Steps to Make Textiles Free from Pollution

Six leading European and US apparel buyers in collaboration with International Finance Corporation (IFC) will assist the local textile manufacturers in improving the techniques of industrial waste management cost-effectively.

Indiscriminate disposal of industrial wastes is a major cause of environmental pollution and the team will draw up plans for alleviating the present situation to international standards.

The European and US buyers are H&M, Mothercare, KappAhl, Lindex, Levi Strausss & Co and Solidaridad.

The IFC initiative on clean production was launched at a city hotel Saturday. Ian Crosby, IFC Advisory Services, Marieke Weerdestejin, Project Manager of Netherlands' based 'Solidaridad' brand and Shivaram Krishnamoorthy, IFC-CP regional expert addressed the session.

IFC the World Bank group member, will mobilize the regional and international consultants under the initiative by transferring knowledge and building capacity of local consulting firms and service providers.

The initiative will also help the textile sector's washing, dying and finishing sub-sectors improve their environmental standards and clean production giving value addition to the products.

Textile industries annually discharge as much as 56 million tones of waste, 0.5 million tones of sludge and consume tremendous amount of energy for steam and hot water

The speakers said that clean production (CP) programme will support 11 pilot factories over 12 months to make efficient use of inputs along a company's production.

"Sustainability of the textiles and apparels sector is vital for Bangladesh to ensure its continuous economic growth," said Ian Crosby.

He said successful completion of the project will allow the country's textile sector to gain a competitive edge in the world market by showcasing its efforts of greener supply chain.