Environmental Auditing and Pollution Prevention Measures in the Textile Wet Industry in Alexandria | ||
| Journal of High Institute of Public Health | ||
| Article 8, Volume 36, Issue 3, July 2006, Pages 757-780 | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jhiph.2006.156649 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Manal A. Mohammed1; Hoda A. Mousa2 | ||
| 1High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Egypt | ||
| 2Egyptian Environmental Affair Agency, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The textile industry uses vast amount of water, energy, and chemicals. So, the objective of this industry is to audit and investigate some pollution prevention measures on five textile companies at Alexandria to save money and protect the environment. The audits were conducted at Nasr Kabo Clothing & Textile, Stia for Cotton Clothes, United & Arab for Spinning & Weaving, National for Spinning & Weaving, and Al-Amria for Spinning & Weaving. Each company was visited several times. Information about the operations, water consumption, energy, and chemicals were obtained by interviewing responsible personnel. Information about wastewater characteristics, water treatment, and disposal records were obtained from the plant’s environmental records. Wastewater samples taken from some operation units and final effluent of each plant were analyzed for COD, BOD, TSS, pH, temp, and total heavy metals. The final effluent was compared with the environmental law that controls its discharge onto receiving body. The collection and analyzed data were used to propose environmental management to achieve positive economical and environmental impact. From the results, it is evident that Al-Amria and Unirab effluents were not complying with the environmental law 48/82 with respect to TSS, O&G, COD, and BOD. Kabo and Stia effluents were not complying with the environmental law 93/62 [decree 44/2000] with respect to COD and TDS. Only National Company effluent was complying with the decree 44/2000 due to canceling of dyeing department from this company. Since most unit operations in the textile industry were conduct with the same sequences, application of pollution prevention measures in the cotton industries was considered similar. The results revealed that recovery of the bleaching liquor will save LE 153,000 per year. The saving will be increased to LE 336,000 per year by implementing of counter-current flow water between bleach washers stages due to reduction in water and energy consumption. Using of color matching computer will save L.E. 172000 per year. The benefits gained from implementation of waste minimization are environmental improvement, cost saving due to increase in operating efficiency, and risk reduction on the environment. So, it is recommended to implement water conservation to minimize waste, apply counter current flow between washer’s stages after processing, substitute chemicals of high BOD to low BOD one, recover of chemicals, and use a color matching computer in the dye house. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Textile industry; environmental auditing; sources of wastes; pollution prevention measures | ||
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