ISBN-13: 978 1 85573 541
5
June 2003
240 pages 234 x
156mm hardback
K Slater, University of Guelph, Canada
Woodhead Textiles Series No. 27
Environmental impact of textiles
examines what effects all phases of textile production and use have on the
environment, from growing or making fibres to discarding a product after its
useful life has ended. It looks at the physical environment affected by these
processes, including resource depletion, pollution and energy use; the
biological environment, by considering what happens as a result of manufacture,
and the social environment as it impinges on our psychological, physical and
physiological comfort, as well as our financial well-being.
It pulls
together a wide range of examples drawn from a diverse collection of sources and
integrates them to form a new and coherent set of ideas. This comprehensive
approach has not been undertaken before and has never previously been associated
with textile production and use.
In addition to its analysis of the
environmental impact of textile manufacturing activity, the book also considers
the degradation suffered by textile materials within the environment whether by
air pollution, wind, water and other agents.
Environmental impact of
textiles provides a complete survey of how developments in the textile
industry and consumers of its products have affected the environement in the
past. The book also covers the most recent solutions adopted by the industry in
the hope that some alleviation of the problems can be achieved without
sacrificing high textile production targets and the ways in which the industry
is responding to the environmental challenge. It will be an essential reference
for anyone involved and concerned with its future environmental footprint.
Published in association with The Textile
Institute