Textile industry emits large quantities of pollutants in form of liquid discharge, solid wastes and air pollutants to the environment. The industry has been always regarded as a water-intensive sector, consequently the main environmental concern is the amount of water discharged and the chemical load it carries. Other important issues are energy consumption and air emissions (IPPC 2001). The industry requires a great amount of chemicals as many as 2,000 different chemicals from dyes to transfer agents. These chemicals are used at various steps of the process with large amounts of water to convey them and to wash them out before beginning the next step. The water becomes full of chemical additives and is then expelled as wastewater which in turn pollutes the environment (HSRC 2006). Textile mills discharge millions of gallons of effluent each year. The effluent contains natural impurities extracted from the fibers and a mixture of process chemicals such as organic compounds, dissolved inorganic salts, dyes and heavy metals. It is also often of a high temperature and pH because it’s saturated with dyes, bleaches, detergents, optical brighteners, equalizers and many other chemicals used during the process. In general, the effluent is highly-coloured, high in BOD and COD, has a high conductivity and is alkaline in nature. This effluent represents a threat to the aquatic life if it is not properly treated before disposal (Lawrence 1996, HSRC 2006 and Badani et al. 2005).
Chemicals that evaporate into the air became air pollutants. Some of them may be breathed or absorbed through the skin. Others are carcinogenic, they may cause harm to children or may trigger allergic reactions in some people. These air pollutants can fall out to become surface water or groundwater pollutants and water pollutants can infiltrate into the ground or volatilize into the air (Woodard 2001, HSRC 2006, Lo et al., 2012).
Hazardous solid wastes from the industry and disposed in the ground can influence the quality of groundwater and surface waters by way of leachate entering the groundwater and traveling with it through the ground (Lo et al. 2012 and Woodard 2001). Waste treatment processes can also transfer substances from one of the three waste categories to one or both of the others. Waste treatment or disposal systems themselves can directly impact the quality of air, water or ground. The total spectrum of industrial wastes must be managed as substances resulting from a system of interrelated activities (Woodard 2001).
The environmental concerns with the waste resulting from the textile industry have been increasing (Briga-Sá et al. 2013). Yacout et al (2016) recommended the development of ecofriendly technologies for minimize the negative impacts of this industry. Several studies were conducted in order to determine the environmental impacts of the industry and reduce its negative impacts. Ren (2000) developed environmental performance indicators for textile process and product. Pollution prevention and waste minimization techniques in the textile industry were illustrated by Lawrence (1996) and Barclay & Buckley (2000). Briga-Sá et al. (2013) investigated the potential of reusing textile wastes. They illustrated that in the European Union, around 5.8 million tons of textiles are discarded by the consumers per year. Only 1.5 million tons (25%) of these textiles are recycled by charities and industrial enterprises. The remaining 4.3 million tons goes to landfill or to municipal waste incinerators. Additionally there is also the textile waste from the textile industry. This shows that there is an enormous source of secondary raw material that is not used, but can be re-injected into the market.
Environmental management systems (EMS) are implemented in order to reduce redundant production procedures, packaging, raw materials needed, energy and water consumption and toxics release to the environment. EMS adopted by firms are required to monitor waste and pollution levels, they should take corrective actions when needed. Accordingly, effective implementation of environmental management systems should enhance the utilization of fabrics, water and energy in textiles firms. EMS adoption improvements leads to cost reduction, quality improvement and waste reduction (Vandevivere et al. 1998, ECE 2003 and Melnyk et al. 2003). Brito et al. (2008) and Lo et al. (2012) studied the impact of environmental management systems in textiles industries and stated that the dyeing process in textiles processing could produce huge amount of toxic emissions that would lead to fines and high restoration costs. Therefore, managing the environmental impacts of their production processes is particularly important to textiles related firms. In spite of that, the environmental issue in the textiles industry has received only little attention from both academics and practitioners. Most environmental researches are technology-oriented. Furthermore, the production of textiles and related products often requires high levels of energy and water consumption, and emits large quantities of pollutants to the environment.