Chapter One

Introduction to Environment management

Environment:
Literacy environment means the surrounding external conditions influencing development or growth of
people, animal or plants, living or working conditions etc.
An Environment is what surrounds a thing or an item. The environment is the surrounding. It could be
physical element-physical environment that includes the built environment, natural environment-air, water,
land, atmosphere etc or it could be human environment-people surrounding the item or thing.
According to Douglas and Holland,
The term environment is used to describe in the aggregate all the external forces, influences and
conditions which affect the life, nature, behaviour and growth development and maturity of living
organisms.
Major form of pollution:
1. Air pollution: The release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere. Common gaseous
pollutants include carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrogen oxides produced by industry
and motor vehicles. Particulate matter or fine dust is characterised by their micro-meter size PM10 to PM2.5.
2. Soil Pollution: Occurs when chemicals are released intentionally by spill or underground leakage.
Among the most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals, MTBE, herbicides,
pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.
3. Water pollution: By the discharge of wastewater from commercial and industrial waste (intentionally
or through spills) into surface waters, discharges of untreated domestic sewage and chemical contaminants
such chlorine from treated sewage, release of waste and contaminants into surface runoff flowing to
surface waters (including urban runoff and agricultural runoff which may contain chemical fertilizer and
pesticides). Waste disposal and leaching into groundwater, eutrophication and littering.
4. Noise pollution: Which encompasses roadway noise, aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as high
intensity sound.
Waste: Waste includes all items that people no longer have any use for which they either intend to get rid
of or have already discarded.
o Additionally wastes are such items which people are require to discard. For example by lay
because of their hazardous properties.
o Many items can be considered as waste e.g: household rubbish, sewage, sludge, waste from
manufacturing activities, packaging items, discarded cars, old televisions, garden waste and old
paint containers etc.
o Thus all our daily activities can give rise to a large variety of different wastes arising from
different sources.
Types of waste and their effect on environment:
There are various types of wastes in our environment. A general list of waste are given below:
o Municipal waste (including household and commercial)
o Industrial waste ( including manufacturing)
o Hazardous waste

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 o Construction and demolition waste
o Mining waste
o Waste from electrical and electronic equipment
o Bio degradable municipal waste
o Packaging waste
o End of life vehicles (ILVs) and tyres
o Agricultural waste
According to the physical state wastes are mainly three types. They are the following:
o Solid wastes
o Liquid wastes
o Gaseous wastes
Textile waste in broadly classified into four categories, each of having characteristics that demand
different pollution prevention and treatment approaches:
➢ Hard to treat wastes: It includes those that are persistent, resist treatment or interfere with the
of waste treatment facilities. Non-biodegradable organic or inorganic materials are the chief
sources of waste which contain color, metals, phenols, certain surfactants, toxic organic
compounds, pesticides and phosphate.
➢ Hazardous or toxic wastes: In textiles, hazardous or toxic wastes include metal, chlorinated
solvents, non-biodegradable or volatile organic materials. Some of these materials are often
used for non-process application such as machine cleaning.
➢ High volume waste: Large volume of waste is sometimes a problem for the textile processing
units. Most common large volume waste include:
o High volume of waste water
o Wash water from preparation and continuous dyeing processes and alkaline wastes from
preparatory processes.
o Batch dye waste containing large amounts of salt, acid or alkali.

➢ Dispersible waste: The following operations in textile industry generate highly dispersible waste:
o Waste stream from continuous operation (eg: Preparatory, dyeing, printing and finishing)
o Print paste (Printing screen, squeeze and drum cleaning)
o Lint (Preparatory, dyeing and washing operations)
o Foam from coating operations.
o Solvents from machine cleaning.
o Still bottoms from solvent recovery (Dry cleaning operation)
o Batch dumps of unused processing (Finishing mixes)
Waste water characteristics in different stages:
Process Waste water characteristics
Desizing High BOD, TS, pH neutral
Scouring High BOD, TS, pH, alkali and temperature
Bleaching High BOD, TS, alkali
Mercerizing High BOD, TS, alkali
Dyeing High BOD, pH is neutral or alkali, dark color
Finishing BOD depend on chemical reagent, neutral pH.

Effluent: Effluent is the stream of excess chemical liquor from an industry after using in orginal operation.
For example, the excess dye liquor extracted from textile industry after dyeing is an effluent of that dyeing
industry.

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Sources and causes of generation of textile effluent:
➢ Textile industry involves wide range of raw materials, machineries and processes to engineer the
required shape and properties of the final product.
➢ Waste stream generated in this industry is essentially based on water-based effluent generated in
the various activities of wet processing of textiles.
➢ The main cause of generation of this effluent is the use of huge volume of water either in the actual
chemical processing or during re-processing in preparatory, dyeing, printing and finishing.
➢ In fact, in a practical estimate, it has been found for woven industries that 45% material in
preparatory processing, 33% in dyeing and 22% are re-processed in finishing.
➢ The fact is that the effluent generated in different steps is well beyond the standard and thus it is
highly polluted and dangerous.
Effluent characteristics:
Physical parameters:
Color: The color of water is a physical indicator of purity of surface and ground water. It is caused by
soluble and insoluble substances. Pure natural waters are usually colorless or azure blue in thick layers. It
can be determined by colorimeter in PCU (Platinum cobalt unit) as unit.
Odor: The odor of water is caused by volatile substances present in water which are perceived by the
sense of smell, particularly living microscopic organism or decaying vegetation including algae,
actinomycetes, bacteria, fungi and weeds. Sewage and industrial wastes also contribute tastes and odor to
receiving waters.
Temperature: Temperature is one of the most important parameters for aquatic environment because
almost all the physical, chemical and biological properties are governed by it.
Taste: The taste of water is influenced by substances introduced into water naturally or by pollution.
Water taste is markedly influenced by the amounts of iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper,
chlorides, sulphate, hydrogen carbonates, carbon dioxides etc.
Total dissolved solids: Total dissolved solids contents of water and waste water is defined as the residue
left upon evaporation at 103°C to 105°C. It is an aggregated amount of entire floating, suspended, settable
and dissolved solids present in water.
Chemical parameters:
pH: pH is a term used universally to express the intensity of acidic or alkaline condition of the solution. It
is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration or more precisely the hydrogen ion activity. It is defined as the
logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration.
Electrical conductivity: Electrical conductivity is a measure of water capacity to convey electric current.
Electrical conductivity of water and waste water are directly proportional to its dissolved matter content
(dissolved gases also contribute). The unit of conductivity is µs/cm.
Hardness: Hardness is seemed to be the capacity of water for reducing and destroying the lather of soap.
Hardness is caused due to divalent action such as Ca+2, Sr+2 etc. Higher actions also contribute hardness to
lesser degree but mono-valent cations never produce hardness.
Alkalinity: Alkalinity is an anionic phenomenon. It is the quantitative capacity of an aqueous media to
react with hydrogen ions. The occurrence of hydrogen ion in natural water is very rare, unless artificial
contamination has occurred.

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Dissolved oxygen (DO): Dissolved oxygen shows the ability of the stream to purify itself through
biochemical process. Oxygen is dissolved in most waters in varying concentrations. Solubility of oxygen
depends on temperature, pressure and salinity of water. It is essential to life of fish and other aquatic
organisms.
Bio-Chemical oxygen demand (BOD): Bio-chemical oxygen demand tests show the amount of molecular
oxygen required by bacteria to reduce the carbonaceous materials and transformation of organic matter
under aerobic conditions, it is a test of great value in the analysis of sewage, industrial effluents and
grossly polluted waters.
➢ It is a bio-assay procedure that measures the oxygen consumed by living organisms, while
utilizing the organic matter.
➢ The determination of dissolved oxygen of a sample before and after five days incubation at 20°C is
the basic of BOD determination.
Chemical oxygen demand (COD): America society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) defines chemical
oxygen demand as the amount of oxygen expressed in mg/l consumed under specific condition in the
oxidation of organic and oxidizable inorganic matter corrected for the influence of chlorides.
➢ COD test shows the oxygen equivalent of the organic matter can b oxidized by using a strong
oxidizing agents eg. Potassium dichromate in acidic solution at elevated temperature for two and
half hour.
➢ It has to be classified that COD is not a measure of the carbon content, it indicates the amount of
oxygen required to oxidize the carbonaceous matter.
Testing of effluents for various characteristics:
BOD: The BOD test measures the oxygen demand of bio degradable pollutants. The so called 5 day BOD
measures the amount of oxygen consumed by biochemical oxidation of was contaminants in 5 days period.
The total amount of oxygen consumed when bio chemical reaction is allowed to proceed to completion is
called the ultimate BOD.
COD: COD test measures the oxygen demand of bio degradable pollutants plus the oxygen demand of
non-biodegradable oxidizable pollutants. There are also many different COD tests. The most common is 4
hr COD.
Turbidity: Turbidity a measure of the light transmitting properties of water is another test used to indicate
the quality of waste discharges and natural waters with respect to colloidal and residual suspended matter.
The measurement of turbidity is based on comparison on the intensity of light scattered by a sample as
compared to the light scattered by a reference suspension under the same conditions.
Total dissolved solids (TDS): Solid material in waste water may be dissolved, suspended or settable.
Total dissolved solid is measured as the mass of residue remaining when a measured volume of filtered
water is evaporated.
Dissolved oxygen (DO): Dissolved oxygen concentration may be measured directly in waste water, but
the amount of oxygen potentially required by the other chemicals in the waste water is term as oxygen
demand. Dissolved or suspended oxidizable organic material in waste water will be used as food source.
Suspended solids (SS): The mass of dried solids remaining of filler is called total suspended solids or
non-filterable residue. Settable solids are measured at the visible volume accumulated at the bottom of an
imhobb cone after water has settled for one hour.
Grease & Oil: Oils are the third major component of food stuffs. Fats and oils are contributed to domestic
wastewater in butter, lard, margarine and vegetable fats and oils. The term grease as commonly used
includes the fats, oils, waxes and other related constituents found in waste water. The grease content of

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waste water can cause many problem in both sewers and waste water treatment plant. If grease is not
removed before discharge of the waste, it can interfere with biological life in the surface waters and create
unsightly floating matter and films.
Heavy metal: Trace quantities of many metals such as Ni, Mn, Pb, Cr are important constituents of most
waters. Many of the metals are also classified as priority pollutants. Some of the metals are necessary for
growth of biological life and absence of them could limit growth of algae. For example, the presence of
any of these metals in excessive quantities will interfere with many beneficial uses of the water because of
their toxicity, therefore it is frequently desirable to measure and control the concentrations of these
substance very in complexity according to the interfering substances that may be present.

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 Chapter 2
Introduction to Ecosystem
Ecosystem: An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a
particular are as well as all the non-living (abiotic) physical components of the environment with
which the organisms interact such as air, soil, water and sunlight.
Examples of ecosystem are forest ecosystem, Lake Ecosystem, pond ecosystem etc.
Ecosystem services: Ecosystem services are “fundamental life support services upon which
human civilization depends and can be direct or indirect”.
Example of direct ecosystem services are pollination, wood and erosion prevention.
o Indirect services could be considered climate moderation, nutrient cycles and detoxifying
natural substances.
o The service and good an ecosystems provides are often undervalued as many of them are
without market value.
Broad examples include:
➢ Regulating (Climate, floods, nutrient balance, water filtration)
➢ Provisioning (food, medicine, fur, minerals)
➢ Cultural (science, spiritual, ceremonial, recreation, aesthetic)
➢ Supporting (nutrient cycling, photosynthesis, soil formation)

❖ How have ecosystems changed???

✓ Ecosystems depend on fundamental environmental cycles such as the continuous
circulation of water, carbon and other nutrients.
✓ Human activities have modified these cycles especially during the last 50 years, through
increase in freshwater use, carbon dioxide emissions and fertilizer use.
✓ This in turn has affected the ability of ecosystem to provide benefits to humans.
❖ What are the most critical factors causing ecosystem changes???
✓ Natural or human induced factors that change ecosystems are called drivers.
✓ Habitat change and overexploitation for instance are direct drivers that influence
ecosystem processes explicitly.
✓ Indirect drivers affect ecosystems by influencing the direct drivers.
✓ The main indirect drivers are changed in human population, economic activity and
technology as well as socio-political and cultural factors.
✓ Important direct drivers include habitat change, climate change, invasive (attacking)
species, over exploitation of pollution.
Environmental cycles: A natural process in which elements are continuously cycled in various
forms elements are continuously cycled in various forms between different compartments of the
environment (eg. Air, water, soil, organisms).
Example include the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles (nutrient cycles) and the water cycle.

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Nitrogen Cycle: The nitrogen cycle involves the uptake of nitrogen form the atmosphere by a
process called fixation which is carried out by microbe or industrial processes.
Decomposition of biological waste by microbe can return nitrogen to the atmosphere. Nitrogen is
mainly used by humans as a fertilizer in farmlands, but its excessive usage can lead to serious
problems (such as eutrophication).

Fertilizer production Atmospheric

nitrogen fixation
Denitrification (via
denitrifying bacteria)

Crops Animals Plants

Decomposer Nitrogen-fixing
bacteria

Ammonia, nitrates,
nitrites Atmospheric
nitrogen

Nitrogen cycle

Step 1: A Special type of bacteria called nitrogen fixing bacteria take in atmosphere nitrogen and
produce ammonia (NH3).
Step 2: Other bacteria use this ammonia to produce nitrogen and nitrites which are nitrogen and
oxygen containing compounds.
Step 3: The nitrates and nitrites are used by plants to make amino acid which are then used to
make plant proteins.
Step 4: Plants are consumed by other organisms which use the plant amino acid to make their
own.
Step 5: Decomposers convert the nitrogen found in other organisms into ammonia and return it to
the soil.
A few of these type of bacteria return nitrogen to the atmosphere by a process called
Denitrification, however this amount is small.

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 Phosphorus cycle:
The phosphorus cycle involves the uptake of phosphorus by organisms. Phosphorus in the
environment in mainly found in rocks and natural weathering processes can make it available to
biological systems.
➢ After decomposition of biological waste, it can accumulate in large amounts in soils and
sediments.
➢ Phosphorus in used by humans as a fertilizer in farmlands and in detergents.
➢ Overuse of phosphorus can lead to eutrophication.

Cell respiration
Fertilizer

Phosphate taken up by Agriculture

plants. Fixed into organic
Mining of
phosphate in plant biomass
phosphate rock

Algae Leaching of fertilizer

Phosphate in soil

phosphate dissolved in
water
Sedimentation formation of
phosphate rock

Figure: Phosphorus cycle

Current ecosystem problems: Climate change is starting to have major impacts on ecosystems
with global temperature rising, there is a decrease in snow-fall and sea levels are rising.
Ecosystems will change or evolve to cope with the increase in temperature. Consequently, many
species are being driven out of their habitats.
Polar bears are being threatened. They need ice for hunting seals, their primary prey however the
ice caps are melting, making their hunting periods shorter each year. As a result, the polar bears
are not developing enough fat for the winter, therefore, they are not able to reproduce at a healthy
rate.
Fresh water and wet land ecosystems are dealing with extreme effects of the increase of
temperature. The climate change could be devastating to salmon and trout and to other aquatic
life. The increase in temperature will disrupt the current life patterns of the salmon and trout.

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The cold water fish will eventually leave their natural geographical range to live in a cooler
waters by migrating to higher elevations. While many species have been able to adapt to the new
conditions by moving their range further towards the poles, other species are not as fortunate. The
option to move is not available for polar bear and for some aquatic life.
Ecology and textile: Textile wet processing activity contributes about 70% of pollution in textile
industry.
➢ Towards the end of 20th century, world has become more ecology consciousness.
➢ Thus green textile concept is emerged to facilitate eco-management in textile arena.
➢ Different unit operations contribute to eco-degradation.
Pollution due to textile processing:
➢ Noise
➢ Air
➢ Water
➢ Solid wastes
➢ Hazardous chemicals
➢ Cotton dusts, these are the major pollution in textile industries.
Toxicological considerations of textile processing:
Future environmental regulations will require that any new dyestuffs and the continued use of
existing dyestuff will rest on demonstration of their low risk to human health and the
environment. Thus the goal is to design, synthesize and evaluate textile dyes that are
environmentally friendly alternatives to certain metalized (Cu-, Cr-, Co- complexed) and
hydrophobic (especially disperse) dyes that have been labelled as ‘a potential risk’ to human
health or the environment. The basic theme is to design these new dyes from the molecular level
so they have improved toxicological behaviour for textile applications.
➢ Identifying alternative to metals classified by the EPA (Environment protection agency-
USA) as priority pollutants (eg. Cu, Cr)
➢ Characterizing the metabolites, generated from certain hydrophobic azo dye and their
mechanism of formation.
➢ Determining the role of metals in enhancing azo dye light fastness.
➢ Assessing the fate of iron complex dyes in an aquatic environment.

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 Chapter 3
Environmental problems and human health, risk assessment
and risk management
Risk assessment: Risk assessment is the process of estimating the potential impact of a chemical,
physical, microbiological or psychosocial hazard on a specified human population or ecological
system under a specific set of conditions and for a certain time frame.
The scope of environmental health risk assessment (EHRA) can cover health impacts of
➢ Chemical pollutants and contaminants in air, water, soil and food.
➢ Pathogenic microbiological contaminants in food and water.
➢ Radiation sources
➢ Electromagnetic fields (EMFs)
➢ Climate and climate change.
Risk assessment is intended to provide complete information to risk managers, specifically policy
makers and regulators so that the best possible decisions are made.
❖ When under take risk assessment?
The need to undertake a risk assessment will be influenced by situation specific factor. The
following list is indicative and not exhaustive. In general, risk assessments will be needed for
products, processes, situations and activities where there is a plausible case that there could be
and increased risk of significant health consequence for the human population from the product,
process, situation or activity. A risk assessment can also be used to inform the selection of the
safest option when making decisions about to achieve a particular aim. A screening level
comparative risk assessment could be used to compare the risks associated with various options
when for example formulating a particular product or controlling pests.
More example, new additives to food or recreational water.
Types of risk assessment:
1. Individual and population risk assessments:
Individual risks are usually estimated for a hypothetical person with assumed characteristics for
various durations of exposure (eg: per year or per lifetime) or for different locations. The
hypothetical individual is designed to represent the average person in the situation or the
maximally exposed person. However such risk estimate cannot be targeted to a specific person.
Population risk may relate to the number of adverse health effects (eg: facilities, cancers or
illnesses) in a population over a specified period of time or the rate of adverse effects for a given
location or sub-population.
2. Qualitative and quantitative risk assessments:
The level of risk can be described either qualitatively (ie: by putting risks into categories such as
high, medium or estimate). Current risk assessment methods do not enable accurate quantitative

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estimate of risk for low levels of exposure to environmental hazards. Numerical estimate of risk
can be presented but caution must be exercise in assigning strict meaning to the numbers.
Risk management:
Risk assessment is a process that informs the risk management process. Risk assessment and risk
management as separate but interlinked processes with risk management following the risk
characterization phase of a formal risk assessment.
Risk management and law-1:
➢ Risk management is often controlled by legislation which lays down allowable limits of
exposure and puts specific duties in management and workers.
➢ Within the European Union directive and regulation have been introduced to harmonise
and legislation of the member countries.
Risk management and law-2:
➢ On a global basis, the OECD (The organisation for economic Cooperation and
development) has taken the lead in standardizing toxicity testing.
➢ The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has complied a legal file on control
of chemicals to assist countries in developing appropriate legislation.
The risk management system:

Chemical Toxicological Physical considerations

consideration considerations
Plant, criteria, sitting,
Chemical/physical Dose/Effect, design, prevailing
properties of reagents dose/response legislation weather etc
and products

Risk assessment

Risk Management

Overlay of national and local legal infrastructure

Health and safety Chemical Environmental

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Difference between risk assessment and risk management:
Risk assessment
1. Risk assessment in the identification and
quantification of risk resulting from a
specific use or occurrence of a chemical or
physical agent.
2. Risk assessment is concerned with
determining these factors which are
especially dangerous and determining the
likelihood of unacceptable toxic exposure.
3. Risk should be assessed against defined
limits of exposure, established on the basis
of toxicity tests under appropriate
conditions.
4. Risk assessment information in only one
of several kinds of information used for
decision making.
Risk management
1. Risk management is the decision making
process to select the optimal steps for
reducing a risk to an acceptable level.
2. Risk management involves considerations
of political, social, economic and
engineering factors.
3. In the industrial context, this consists of
three steps: risk assessment (evaluation),
emission and exposure control and risk
monitoring.
4. The risk management decision will be
determined not only by the risk assessment
but a range of other factors including
technical feasibility (eg: treatability,
detection limit)

The five stages of environmental health risk assessment:

1. Issue identification:
➢ What are the true drivers for the issues being assessed? (eg: there is no point in doing a
quantitative cancer risk assessment if the real concern is cognitive impairment of children and
if the latter cannot be addressed by risk assessment, then another approach may be necessary)
➢ Are intervention strategies available to manage the outcomes of the EHRA (eg: containment
of contaminated soil, chlorination of water)
➢ Have transport mechanisms been adequately considered (eg: meteorological (weather related)
factors affecting air pollution)
➢ Are there factors that could affect persistence (Continuing) (eg: photolysis and volatilisation
of chemicals)
➢ Has the risk assessment been initiated as the result of breakdown of public health measures
(eg: flooding affecting waste control and potable/drinkable water treatment).

2. Hazard assessment:
➢ Have the severity and reversibility of health effects been considered.
➢ Is there any interaction between the identified hazards and other agents in the environment?
➢ Is the onset/start of health effects immediate or delayed? While health based guideline
generally assume long term continuous exposure and are usually based on chronic.
➢ Is there a critical window of exposure? This is often associated with chemicals that modify
foetal development either during gestation or in the early postnatal period when critical
neutral or organ system developmental processes are occurring.

3. Dose response:
➢ Is appropriate dose-response data available and has the data been appropriately scaled in
translation from animal to human?

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➢ Has the potency of the agent been determined for both acute and chronic dosing?
➢ Does a threshold or non-threshold model best describe the data?

4. Exposure:
➢ What the duration, timing, frequency and consistency of exposure?
➢ Are exposure continuous, intermittent or episodic or do they show clear pattern?
➢ Are there relevant past, current or future exposure patterns to consider?
➢ Have all exposure routes (ingestion, inhalation dermal) have been considered?
➢ Are exposures intergenerational or cumulative or should they be aggregated?

5. Risk characterisation:
➢ Has genetic variability in the exposed population?
➢ Are there individual host characteristics (eg: age, gender, body weight, pre-existing poor
health, nutritional health) that need to be considered.
➢ Are there population characteristics (eg: herd immunity and social behaviour for
communicable disease, social mobility for exposure to air and soil contaminants) that need to
be considered.
➢ Has the risk estimate been expressed quantitatively or qualitatively and if the quantitative is it
a finite risk estimate based on extrapolation of the dose response relationship.

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 Chapter 4
Effluent treatments
Effluent treatments:
Effluent treatment plants are the most widely accepted approaches towards achieving
environment safety.
• But unfortunately no single treatment methodology is suitable or universally adaptable for
any kind of effluent treatment.
• The treatment of waste stream is done by various methods, which include physical,
chemical and biological treatment depending on pollution load.
• The treatment processes may be categorize into preliminary, primary, secondary and
tertiary treatment process.
Methods of treatment:
• Methods of treatment in which the application of physical forces predominate are known
as unit operations.
• Methods of treatment in which the removal of contaminants is brought about by chemical
or biological reactions are known as unit processes.
• At present time, unit operations and processes are grouped together to provide various
level of treatment known as preliminary, primary, advance primary, secondary and
advanced or tertiary treatment processes.
Different level of wastewater treatment:
Treatment Description
Preliminary Removal of wastewater constituents such as
rags, sticks, floatables, grit and grease that
may cause maintenance or operational
problems with the treatment operations,
processes and ancillary system.
Primary Removal of a portion of the suspended
solids and organic matter from wastewater.
Secondary Removal of biodegradable organic matter
and suspended solids. Disinfection is also
typically included in the definition of
conventional secondary treatments/
Tertiary Removal of residual suspended solids
usually by granular medium filtration or
micro screens. Disinfection is also typically
a part of tertiary treatment.
Advanced Removal of dissolved and suspended
materials remaining after normal biological
treatment when required for various water
reuse operations.
Primary treatment:

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 ➢ After the removal of gross solids, gritty materials and excessive quantities of oil and
grease the next step is to remove the remaining suspended solids as much as possible.
➢ This step is aimed at reducing the strength of the wastewater and also to facilitate
secondary treatment.
➢ Primary treatment includes the following separate steps:
o Screening: The coarse suspended matters such as rags, pieces of fabric, fibres, yarns and
lint are removed. Bar screens and mechanical cleaned fine screens remove most of the
fibres.
o Sedimentation: The suspended matter in textile effluent can be removed efficiently and
economically by sedimentation. This process is particularly useful for treatment of wastes
containing high percentage of settable solids or when the waste is subjected to combined
treatment with sewage.
o Equalization: Effluent streams are collected into ‘sump pit’. Sometimes mixed effluents
are stirred by rotating agitators or by blowing compressed air from below.
o Neutralization: Normally pH values of cotton finishing effluents are on the alkaline side.
Hence, pH value of equalized effluent should be adjusted.
o Chemical coagulation and mechanical flocculation: Finely divided suspended solids
and colloidal particles cannot be efficiently removed by simple sedimentation by gravity.
In Such cases, mechanical flocculation or chemical coagulation is employed.
Secondary treatment:
➢ The main purpose of secondary treatment is to provide BOD removal beyond what is
achievable by simple sedimentation.
➢ It is also removes appreciable amounts of oil and phenol.
➢ In secondary treatment, the dissolved and colloidal organic compounds and color present
in wastewater is removed or reduced and to stabilize the organic matter.
➢ This achieved biologically using bacteria and other micro-organisms.
➢ These processes may be aerobic or anaerobic. In aerobic processes, bacteria and other
micro-organisms consume organic matter as food.
➢ Anaerobic treatment is mainly employed for digestion of sludge.
➢ The efficiency of this process depends upon pH, temperature, waste loading, absence of
oxygen and toxic materials.
Biological treatment processes:
Some of the commonly used biological treatment processes are described below:
Aerated lagoons:
➢ These are large holding tanks or ponds having a depth of 3.5 m and are lined with cement,
polyethene or rubber.
➢ BOD removal to the extent of 99% could achieved with efficient operation.
➢ The major disadvantages are the large space requirements and the bacterial contamination
of the lagoon effluent which necessitates further biological purification.
Activated sludge process:
➢ This is the most versatile biological oxidation method employed for the treatment of waste
water containing dissolved solids, colloids and coarse solid organic matter.

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 ➢ In this process, the waste water is aerated in a reaction tank in which some microbial floc
is suspended.
➢ The aerobic bacterial flora bring about biological degradation of the waste to carbon
dioxide and water molecule while consuming some organic matter for synthesizing
bacteria.
➢ The bacteria flora grows and remains suspended in the form of a floc which is called
activated sludge.
➢ The effluent from the reaction tank is separated from the sludge by setting and discharged.
➢ A part of the sludge is recycled to the same tank to provide an effective microbial
population for a fresh treatment cycle.
➢ The surplus sludge is digested in a sludge digester along with the primary sludge obtained
from primary sedimentation.
➢ An efficient aeration for 5 to 24 hrs in required for industrial wastes. BOD removal to
extent of 90-95% can be achieved in this process.
Oxidation ditch:
➢ This can be considered as a modification of conventional activated sludge process.
➢ Waste water, after screening is allowed containing the sludge solids is aerated is the
channel with the help of a mechanical rotor.
➢ The usual hydraulic retention time is 12 to 24 hrs and for solids it is 20-30 days.
➢ Most of the sludge formed is recycled for the subsequent treatment cycle. The surplus
sludge can be dried without odor on sand drying beds.
Tertiary and advanced treatment processes:
➢ It is worthwhile to mention that textile waste contains significant quantities of non-
biodegradable chemical polymers.
➢ Since conventional treatment methods are inadequate there is the need for efficient tertiary
treatment process.
Oxidation techniques:
➢ A variety of oxidizing agents can be used to decolorize wastes. Sodium hypochlorite
decolorizes dye bath efficiently. Though it is a low cost technique, but it forms absorbed
toxic organic halides.
➢ Ozone on decomposition generates oxygen and free radicals and the later combines with
coloring agents of effluent resulting in the destruction of colors.
Membrane technologies:
Reverse osmosis and electro dialysis are the important examples of membrane process.

Reverse osmosis:
➢ When two solutions having different solute concentrations are separated by a semi-
permeable membrane, a different in chemical potential will exist across the membranes.
➢ Water will tend to diffuse through the membrane from the lower concentration (high
potential) side to higher concentration (lower potential) side.

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 ➢ In a system having finite volume, flow continues until the pressure difference balances
the chemical difference.
➢ This balancing pressure difference is termed as osmotic pressure and is a function of
solute characteristics and concentration and temperature.
➢ If a pressure gradient opposite in the direction and greater than the osmotic pressure is
imposed accurse the membrane, flow from the more concentrated to the less concentrated
region will occur and termed as reverse osmosis.
Electro-dialysis:
Electro-dialysis is a process where ionic components of a solution are separated through the use
of semi-permeable ion-selective membranes. It has a variety of reuse applications in wastewater
treatment fields.
Theory of Electro-dialysis:
➢ Application of an electrical potential between the two electrodes causes an electrical
current to pass through the solution which in term causes a migration of cations towards
the negative electrode and a migration of anions toward the positive electrode.
➢ Because of the alternate spacing of cations and anion permeable membranes, cell of
concentrated and dilute salts are forms.
➢ Wastewater I pumped through the membranes which is separated by spacers and
assembled into stacks.
➢ The wastewater is usually retained for about 10 to 20 days in a single stack or stage.
➢ Dissolved solids removals vey with the
i. Wastewater temperature
ii. Amounts of electrical current passed
iii. Type of amount of ions
iv. Perm-selectivity of the membrane
v. Fouling and scaling potential of the wastewater
vi. Wastewater flow rates and
vii. Number of configuration of stages.
Environmental impact of using UV radiation disinfection:
✓ On the basis of the evidence to date, it appears that the compounds formed at the UV
dosage used for the disinfection (50 to 140 mj/cm2) of wastewater are harmless or are
broken down into more innocuous forms.
✓ Thus the disinfection of wastewater with UV light is considered to have to adverse
environmental impacts.
✓ The environmental impacts and types of compounds formed when UV radiation is used
for the destruction of NDMA and endocrine disruptors, typically at UV dosage greater
than 400 mj/cm2 is not known at present.

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 Chapter 5
Alternative Treatment Technologies
Oxidation technology at ambient conditions for wastewater treatment:
Through the focus of existing technologies is shifting towards Green chemistry resulting into
minimization of effluents from the process. It will probably take 10-15 years to achieve the
ultimate zero discharge goal by implementing green chemistry in the processes.
Alternative technology:
The efficiency of well-established technique of biological oxidation has reduced now a days/
✓ This is due to the development of many complex bio-refractory molecules due to the
proposed modernization.
✓ Thus it is important to develop technologies which can either be used as an alternative of
conventional techniques.
Alternative oxidation processes:
i. Individual oxidation technologies
ii. Photo-catalytic oxidation
iii. Cavitation
iv. Fenton’s oxidation
v. Chemical oxidation
Hybrid technologies:
✓ Ultrasonic irradiation coupled with H2O2/Ozone
✓ UV irradiation in combination with H2O2/Ozone
✓ Sono-photolytic oxidation and
✓ Photo-Fenton process
Photo catalytic oxidation:
✓ The photo-catalytic oxidation processes are gaining importance in the area of waste water
✓ These processes result in complete mineralization with operation at mild conditions of
temperature and pressure.
✓ Most importantly sunlight or near UV light can be used as a source of irradiation.
Application of photo-catalytical oxidation:
Photo-catalytic oxidation has been used successfully for the degradation of
➢ Halo alkanes/Alkenes
➢ Aliphatic alcohols
➢ Aliphatic carboxylic acids
➢ Amines
➢ Aromatics
➢ Phenolic compounds
➢ Surfactants

Page 18 of 32
 ➢ Pesticides etc
Drawbacks:
There are some drawbacks which hamper the successful application of the photocatalytic
oxidation on an industrial scale economically.
➢ The most important being the lack of engineering design and operation strategies for large
scale operation.
➢ Very low reaction rates of photocatalytic oxidation process for complex effluents.
Cavitation:
Cavitation is defined as the phenomena of the formation, growth and subsequent collapse of
micro-bubbles or cavities occurring in extremely small interval of time (milli-seconds) releasing
large magnitude of energy at number of location in the reactor.
Mechanism of cavitation:
➢ The destruction/oxidation of pollutants using cavitation is usually described by two
approaches. These are follows:
- Free radical attack and
- Pyrolysis
➢ Violent collapse of the cavities result in the formation of hydroxyl radicals
➢ Radicals attack the pollutants either in the caviting bubbles, bulk liquid or at the gas liquid
interface.
➢ High temperature generated in the bubbles and breaks the chemical bond.
Application:
➢ Cavitation offers a potentially attractive system for the degradation of chemicals in the
wastewater scheme.
➢ Cavitation is potential where majority of the conventional techniques fail to give
substantial conversions but it is cost effective.
Feneton chemistry:
➢ The oxidation system based on the fenton’s reagent (H2O2 in the presence of a ferrous salt)
works on the principle of the in-situ formation reactive oxidizing species.
➢ The nature of the reactive species till to be known.
➢ There are three main reactive species have been considered for the oxidation of pollutants.
➢ Two of them involve in the presence of hydroxyl radical.
➢ Third one is to be the aqua or organo-complexes of the high valence iron, the ferryl ion.
Application:
Fenton’s reagent has been effectively used for the remediation of
- Diesel contaminated soils
- Removal of color form dyes industries
- Destruction of organics such as 2,4,6 trinitrotoluene, 2,4 dinitrophenol etc.

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But, this method is not universal as there are many chemicals are refectory to this reagent such as
acetic acid, acetone etc.
Chemical oxidation system:
➢ In this case of chemical oxidation systems (H2O2 and O3) the degradation of pollutants is a
result of the direct attack of the oxidants on the pollutant molecules.
➢ Ozone is a very powerful agent that react with most species containing multiple bonds.
➢ Hydrogen peroxide is a weak acid and has been found to be effective in the degradation of
compound requiring less stringent oxidation conditions.
➢ These oxidations are simple and the mechanisms only require an efficient contact of
oxidant with the pollutant ion/molecule.
Application: Ozone can be used for the treatment of effluent from various industries relating to
- Pulp and paper production
- Shale oil processing
- Production and usage of pesticides
- Dye manufacturing
- Pharmaceuticals etc.
Hybrid processes:
Ultrasound/H2O2 or Ultrasound/O3 processes:
➢ The main driving mechanism in the degradation of pollutants using ultrasound is the
generation and subsequent attack of the free radicals.
➢ In the case of reactions where the controlling mechanism is the free radical attack, use of
H2O2 or O3 combination with the ultrasound should enhance the rates of degradation due
to the generation of additional free radicals.
➢ It can be said that the use of H2O2 in conjunction with ultrasound is beneficial only till an
optimum loading of the oxidant and where the free radical attack is important.
Considerations:
➢ The synergistic effect of combining ozonation with ultrasonic irradiation is observed only
when the free radical attack is the controlling mechanism.
➢ The rate of sonolytic ozonation will be higher at lower concentration of the pollutant and
hence the dilution of effluent stream may be considered as a pre-treatment step.
Ultra-violet/ H2O2 or Ultraviolet/ O3 processes:
The principle behind the beneficial effects observed using ultra-violet light in combination with
H2O2 or O3 lies the fact that the rate of the generation of free radicals is signicantly enhanced for
the combination technique.
➢ Very similar to the ultrasound/ H2O2 or ultrasound/ O3 processes.
Consideration:
➢ Synergism between UV photolysis and hydrogen peroxide will be beneficial for the
contaminants requiring severe oxidation conditions (higher activation energies).

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 ➢ The kinetic rate constant for the degradation process is observed to be inversely
proportional to the initial concentration of the pollutant.
➢ So, dilution of the effluent should be done at optimum level.
Sonophotocatalytic oxidation:
➢ In the case of photo-catalytic oxidation, the most common problem is the reduced
efficiency of the photo catalytic with continuous operation.
➢ This is due to adsorption of contaminants at the surface and blocking the UV active sites.
➢ So, a technique for proper continuous cleaning of the surface during the operation is
required.
➢ Ultrasonic irradiation is one of the technique that can be used continually with the
UV/solar irradiation.
Photo-Fenton processes:
➢ A combination of hydrogen peroxide and UV radiation with Fe (II) or Fe (III) oxalate ion,
the so called photo-Fenton process produces more hydroxyl radicals in comparison to the
conventional Fenton method or the photolysis.
➢ This promote the rates of degradation of organic pollutants.
➢ Acidic conditions are usually favourable in these processes.
➢ There are various methods already discussed like Fenton reagent, ozonation,
photochemical etc.

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 Chapter 6
The 3R’s Golden Rule of Textile waste
The 3R’s Golden rule (reduction, reuse and recycling) of industrial waste management:
➢ The various treatment methods of industrial waste aimed at removing toxic chemicals,
pollutants and BOD from waste water, albeit at a high economic cost, minimize the risk to
human health and the environment.
➢ Several industrial wastes can be reused and recycled to recover and retrieve some valuable
by-products from them while also rendering them harmless.
➢ Recycling though also an expensive process (but less that treatment) makes more sense
than treatment and disposal as it adds to the economy of the industries.
➢ Waste reduction (low waste) without compromising with the industrial production,
definitely makes greater economic and ecological sense then recycling and still it more
sustainable.
➢ Economics will always be the determining and driving force for industries to choose
between resource recycling and recovery of desirable materials from industrial wastes or
to go for their treatment and disposal.
➢ Industries all over the world are more interested in making profits, sometimes even at the
cost of the environment and society.
➢ Recycling and recovery has often been costlier and disposal and treatment is cheaper and
this has prevented to adopt the recycling ethos.
➢ As long as the cost of disposal and treatment is cheaper than the recycle and reuse, it will
never be popular with the industries.
➢ Industries have to legally bound to resort to recycling of certain wastes where technology
exists, even if it is a little costlier than disposal.
Concepts of sustainable industrialization:
➢ Sustainable industrialization is a long term process of transformation towards a desired
vision of an industrialized economy that contributes to wealth creation, social
development and environment sustainability.
➢ Sustainability in industrial development means that while industries carry on business and
make economic profits (economic sustainability) hand in hand by avoiding activities that
damage of their profit into environmental repair and protection.

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The sustainable industrialization triangle:

Wealth creation

Industrial
innovation

Environmental
Social development sustainability

Reducing the waste or concept of zero waste discharge and environmental costs of industrial
production by 3R’s approach:
➢ One should bear in mind that there is always some environmental cost (EC) of production
of goods and commodities in any industry which is generally overlooked.
➢ The EC is not added to the conventional production cost (CPC) which should reflect the
true cost of production (TCP) of a specific commodity.
➢ EC includes direct cost of waste treatment (WT) and indirect and intangible cost of
environmental damage by the waste generated.
➢ The indirect cost of environmental damage includes the seepage of wastewater and ground
water contamination and the cost of Decontamination Company owned and adjacent
property.
➢ The intangible cost of environmental damage includes the costs of land value lost due to
pollution and decrease in desirability of the property due to public reluctance to locate
adjacent to contaminated sites.
➢ These are hidden costs usually not accounted for in the cost of production in industries.
➢ Reducing, reusing and recycling of all industrial wastes as far as practicable would
significantly reduce the EC and also contribute to economic and environmental
sustainability for the industries.
➢ It will be still greater if industries practice ‘No Waste’ or ‘Zero Waste’ philosophy.
➢ This can be achieved through changes in technology and production processes. This has
been termed as “Cleaner Production Technology”.
Reducing solid waste by dematerialization technology:
➢ Technological advancement has undergone a process of dematerialization for reducing the
consumption of resources in manufacturing product with consequent reduction in waste
generation.

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 ➢ Many packaging items consumer electronic goods and even cars have become lighter,
sleeker and smaller.
➢ For example, since 1977, the popular 2-litre PET plastic soft drinks bottles have been
reduced from 68 gm each to 51 gm, a 25% reduction in plastic used per bottle.
➢ Lesser use of metals and materials in production also lesser use of water and chemicals.
Waste reduction by water conservation in industrial production:
➢ Quantity can be reduced by reducing the amount of water consumption at source.
➢ If the highly-polluted manufacturing process water are separated from the less polluted
cooling waters both the quantity as well as the concentration of the wastewater requiring
treatment is also significantly reduced.
Multiple effect evaporation:
The multiple effect evaporation system is formed a sequence of single effect evaporators, where
the vapour formed in one effect is used in the next effect. The vapour reuse in the multiple effect
system allows reduction of the brine and the temperature to low values and prevent rejection of
large amount of energy to the surrounding, which was the main drawback of the single effect
system. In addition to the desalination industry, the main bulk of the multiple effect evaporation is
found in the food, pulp, paper, petroleum and petrochemical industries. The multiple effect
evaporation can be configured in forward, backward or parallel feed. The three configurations
differ in the flow directions of the heating steam and the evaporating brine. Selection among the
three configurations relies on variation in the salt solubility as a function of the top brine
temperature and the maximum brine concentration. At higher temperatures or higher brine
concentrations, scale formation takes place inside and outside the tube surfaces.
Analysis of the Textile industry effluents:
The site of sample collection use identified at point where the effluent is discharged from the
factory. The colour of the effluent and odor was observed at the time of collection of the sample
in sterile bottles. The wastewater discharged from the textile industries is characterized by a
variety of chemicals generated from dyeing, bleaching and washing processes. It also constitutes
suspended solids, organic and inorganic matters, acid and alkalis. Textile wastewater contains
substantial pollution loads in terms of BOD, COD, TSS and heavy metals. The environmental
concern of discharged textile wastewater is mainly its high chemical oxygen demand (COD) as
well as strength of color content. The analysis were carried out as per the standard methods.
Reuse of water:
Water reuse offers a climate independent water source that is dependable, locally controlled and
generally beneficial to the environment. Water reuse allows communities to become less
dependent on ground water and surface water sources and can decrease the diversion of water
from sensitive ecosystems. Additionally, water reuse may reduce the nutrient loads from
wastewater discharges into waterways, thereby reducing and preventing pollution. This ‘new’
water source may also be used to replenish overdrawn water sources and rejuvenate or re-
establish those previously destroyed.

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Cost of effluent treatment:
Improving the performance of the effluent treatment plant will reduce the plant’s operating costs
and make it easier for plant to comply with its discharge consent condition. Plant discharging to
sewer will also reduce their trade effluent charges.
The five steps to effective effluent management are:
1. Characterise all effluents produced on-site.
2. Implement a waste minimisation programme to reduce the volume and strengths of
effluents.
3. Incorporate in process conditioning and treatment where appropriate.
4. Determine and install segregation facilities to tailor treatment options.
5. Optimise performance of ETP.
To comply with discharge consent condition and reduce the environmental burden of their
discharges, companies often need to modify their processes and or install an effluent treatment
plant (ETP). Effective management of an ETP has a number of benefits including:
- Reduced operating costs
- Improved company image
- More effective compliance with the law.
The true cost of effluent can be over six times greater than that cost of effluent disposal, because
it includes-
➢ The value of raw materials and product lost in the effluent.
➢ The costs of lost production due to wasted product
➢ The use of water and treatment chemicals
➢ The operating costs of pollution control equipment.
➢ Waste disposal costs, including trade fines, legal fees, the cost of remedial work following
pollution incidents, staff time and increased premiums.
➢ Loss of potential sales to customers that refuse to trade with a company processing a poor
environmental record.
An effluent treatment plant will cost less to run if the site produces less effluents the first place.
Significant cost savings can be achieved by reducing both amount and strength of the raw effluent
entering the plant. Considering the effluent treatment plant as an integral part of the company’s
operations and not just as an end of pipe necessity, will help to maximise savings. The approach
also offers greater opportunities for chemical and water reuse within the site.

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 Chapter 7
Sludge, footprint and Eco conformance certifications
Sludge:
Sludge is the residual semi-solid material left from industrial, water treatment or wastewater
treatment processes. If is a ubiquitous material in society.
➢ It is produced from the treatment of wastewater in on-site (eg: septic tank) and off site (eg:
activated sludge) systems.
➢ This is inherently so because a primary aim of wastewater treatment is removing solids
from the wastewater.
➢ Sludge is also produced from the treatment of storm water although it is likely to be less
organic in nature compared to waste water sludge.
Characterization of textile sludge:
➢ The characteristics of textile sludge vary widely, according to its source or origin of
generation.
➢ Textile sludge may be contaminated with heavy metals and other pollutant especially then
industrial wastes are disposed into the sewer.
➢ Pre-treatment of industrial wastes is therefore essential before discharge to the sewer.
➢ Treatment of textile sludge contaminated with high concentrations of heavy metals or
toxic chemicals will be more difficult and the potential for re-use of the sludge will be
limited.
Sludge reuse:
➢ Reuse of composted sludge as a soil conditioner in agriculture and horticulture returns
carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and elements essential for plant growth back to the soil.
➢ Heavy metals and toxic chemicals are difficult to remove from sludge.
➢ Preventing these chemicals from entering the wastewater or sludge should be the aim of
wastewater management for sludge intended for reuse in agriculture or horticulture.
➢ Conversion of sludge, which is heavily contaminated by heavy metals or toxic chemicals
to oil is technically feasible.
NPK in sludge:
➢ The level of nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) are critical is the sludge is to be
used for agricultural purposes.
➢ The fertilizer value of sludge is detected by the percentage concentrations of NPK a
typical NPK fertilizer has a composition of 8%N, 8%P and 8%K.
➢ It may be difficult to achieve these levels of nutrients in sludge.
➢ But, it may be has great potentiality to be used as an organic compost fertilizer.
Sludge disposal:
➢ Final or ultimate disposal of sludge which cannot be reused is by land-filling or
incineration.

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 ➢ Since, sludge for land-filling usually contains heavy metals or toxic chemicals, lining of
the landfill with clay or plastic liner may be required to prevent contamination of ground
water.
➢ Incineration of sludge is by a multiple health furnace or fluidized bed furnace. Energy
input is required to dry the sludge before combustion is self-sustaining.
➢ Combustion flue gases usually need treatment to meet air pollution control standards.
➢ Investment and operating costs are high for combustion.
Water footprint:
Water use can mean the amount of water used for a given test or for the production of a given
quantity of some product or crop.
➢ The term “water foot print” is often used to refer to the amount of water used by
individual, community, business or nation.
➢ The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume
of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or
community or produced by the business.
➢ Water use is measured in water volume consumed (evaporated) and/or polluted per unit of
time.
➢ A water footprint can be calculated for any well-defined group of consumers (eg: an
individual, family, village, city, province, state or nation) or producers (eg: a public
organization, private enterprise or economic sector).
➢ The water footprint is a geographically explicit indicator not only showing volumes of
water use and pollution, but also the locations.
➢ However, the water footprint does not provide the information on how the embedded
water negatively or positively affects local water resources, ecosystems and livelihoods.
Chemical footprint:
➢ Chemical footprint is an indication of potential risk posed by a product based on its
chemical composition, the human and ecological hazard properties of the ingredients and
the exposure potential of the ingredients during its life cycle.
➢ The term chemical footprint has been in use since at least 2000 and is used to describe a
variety of disparate interactions.
➢ For example, an estimate of the chemical interaction between an entity and its
environment specifically for chemical consumed, produced and modified by an entity.
➢ Analysis on RNA and DNA samples in laboratory settings.
➢ Hazard zone lengths
➢ Amount of chemicals supplied to a customer.
➢ A risk based chemical footprint includes both
- An evaluation of the toxicity of the chemicals used in a product as well as
- The potential for exposure to the chemical constituents throughout a production
life cycle.
➢ While the availability of toxicity data is increasing rapidly as a result of various
international regulatory requirements and both screening level and advanced toxicity
models are becoming more widely available, exposure assessment remains complicated.

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Carbon footprint:
➢ A carbon footprint has historically been defined as the total set of greenhouse gas (GHS)
emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.
➢ However, calculating a carbon footprint which conformed to this definition is
impracticable due to the large amount of data required which is often time consuming to
obtain.
➢ A more practicable definition has been suggested which is gaining acceptance within the
field.
➢ A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions of a
defined population, system or activity, considering all relevant sources, sinks and storage
within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population system or activity interest.
➢ Calculated as CO2 equivalent using the relevant 100 year global warming potential
(GWP100).
➢ An individual’s, nation’s or organization’s carbon footprint can be measure by
undertaking a greenhouse emissions assessment.
➢ Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it eg:
- By technological developments
- Better process and product management
- Changed green public or private procurement (GPP)
- Carbon capture
- Consumption strategies and others.
➢ The mitigation of carbon footprints through the development of alternative projects such
as solar or wind energy or deforestation, represents one way of reducing footprint and is
often known as carbon offsetting.
Okeo-Tex:
Okeo-Tex is and independent testing and certification system for textile products from all stages
of production (fibres, yarns, fabrics ready to use end products, including accessories) along the
textile value chain.
Objectives of Okeo-Tex:
The aim was to make textile products form conventional production having undergone laboratory
testing for harmful substances obvious to consumers by using a label (confidence in textiles).
Textiles with this label are proven to remain below the set limit values for certain harmful
substances.
All the same time, the introduction of the standard established a globally standardised quality
assurance system for manufacturers and retailers to take into account the decreasing vertical range
of manufacture in the individual facilities of the textile and clothing industry and to compensate
for regionally different evaluation standards for the risk potential of harmful substances. Use of
the Okeo Tex certificate therefore, documents compliance with human ecology quality towards
subsequent production levels and end consumers.
GOTS: The global organic textile standard (GOTS) is a global, textile-specific standard for
organic fibres including ecological and social criteria backed up independent certification of the
entire textile supply chain.

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Only textile products that contain a minimum of 70% organic fibres can become certified
according to GOTS. All chemical inputs s.a dyestuffs and auxiliaries used must meet certain
environmental and toxicological criteria and also the choice of accessories is limited under
ecological aspects. A functional waste water treatment plant is mandatory for any wet processing
unit involved and all processors must comply with social minimum criteria.
Key criteria for processing and manufacturing:
➢ At all stages through the processing organic fibre products must be separated form
conventional fibre products and must to clearly identify.
➢ All chemical inputs (eg: dyes, auxiliaries and process chemicals) must be evaluated and
meeting basic requirements on toxicity and bio-degradability.
➢ Prohibition of critical inputs such as toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents,
functional Nano particles generally modified organisms (GMO) and their enzymes.
➢ The use of synthetic sizing agents is restricted, knitting and weaving oils must con contain
heavy metals.
➢ Bleaches must be based on oxygen (no chlorine bleaching)
➢ Azo dyes that release carcinogenic amine compounds are prohibited.
➢ Discharge printing method using aromatic solvents and plastisol printing methods using
phthalates and PVC are prohibited.
➢ Restrictions for accessories (eg: no PVC, Nickel or Chroma permitted, any polyester must
be port consumer recycled form 2014 onwards)
➢ All operators must have and environmental policy including target goals and procedure to
minimize waste and discharge.
➢ Wet processing units must keep full records of the use of chemicals, energy, water
consumption and waste water treatment including the disposal of sludge. The waste water
from all wet processing units must be treated in a functional waste Water treatment plant.
➢ Packaging material must not contain PVC. From 1st Jan 2014 onwards, any paper or
cardboard used in packaging material, hang tags, sewing tags etc must be post recycled or
certified according to consumer FSC or PFC.
➢ Technical quality parameters must be met (ie: rubbing, perspiration, light and washing
fastness and shrinkage values).
➢ Raw materials, intermediates, final textile products as well as accessories must meet
stringent limits regarding unwanted residues.
➢ Minimum social criteria based on the key norms of the international labour Organisation
(ILO) must be met by all processes.

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 Chapter 8
National and International laws and legislation for textile
related matter
EU environmental regulation for textiles:
Brussels office acts as regular counsel to major garment and sporting goods companies on
regulatory matter. This includes setting up supplier restricted substances lists an related advice on
supply agreements, advice on multi language labelling, size labelling and flammability warnings
setting up a database on product recalls, advice on high tech garments, counselling on waste
classification of textile waste and advice on biocides in garments.
➢ Product labelling guide for 30 countries for textiles, footwear and sporting equipment.
➢ Advice on product recalls.
➢ Advice on introduction of new products including high tech garments.
➢ Advice on biocides in textiles and scented garments.
➢ Advice on reuse and recycling of garments and footwear and establishing company
recycling schemes.
Textile fibre products identification act according to FTC (Federal Trade Commission):
a) Textile fibre product shall be misbranded it is falsely or deceptively stamped, tagged,
labelled, invoiced, advertised or otherwise identified as to the name or amount of
constituent fibres contained.
b) Textile fibre product shall be misbranded if a stamp, tag, label or other means or
identification or substitute is not or affixed to the product showing in words and figures
plainly legible.
c) A textile fibre product shall be considered to be safely or deceptively if any disclosure or
implication of fibre content is mane in any written advertisement which is used to aid,
promote or assist directly or indirectly in the sale or offering for sale or offering for sale of
such textile fibre product, unless the same information as that required to be shown on the
stamp, tag, label or other identification.
d) The stamp, tag, label or other means of identification or advertisement may contain other
information not violating the provisions.
e) The textile fibre products contained therein, a package of textile fibre products for sale to
the ultimate consumer shall be misbranded unless such package has affixed to it stamp,
tag, label or other means of identification bearing the information.
f) Requiring designation of the fibre content of any portion of fabric, when sold at retail
which is severed from bolts, pieces or rolls of fabric labelled in accordance with the
provisions.
g) A textile fibre product shall be misbranded it is in used as stuffing in any upholstered
product, mattress or cushion.
h) A textile fibre shall be considered to be falsely or deceptively advertised if the name or
symbol of any fur-bearing animal is used in the advertisement of such product.
i) A textile fibre product shall be misbranded if a stamp, tag, label or identification
confirming to the requirements of this section is not on or affixed to the inside centre of
the midway between the shoulder seam.

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The international organization for standardisation (ISO)
➢ The international organization for standardisation (ISO) is the world-wide confederation
of 135 national standards organizations.
➢ Its purpose is to develop voluntary technical standards of products and services to make
their manufacture and supply more efficient safe and clean.
➢ To facilitate their international trading process.
➢ By producing the ISO 14000 standards ISO has recently generated huge interest from the
world communities conscious about the importance of integrating the principles of
sustainable development into world business and trade activities.
➢ The standard ISO produced before were highly specific to the size, feature or formal of
products or materials and although its 9000 series was the first generic standard.
➢ It was not until development of ISO 14000 series that ISO entered into the realm of
environmental management.
➢ The ISO 14001 standard was published in September 1996.
➢ It provides the basic elements of Environmental Management System (EMS).
Bangladesh’s environmental Laws:
➢ The majority of environmental laws in Bangladesh were passes under substantially
different population and development conditions.
➢ For example, the factories act of 1965 and some other health protection laws were
designed before industrial pollution and hazardous substances become serious concerns.
The environment policy of 1992:
➢ The environment policy of 1992 of Bangladesh has recognized the need for a better and
comprehensive approach to address environmental issues.
➢ It requires specific actions in the development sectors of the country to facilitate long term
sustainable use of all natural resources.
➢ In the industry sector, it provides for EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for new
industries, corrective measures for polluting industries.
➢ A ban of establishment of polluting industries and
➢ Development of environmentally sound and appropriate technology for sustainable and
efficient utilization of natural resources.
➢ Very few of the elements of the Environmental policy, however, have yet been translated
into laws.
Bangladesh Environmental Conservation Act (ECA) 1995:
The only legislation which specifically deals with environmental issues is the Bangladesh
Environmental Conservation Act (ECA) 1995.
➢ The act was passes to provide for conservation and improvement of environment
standards and for controlling and mitigating environmental pollution.
➢ It however provides very few substance obligation relating to environmental management
of industries.
➢ Industries and projects would require environmental clearance from the department of the
environment and any person affected or likely to be affected by such activities can apply
to the director general seeking remedy of environmental pollution or degradation.

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 ➢ The major limitation of the act is its silence on the standards, parameters, emission levels
and management elements based which the environment clearance should have been
applied and obtained.
The Environmental conservation rules 1997:
➢ The environmental conservation rules 1997 were promulgated in furtherance of the
objectives of the ECA, 1995.
➢ Regarding management of toxic and hazardous substances, the rules have broadly defined
guidelines for disposal of waste from different categories of industries.
➢ But unlike the Environmental protection Rules of India, the environmental conservation
rules 1997 have not specified the permissible extent of emissions or the obligations of
corrective actions.
➢ Among Bangladeshi sectorial laws, environmental issues are seldom referred to and when
they are bear no real substance.
➢ Environment conservation (Amendment) Act 2010 was passed to facilitate the activities
towards the protection of natural environment.

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