Clariant earns Ecolabel status for denim solution
27/02/2012
The EU Ecolabel, also known as the EU Flower label, acknowledges that all stages in the production of a finished article have met the EU’s stringent environmental protocols.
Clariant developed its own denim prototype clothing collection, working with a textile mill and laundry, in order to demonstrate that achieving Ecolabel certification for denim is a practical reality with its Pad/Sizing-Ox dyeing technology. Problems associated with traditional denim fabric production have contributed towards making Ecolabel certification for denim difficult to attain, according to the Swiss company.
Advanced Denim technology has simplified the finishing and dyeing of a fabric that accounts for some 14% of global cotton production, it says.
In the conventional denim indigo dyeing process, the fabric passes through a line of 10 to 14 vats, depending on the equipment used. Clariant’s Denim-Ox process brings this sequence down to four, and its Pad/Sizing Ox reduces this further to just one vat. Both methods use the company’s Diresul RDT dyes, which generate a broader spectrum of shades than usually associated with conventional indigo dyes but without its environmental problems.
The new chemistry can eliminate the need to treat 8.3 million cubic-metres per year of wastewater, the company adds, and 220 million kWh of power could be saved, reducing the carbon footprint of the industry accordingly.
“We needed to show our partners in the denim production chain that our new process could fundamentally improve their own environmental credentials and their ability to promote and market them,” said Miguel Sánchez, head dyes in Clariant’s textile business unit, at the time of Ecolabel announcement.
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