to Earth magazine (Centre for science and environment

•"Since the beginning of the new year, not a single day has passed

without one cotton farmer committing suicide," says a farmer in

Warangal, where almost the entire standing cotton crop has been

devastated, placing communities on the brink of starvation Faced with a

raging attack on the cotton crop by Spodoptera litura (tobacco cutworm) and Heliothis armigera (American bollworm), frantic Andhra Pradesh

farmers were sitting ducks for pesticide suppliers offering to sell

pesticides on credit But the indiscriminate application of pesticides only led to increased resistance in pests While pests continued to ravage

crops, expenses mounted and the noose tightened

beneath cotton's natural fiber lies a long chain of chemically-intensive,

"unnatural" processes

To bring this delicate plant to harvest,

it is heavily sprayed - 8 to 10 times a

season - with pesticides so

Need for organic cotton

Like most technologies, pesticides are not

neutral

Yet many people insist that they can behave selectively, wiping out undesirable elements and

leaving others unharmed

The list of tragic accidents involving chemicals

used on cotton, however, is lengthy

The 1984 gas leak at the Union Carbide factory

in Bhopal, India - which included chemicals used on cotton - speaks to the question of

pollution during manufacturing

An estimated 25 million people worldwide are poisoned by pesticides every year, which

translates to 48 per minute

It is almost universally agreed that pesticide exposure heightens the risk of cancer

So much is made of the economic advantages of pesticides by chemical

companies interested in sales But little is said of the hidden costs, the contamination of soil and ground water,

as well as the negative effects on farmers, farm workers and wildlife Organic agriculture offers the choice to

Because the hidden costs of

conventional agriculture will

eventually surface

As frightening as it might seem in the face of crop loss, organic farmers maintain a balance of

"good" and "bad" bugs

They depend upon beneficial insects to become parasites or predators on the pests that could

destroy their cotton

Beneficials can be released in case of infestations, but it's best

to have them permanently residing

on the farm

Once a farmer applies pesticides

to a field, however, beneficials are usually eliminated, triggering the need for repeated spraying throughout the season

One of the organic farmer's

friends A 'Catolaccus grandis'

parasitizing a boll weevil larva

Organic food now symbolizes the highest and freshest quality available.

Suppliers of organic cotton are not

far behind

If we are really concerned about environmental issues today, our ideas of excellent product design must include impact on the earth

Yet so much of this environmental quality might not be immediately

visible to the naked eye

We have to see beyond the clothes

themselves and look to the landscapes - the air, water, soil and

wilderness - where the real

• COTTON CULTIVATED WITHOUT USING

FERTILIZERS PESTICIDES AND OTHER CHEMICALS

ORGANIC COTTON CULTIVATION

CLEANER APPROACH

•Organic farmers use biologically-based rather than

chemically-dependent growing systems to raise crops

Soil

•Organic farming starts with the soil Compost, frequent crop rotations

and cover crop strategies replace synthetic fertilizers to keep the soil healthy and productive Fields must be free of synthetically-derived

chemicals for three years to achieve organic certification

Weed Control

•Weeds are controlled by innovative farm machinery, hand labor or

ORGANIC COTTON CULTIVATION

Insect Pests

Rather than attempting to eradicate all insects with

chemicals, organic farmers cultivate a diversity of natural enemies which prey on insect pests, and lure pests away from cotton by planting trap crops Insect pests can be effectively kept in balance with well-timed introduction of

beneficial insects to fields

Organic cotton certification

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR ORGANIC

AGRICULTURE MOVEMENT [IFOAM]

has formulated standards and guidelines for

organic cotton cultivation and are followed by many labelling agencies to certify

organic cotton and other farm produce

Merits of organic cotton cultivation

Environmentally Friendly Technology

Reduction in Cost of Cultivation

Management of Insecticide Resistance

INDIAN COTTON

India is the third largest producer of cotton

Percentage of agriculture land under cotton production in India:

5 per cent (8.9 million hectares) Percentage of total pesticide used for cotton cultivation:

54 per cent

cotton makes for 70 per cent of the textile sector's raw material

Organic cotton in Indian

Organic cotton production in india makes for not even a miniscule percentage of the total cotton production and while production of insecticide-intentsive cotton farming hits a platuea, organic cotton

production is yet to pick up

Organic cotton in India

Five to seven decades ago, most of the cotton cultivated in the country was ‘eco-friendly’ with little or no use of toxic

chemicals in its production

Even today, there are many pockets in India, where it is produced without the use of agrochemicals, e.g.,

areas growing Wagad cotton in Gujarat, Y-1 desi

areas growing Wagad cotton in Gujarat, Y-1 desi

cotton of Khandesh region of Maharashtra,

Maljari in Madhya Pradesh,

part of areas growing Jayadhar and Suyodhar in Karnataka

Nandicum in Andhra Pradesh and parts of cotton areas in north eastern hill region.

Vidarbha organic farmers Association(VOFA

1993 Visit of Envirnmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) Hamburg Germany to Central Cotton Research Institute, (CICR) Nagpur

To confirm organic cotton farming in Vidarbha EPEA confirmed organic cotton in Vidarbha

EPEA confirmed organic cotton in Vidarbha

•1994 Organization of 135 farmers from five districts Nagpur, Wardha,

Yavatmal, Amravati and Akola

•1995 commitment of 12,00 hectares land for organic cotton cultivation

1995 Formation of Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association

1996 Bumper crop of organic cotton

Present status of VOFA

205 Members

90 Practicing organic farmers

3500 Acres area under organic cotton farming

Purchaser: Fare Trade Company Japan

Volauntary organizations in organic cotton

production

VOFA (VIDARBHA ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION),

MOFA (MAHARASHTRA ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION),

SHRIDA-BIORE etc.

have been formed either by farmers groups interested in organic cotton cultivation or to assist such groups by

offering technical assistance

yield level of 500-750 kg/ha.

The technological properties of various cultivators grown

under the organic cultivation such as

micronaire (3.8-5.0), span length (25.5-29.9 mm) and fibre maturity parameters

similar to fibres produced by conventional methods

Maikaal bioRe Ltd

Madhya Pradesh

Maikaal bioRe Ltd, which claims to be the largest organic

cotton venture in the world,

in Bheelaon, Madhya Pradesh has over 1,000 farmers involved in organic cotton production The production of organic cotton started in 1991 as a private

initiative of Mrigendra Jalan, Managing Director of the spinning mill,

Maikaal Fibres Ltd, and

•Patrick Hohmann, Managing Director of the Swiss cotton

yarn trading company, Remei AG

Organic cotton production in India

14-15 lakh bales of uncertified organc cotton (Cotton

corporation of India) Estimated certified organic cotton 1000

15% of total world production 37% Asian countries production