Sustainable textile production: a case study from a woven fabric manufacturing mill in Turkey

The aim of this research was to investigate the applicability of different sustainable production measures and demonstrate environmental and economical benefits in a woven fabric manufacturing mill in Bursa, Turkey. As a result of an Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE) evaluation, five sustainable production applications were proposed and implemented to decrease water consumption, wastewater generation, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and salt (NaCl) consumption in the company. As a result, the total water consumption of the company was decreased 40.2% while wastewater generation was reduced by 43.4%. Total energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions of the company were decreased 17.1 and 13.5%, respectively. While total salt (NaCl) consumption was decreased by 46.0%. The payback period was calculated as approximately 1.5 months. This study can be regarded as a successful example of adoption of “Communiqué of Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control in Textile Sector” with tangible economical and environmental achievements in the Turkish textile industry. The results of the study show that the wide-spread uptake of proposed sustainable production measures would generate a tremendous change in the Turkish textile industry without a need for heavy investments in technology. Moreover the economic returns would help Turkish textile industry to sustain its competitive position in the global textile market which faces a pressing challenge of low cost, high quality and environmentally benign production.