A study of life cycle assessment in textile dyeing and printing mills

A total of 11 gate to gate life cycle assessments with a functional unit of 1 kg of colored fabric was carried at the two different dying and printing companies which are located in the Thrace Region. It was aimed to reveal environmental effects of each individual process which woven fabrics and knitted fabrics go through in a printing plant and a dyehouse, respectively. Plausible differences between consecutive stages of the entire manufacturing processes were analyzed in regard of environmental effects, and the significance of various fabric parameters on the environmental impacts of the samples was also investigated. The study was carried out with the professional version of GaBi ts 9.5, adhering to the ISO 14044:2006 Environmental Management-Life Cycle Assessment-Requirements and Guidelines Standard. The life cycle inventory was created using primary data, business reports and the GaBi professional database. The life cycle impact assessment was conducted according to the CML2001-August 2016 impact methodology. In consideration of local environmental problems of Thrace Region, the environmental impact categories were selected as acidification potential (AP-kg SO2eq.), eutrophication potential (EP-kg PO4-3eq.), freshwater aquatics ecotoxicity potential (FAETP-kg DCBeq.), human toxicity potential (HTP-kg DCBeq.), global warming potential (GWP100-kg CO2eq.), photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP-kg C2H4eq.) and a hotspot examination for each individual process was also performed. As a result of hotspot examination, it was determined that softener, electricity, steam, natural gas, reactive dyestuff, H2O2, NaOH and soda are the most pollutant sources at different rates. It was also found that unit weight and fiber type have a critical effect on environmental impact values.