Arvind Mills commits itself to continually improve our environmental management.
It strives to go beyond the requirements of the applicable environmental laws &
other regulations through:
Optimizing usage of cotton, energy, chemicals & water.
Adopting preventive strategies to reduce the generation of effluents, waste &
air emissions.
Maximizing the recycling of inevitable wastes.
Encouraging suppliers & buyers to become environmentally responsible.
Maintaining a safe working environment.
Increasing the green cover.
Training employees on environmental issues.
Water Treatment at Arvind Mill:
Arvind Limited at the main site at Naroda also possess chemical, biological treatment facilities to treat 10000 m3/day of effluents to meet the pollution control board norms.
Usually, 70-80% of fixation is practicable and the rest i.e. 20% of the dye used comes out in the effluent generated due to washing.
Effluent generated from the dye house has high concentration of pollutant as compared to other processes in the textile processing unit.
It also contains high amount of inorganic salts like sodium sulphate or sodium chloride which is used for dye fixing and acts as an electrolyte.
Effluents due to Mercerization
Mercerization imparts shining characteristic to the fabric.
Washing after mercerization generates typical effluent containing caustic solution and other impurities.
Bleaching is done by peroxide method.
Treatment:
The treatment processes at the water treatment plant at Arvind is divided into three parts:
i) Main treatment facility,
ii) Pre-treatment (prior to reverse osmosis) iii) Reverse osmosis.
Main treatment facility:
Effluent in the form of generated from the sizing & de-sizing, bleaching & sections are subjected to processes, both physical and chemical
Effluent is collected in an equalization tank.
After pH adjustment there is addition of poly electrolytes
Then the effluent is sent to the clarifier for sedimentation.
Effluent from the dying unit is collected separately in an equalization tank where:
PH is adjusted and a chemical is added in acidic medium (pH 5.5) to decolorize the effluent. The unit uses a chemical Micro Plus which is claimed to act as a color removal agent.
This effluent is then mixed with the entire effluent from the mercerized, sizing & humidification sections.
These effluents are then fed into biological system comprising of degradation of organic components by microorganisms
Then it is sent to sedimentation in clarifier and to the aeration unit.
In the aeration unit it is kept for a time of approximately 16 hours DO level is maintained at 2.5 to 3.0.
Pre-treatment facility:
Pretreatment or primary treatment facilities are adopted before the effluent is subjected to reverse osmosis. This stage comprises of two unit operations in succession turbo circulator followed by pressure sand filter. Turbo circulator is basically a flash mixer.
After main treatment facility, poly aluminum chloride, poly electrolyte are added in the effluent and are passed to turbo-circulator and then to the sand filter before being subjected to reverse osmosis. The unit has intermediate storage tank of capacity 2400 cubic meter for storage of the treated effluent.
Reverse Osmosis:
After pre-treatment the effluent is sent to the reverse osmosis plant. Reverse osmosis is just the reverse process of osmosis. Osmosis as we know, is a natural process and is the tendency of two liquids of different concentrations separated by a semi permeable membrane, to move from low to high concentrations for chemical potential equilibrium. But in reverse osmosis, when high pressure is applied, liquid moves from high concentration to lower concentration. Reverse (RO) is a method that removes many types of large and from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective . The result is that the is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and the pure is allowed to pass to the other side.
Reject of the reverse osmosis plant is fed into the desalination plant (thermal).
Backwash of the sand filter is fed into the main treatment facility.
Total cost of treating the effluent for the said unit is approximately Rs. 4.5/ cu.m.
of effluent including RO plant cost.
Air pollution Control:
Arvind Limited has switched from liquid fuel to Natural gas for all their heating&
steam requirements in order to avoid the air pollution.
Solid Waste Management
All the units believe in waste minimization measures. The plant is provided with adequate sludge Dewatering facilities with decanter centrifuges. De-watered sludge is dried in solar evaporation pans for further volume reduction. Waste oil generated in all the units is recycled. Polythene liners, discarded containers are disposed-off to the respective buyers.
Accreditions
ISO 9001:2000 by BVQI (India) Pvt. Ltd., Gandhinagar-India, for Manufacture and Supply of Denim Fabrics.
The ISO 9000 family of standards is related to quality management systems and designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements related to the product.
The ISO 9001:2000 version sought to make a radical change in thinking by actually placing the concept of process management front and center ("Process management"
was the monitoring and optimization of a company's tasks and activities, instead of just inspection of the final product).
IS0 14000:
Provides environment management standards to help organizations minimize their negative impact on the environment
Environment Management System (EMS) mandatory Certification carried out by third party
Focuses on process as in case of ISO 9000
Oeko-Tex Standard 100 by Shirley Technologies Ltd., UK, for Black and Indigo dyed denim fabrics, black / indigo printed denim fabric –including stretch denims.
The Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 is a globally uniform testing and certification system for textile raw materials, intermediate and end products at all stages of production.
The tests for harmful substances comprise substances which are prohibited or regulated by law, chemicals which are known to be harmful to health, and parameters which are included as a precautionary measure to safeguard health.
“Skal International Standards for Sustainable Textile Production” by Control Union Certifications, The Netherlands, for Processing of organic cotton.
“Global Organic Textile Standards”, Control Union Certifications, The Netherlands, for Processing of fibres from certified organic agriculture.
Levi’s strauss: Laboratory Certification by Levi Strauss & Co., Test Methods and conditions set forth, Denim Laboratory, The Arvind Mills Ltd.
ISO-17025 NABL – National Accreditation Board for Laboratories, Delhi, India, for Chemical & Mechanical disciplines of testing.
Premier Accreditation Scheme by Marks & Spencer, Test Methods and conditions set forth, Laboratory, Shirting Division Business, The Arvind Mills Ltd.
Liz Claiborne Int’l Ltd., Testing audit performance, Laboratory, Shirting Business Division, The Arvind Mills Ltd.
Labs certified by duPont
References
Fabric science – Glock and Kunj
Fabric Finishing – J T Marsh
Textile Science - B P Corbman
Textile Science – Tortora
WEB-REFERENCES
www.arvindmills.com
www.garmento.org
www.denimology.com
www.cottoninc.com