Towards Sustainable Growth in the Textile Industry: A Case Study of Environmental Policy in China

Abstract

IntroductionAs the largest developing country and exporter of textile products in the world, China is simultaneously facing severe challenges relating to energy resources and environmental constraints, such as the inefficient use of resources, high energy consumption, and serious pollution. The textile industry is one of the most important parts of the national economy in terms of product quantity, the implied workforce, and the value of the exports. Meanwhile, energy consumption by the industry accounts for approximately 4.3% of the total consumption of China's manufacturing [1]. Against the background of increasingly scarce energy resources and the need for sustainable growth, China's textile industry Pol. J. Environ. Stud. Vol. 27, No. 5 (2018), 2325-2336 Original Research Towards Sustainable Growth in the Textile AbstractAs an energy-and carbon-intensive sector, the textile industry has been the subject of many environmental policies. It has been under rigid regulation to promote energy conservation and emissions reduction in China, and a few scholars have carried out longitudinal and comprehensive studies of environmental policies aimed at the industry. This paper tries to fill in this gap by systematically analyzing the major environmental policies in this industry in China -the world's largest exporter of textile products. For the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and reliability of this research, 118 textile environmental policies from 1989 to 2016 at the central government level have been studied by employing content analysis, including command and control instruments, market-based instruments, and voluntary instruments. The following conclusions were derived: 1) The textile environmental policy system is stabilizing in China, and water pollution is the key treatment objective. 2) Most policies regulate textile manufacturing, but environmental issues are not effectively regulated at the consumer stage. 3) The imbalanced structure of policy instruments reflects the government serving as the main driver of textile environmental protection, and efficiency and flexibility need to be improved to form an integrated textile environmental policy system.

The efficiency of devices intended to reduce microfibre release during clothes washing

“…The number of microfibres entering into the marine environment from WWTP is likely to be substantial. Additionally, there are other sources of microfibres into the environment such as tumble drying (Pirc et al, 2016), the wearing of clothes (De Falco et al, 2020) and industrial emissions (Xu et al, 2018). As a consequence, microfibres are now found in aquatic habitats and organisms on a global scale (Avio et al, 2020;Nelms et al, 2019;Obbard et al, 2014;Saturno et al, 2020).…”

Custom-made apparel manufacturing micro-enterprise owners’ perspectives on sustainability: how higher education can contribute

“…Although sustainability was considered as a long-term and enduring concept within a business context, it did not connect to a pro-environmental approach reflecting a consciousness towards the environmental impact of apparel manufacturing. As the clothing industry makes a substantial contribution to environmental degradation IJSHE 22,7 (Xu et al, 2018), environmental sustainability should perhaps be incorporated in their understanding of sustainability.…”

“…Unsustainable overconsumption of clothing has been caused by rapid fashion production systems, accompanied by the fast turnaround of prevailing trends offered at very low prices to the average consumer (Siegle, 2017). The clothing and textile industries are known as one of the most intensive energy- and carbon-polluting industries worldwide (Xu et al , 2018), leading to environmental degradation and contamination of water supplies through toxic chemicals and non-degradable waste being generated through the discarding of clothing items (Ruppert-Stroescu et al , 2017). The impact of this industry is significant, generating US$2.5tn in 2018 (UN (United Nations) Climate Change News, 2018), resulting in an extensive environmental footprint.…”

Estimating the environmental and economic impacts of widespread adoption of potential technology solutions to reduce water use and pollution: Application to China's textile industry

“…Oita et al (2016), Yang et al (2016) and Zhang et al (2013) report that textile exports from China are a substantial cause of water pollution in China. Xu et al (2018) provide an overview of a wide range of textile environmental policies that have been implemented in China, and conclude that water pollution has been the main target so far. processes such as pretreatment, dyeing/printing, and finishing, water is the principal medium for applying chemicals (e.g., dyes, acids, surfactants, enzymes, stabilizers, salts, fixing and complex agents) that impart the desired properties to the textile product.…”