Pratibha Syntex Ltd believes in nature’s very own creativity; circularity. To come to the terms of the ecology, the company has incorporated inclusive initiatives in its processes
Climate change is an irreversible fact, if not dealt with alacrity it will change the dynamics of the whole ecology. It is the responsibility of the industries to co-create a healthy environment for future generations, says Shreyaskar Chaudhary, MD of Pratibha Syntex Ltd.
In consideration of the world textile industry, textile production alone accounts for 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The emission is more than carbon generation by annual shuttling of all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Every year US$ 500 billion is lost due to the underutilisation of clothing and lack of recycling. Hazardous substances used in the process of cotton cultivation, dyeing, and printing cause a harmful impact on the health of farmers, labourers, and wearers. When washed, some garments release plastic micro fibres, of which around half a million tonnes every year contribute to ocean pollution – 16 times more than plastic microbeads from cosmetics. Trends point to these negative impacts rising inexorably, with the potential for catastrophic outcomes in the future. If this continues resource consumption in the textile industry will multiply by three folds by 2050 from the base year 2015. The industry’s carbon budget will rise from 2% to 26% by 2050 & 22million tons of microfiber will be added from the current load in the ocean. All of these will lead to a decrease in the profitability estimated to be USD 52 billion for the industry.
Circularity is the only way to thwart climate change. It is an entailment for Industries to co-create eco-strategy by bringing circularity into the whole process. Being more than a responsible company, Pratibha included the circular economy in its processes. The eco-design strategised by Pratibha is inclusive of refurbishing, recycling, remanufacturing, and reusing as much as possible to minimize waste and the extraction & creation of virgin materials.
Pratibha’s vision to be a global leader in sustainable products and practices is complementing the ongoing efforts to have a minimum environmental and maximum social impact.
- Raw Material Selection for Circular Design
- In the use of recycled polyester, Pratibha offers products that are made up of recycled polyester coming from PET bottles. The use of recycled polyester in product blending instead of virgin polyester helps Pratibha in reducing the environmental impacts like:
- The company saves petroleum and dependency on oil.
- It requires 70 percent less energy than virgin fibre and hence reduces GHS emissions.
- It keeps bottles out of landfills.
- Water consumption in producing polyester is much lower than for natural fibres, sometimes little to none.
Pratibha is certified by Global Recycle Standards (GRS) for producing GRS certified products.
- To check deforestation and chemical toxicity, it is necessary to source viscose from manufacturers which are producing viscose ethically. Pratibha sources all the viscose which is FSC certified.
2. Circularity in processing: Chemicals used in the wet processing unit have a toxic chemical footprint which ends up as waste in the waste stream of the dye-house. So as a solution for waste chemical toxicity, Pratibha uses pre-process screening and selection of chemicals with minimal environmental impact by using tools like Bluefinder-Bluesign and the latest version of ZDHC – MRSL v2.0.
Also, wet processing in textile is a water intensive process. So, Pratibha has incorporated the ZLD (Zero Liquid Discharge) type ETP system for treating 100% of the effluent from the dye-house. Pratibha uses 100% recycled water where 92-95 % is from ETP recycling and 8-5 % is from STP recycling. Fresh water consumption is limited to domestic use only.
- Circularity in Energy sourcing: Manufacturing processes use more of the fossil fuels like coal, diesel & pet coke which are responsible for GHG emissions and hence are the major contributors to Climate Change. To reduce GHG emissions, Pratibha has established a 2.4 MW roof top solar power plant at the manufacturing unit. The energy efficient machines have been installed in the manufacturing unit to curtail the use of electricity.
- Waste reduction in landfill: Throughout the manufacturing process, the generation of waste works against the circular design’s effort to reduce waste going into landfill waste. Therefore, it is very important to reduce, reuse and recycle waste generated out of fibre to garment manufacturing. Pratibha has installed an “Open End” spinning unit which reuses the comber-noil waste to make yarns. By this process, Pratibha reduces the waste generation as well as utilises the waste and adds value addition to the comber-noil.
Circularity vision of Pratibha for waste generation in Fabric-Cutting Dept.: Pratibha uses the ultra-efficient cutting machine & spreader to reduce the cutting waste and give maximum cutting efficiency. The cutting waste then goes to recyclers for upcycling.
Reduction in Landfill waste, generated from ETP: 70% of the waste stream from the dye-house is treated with a biological process thus reducing the hazardous waste sludge generation out of the chemical treatment process. Other wastes like paper, cartons, HDPE, LDPE, PVA Tape, PVC pipes, Plastic & cardboards etc. are given to recyclers for upcycling or downcycling.
Only the sludge generated from the chemical treatment of dye-house effluent goes into the landfill which is done by the Government recognised waste disposal company which ensures the safe incineration or disposal of hazardous waste.
- Organic farming practice: Pratibha and Vasudha Organic, together as supply chain partners are promoting Regenerative Organic Cotton, Organic Cotton & Fairtrade Cotton farming in order to eliminate the use of harmful and hazardous chemicals used as pesticides and fertilizers from the textile supply chain.
- Cradle to Cradle Gold certified products: The above practices enabled Pratibha to achieve the next level of circular product manufacturing. It has received the gold level of Cradle to Cradle-certified product manufacturing for producing a product, which is biodegradable in-home composting methods and leaves no trace of toxic elements on biodegradation. The C2C certified products are analysed in the following categories: a) Material health; b) Material Reutilisation; c) Renewable Energy d); Water Stewardship; Social Fairness.
