Sustainability in the Textile and Apparel Industries: Sourcing Natural Raw Materials PDF by Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu and Miguel Angel Gardetti

Contents

Preface
Textiles and clothing industry impacts have been analyzed by many authors and organizations, and there are many publications in the literature, but even then, there are a lot of topics not covered in the scientific literature. Sustainability in the textile and apparel industries is an important and ongoing topic. There are a lot of new fibers, yarns, fabrics, finishes, chemicals, strategies, designs, technologies, and so on to address the sustainability in the textile sector. This book set comprises of five volumes which aim to address sustainability in the textile and apparel industries under many wide topics, and this volume deals with the natural raw materials for textile sourcing and gives a comprehensive outlook on various sustainable raw materials from natural origin for raw material sourcing.

As anyone can imagine, sourcing is the vital and first step in apparel production, whereas the choice of sustainable raw materials plays a crucial role in deciding the fate of the product in terms of sustainability. There is a generic division of raw materials, namely, natural and man-made ones.

To begin with, the work titled “The Effects of Ecological and Sustainable Chemical Surface Modification Methods on the Properties of Lignocellulose-Based Fibers” developed by Emine Dilara Koçak and Merdan Nigar analyzes the physical, mechanical, and morphological properties of fibers, comparing chemical methods for the fibrillation of lignocellulose-based fibers (bananas, Agave Americana, sisal, raffia, artichoke, etc.) with ecological methods (ultrasonic, microwave, plasma methods) and enzymes.

The following chapter, “Sustainable Plant-Based Natural Fibers,” written by Seyda Eyupoglu, explores sustainability in plant-based natural fibers (cotton, bamboo, flax, hemp, kenaf, sisal, jute, ramie, abaca, banana, pineapple, coconut, and okra fiber). It describes the structure, production process, production and application areas, potentials and limitations of the fibers, and the importance of sustainable agriculture and ecology.

Subsequently, Marisa Gabriel, Miguel Angel Gardetti, and Ivan Cote-Maniére, in “Coyoyo Silk: A Potential Sustainable Luxury Fiber,” present mounting a silk, explore the whole process of obtaining and processing the fiber, and analyze artisans’ hardships to maintain this local and cultural legacy alive and the potential of this material as sustainable luxury.

Moving on to the next chapter, “Hemp Fiber as a Sustainable Raw Material Source for Textile Industry: Can We Use Its Potential for More Eco-friendly Production?,” the authors, Görkem Gedik and Ozan Avinc, present sustainable and biodegradable hemp fiber as an alternative to cotton- and petroleum-based synthetic fibers, exploring common and special uses and possible future innovative alternatives of hemp fibers for technical textile production.

Finally, Fatma Filiz Yıldırım, Ozan Avinc, Arzu Yavas, and Gökcin Sevgisunar, in their chapter “Sustainable Antifungal and Antibacterial Textiles Using Natural Resources,” describe antimicrobial activity (antifungal and antibacterial activities) on textile products imparted by natural dyes and natural resources and their application methods to textile materials, exploring antimicrobial properties of different plant extracts and animal extracts and their characteristics, uses, and potentials.

The Effects of Ecological and Sustainable Chemical Surface Modification Methods on the Properties of Lignocellulose-Based Fibers
Emine Dilara Koçak and Merdan Nigar

Abstract Ecological and sustainable production has attracted great attention recently because of the rapid consumption of natural resources and increase in environmental problems due to synthetic production activities globally. Therefore, natural-based materials find their place in production activity progressively. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) evince strict regulations for governments in order to clear harmful chemical reactions and environment in line with the genuine environmental awareness that is envisaged by the use of plant-based materials. Identification of the use of agricultural waste and legislations by governments will lead to the use of natural materials in this direction.

Lignocellulose-based fibers are used in the production of green composites because of easy shaping, low price, and variety of raw materials, and they can be considered as suitable candidates for sustainable production in the generations to come. Surface modifications of lignocellulose-based fibers are made by using chemical and enzyme-based agents on the surface of the fibers. This process increases the functional properties of the fibers and enables fibers to be used in the industrial scale. Chemical surface modifications are carried out by conventional methods as well as ecological methods such as ultrasonic energy, microwave energy, and plasma technique.

In this chapter, chemical methods for the fibrillation of lignocellulose-based fibers (bananas, Agave americana, sisal, raffia, artichoke, etc.) are compared with ecological methods (ultrasonic, microwave, and plasma methods) and enzymes in terms of physical, mechanical, and morphological properties of fibers. Thus, it can be concluded that ecological methods improve the properties of the fibers and help to reduce the chemical waste, water, and energy consumption.

Keywords Lignocellulosic fibers · Sustainability · Ecological · Ultrasonic energy · Microwave energy

1 Introduction
Environmental sustainability is now becoming a global trend, and large companies and municipalities are taking steps for creating a cleaner environment, thus; materials science has to draw a sustainable path as a result of increasing environmental concerns as of the end of the twentieth century. This roadmap is “green material, green chemistry” approaches to produce sustainable, renewable, and environmentally friendly materials.

Green chemistry has announced to the world under the name of 12 rules that chemical processes are based on processes that reduce and completely eliminate the use of harmful substances [1]. Other branches of the industry have begun to use the 12 rules adopted by green chemistry. With this approach, the US Department of Energy aims to obtain at least 10% of all chemicals by 2020, and at least 50% by 2050 of plant resources [2]. The society is confident in products with a “green conceptual design”, which leads to higher selection/consumption of products by customers. Plant-based natural fibers used in the production of green materials have been utilized quite a lot in all branches of the industry, especially in the production of green composites and textile garment production, and alternative fiber approaches to cotton has become a trend. The use of adjectives such as green, bio, renewable, and sustainable has increased with the increase of alternative natural materials. In fact, the concept of sustainability, which is a trend topic, has given the name green to all materials that match all the given tariff. Materials from renewable sources have been offering an incredible growth curve over the last two decades, and sustainable materials have become billions of dollars in the industry. Among the green materials, green composites are one of the fastest-growing branches. In the textile industry, water, energy, and time consumption are quite high. Alternative energy sources and new processes with different environmental approaches are being searched for sustainability. In the textile industry, 35–40 L of water is consumed in the factory to produce a T-shirt. In fact, from field to production, this T-shirt consumes 2700 L of water. This is called virtual water [3]. In some processes in the textile sector such as bleaching, fleece, rinsing, dyeing, and washing of final products, high volumes of water are used. In order to prevent this, ultrasonic energy, microwave energy method, plasma method, and ozone-free dyeing methods could be used as alternative environmental friendly methods.

It is clear that water will be more important than oil in the future. Increased global warming and depletion of usable water resources will lead to wars for water in the future. However, with increasing industrialization and growing population in Turkey, it is estimated that country may face water shortages by 2030. Sustainable use of existing water resources is very important. An important condition for sustainability of water is to maintain and manage the water resources in an efficient manner. Water footprint is a concept that has become popular recently. Water footprint is the most important element for sustainable water management. Water footprint consists of blue, green, and gray water. Blue water is the footprint of surface and groundwater.

Green water footprint is the amount of rain. The gray water footprint is the amount of contaminated freshwater. With the water footprints and green chemistry approach, time, energy, chemical, and water-saving processes will be inevitable to use in order to protect our future from an environmental hazard.

Studies are conducted to expand the area of lignocellulosic fibers usage in the industry. To make lignocellulosic fibers a suitable reinforcing material with adequate bonding characteristics for general use, various modification methods, including conventional, ultrasonic energy, and microwave energy treatment, are used to improve interfacial compatibility.

In this chapter, studies are carried out to improve the hydrophilic characteristic of lignocellulosic fibers by means of chemical processes. The studies are based on cleaning those impurities affecting the mechanical, chemical, and physical characteristics of the fibers.