Textile industry is one of the largest water-consuming industries in the world, and its wastewater contains many pollutants such as dyes, degradable organics, detergents, stabilizing agents, desizers, inorganic salts, and heavy metals. In India, most of the textile industries discharge untreated wastewater into water bodies without any treatment, which percolates into the groundwater posing a threat to the health and socioeconomic life of the people.
The textile production makes use of several thousand different substances, ranging from solvents to resins and from caustic soda to bleach. The applied processes can differ significantly from factory to factory.
To save costs and reduce the capacity needed, comprehensive water audits are usually performed which also ensure that the system deals only with the most polluting streams. Installing zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technology is therefore often beneficial for the plant’s water management; encouraging close monitoring of water usage, avoiding wastage and promotes recycling by conventional and far less expensive solutions.
With this in view, the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme has announced the release of the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines Version 1.1. Initially released in November 2016, the Wastewater Guidelines define a single, unified standard for wastewater testing that goes beyond regulatory compliance and conventional wastewater testing parameters. They are the first guidelines to define wastewater requirements for hazardous chemicals covered in the ZDHC MRSL (ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List).
