Editing Textile (section)

=== Environmental impacts ===
Clothing is necessary to meet the fundamental needs of humans. Increased population and living standards have increased the need for clothing, enhancing the demand for textile manufacturing; wet processing needs more water consumption.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muthu |first=Subramanian Senthilkannan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pvx7DwAAQBAJ&q=water+in+textile+and+fashion |title=Water in Textiles and Fashion: Consumption, Footprint, and Life Cycle Assessment |date=26 November 2018 |publisher=Woodhead Publishing |isbn=978-0-08-102654-0 |language=en |access-date=2023-01-07 |archive-date=2023-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405094439/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pvx7DwAAQBAJ&q=water+in+textile+and+fashion |url-status=live }}</ref> Conventional machinery and treatment procedures use enormous quantities of water, especially for natural fibers, which require up to 150&nbsp;kg of water per kg of material.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=van der Walt |first1=G. H. J. |last2=van Rensburg |first2=N. J. J. |title=Low-Liquor Dyeing and Finishing |journal=Textile Progress |date=March 1986 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=1–50 |doi=10.1080/00405168608688900 }}</ref>
The textile sector is accountable for a substantial number of environmental impacts. However, the discharge of untreated effluents into water bodies is responsible for the majority of environmental harm produced by the textile sector.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1201/9781315148588 |title=Pollution Control in Textile Industry |date=2017 |last1=Bhatia |first1=S.C. |isbn=978-1-351-37306-7 |editor-first1=Sarvesh |editor-last1=Devraj }}{{pn|date=January 2025}}</ref>

The textile sector is believed to use 79&nbsp;trillion litres of water per year and to discharge around 20% of all industrial effluent into the environment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhu |first1=Lisha |last2=Chen |first2=Bilin |last3=Liu |first3=Junran |last4=Chen |first4=Shuang |last5=Zhang |first5=Ying |last6=Wang |first6=Xiaopeng |last7=Wang |first7=Laili |date=19 October 2022 |title=Assessing baseline water footprints of natural fiber textile products in China |journal=Journal of Cleaner Production |volume=379 |language=en |pages=134747 |doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134747 |bibcode=2022JCPro.37934747Z }}</ref> Reportedly, [[Aromatic compound|aromatic]] and [[heterocyclic compound]]s with color-display and polar groups make up most of the dyes used in textile coloration processes. The structure is more complex and stable, making it more difficult to degrade printing and dyeing wastewater.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Körlü |first1=Ayşegül |title=Textile Industry and Environment |date=2019 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-1-83880-027-7 }}{{self-published inline|date=January 2025}}{{pn|date=January 2025}}</ref>

In addition, textiles constitute a significant percentage of landfill waste. In 2023, [[North Carolina State University]] researchers used [[enzymes]] to separate cotton from polyester in an early step towards reducing textile waste, allowing each material to be recycled.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Oleniacz |first1=Laura |title=Researchers Separate Cotton From Polyester in Blended Fabric |date=20 March 2023 |url=https://news.ncsu.edu/2023/03/researchers-separate-cotton-from-polyester-in-blended-fabric/ |publisher=North Carolina State University |access-date=12 April 2023 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412014949/https://news.ncsu.edu/2023/03/researchers-separate-cotton-from-polyester-in-blended-fabric/ |url-status=live }}</ref>