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The Origins of Green Chemistry for Textiles

By: Mike Quante

Part 1: Green Chemistry for Textiles

After the dawn of public environmental awareness at the first
 in 1970, chemical-dependent industries struggled to remediate toxic waste disposal sites, conform to ever-increasing national and international regulations, and adapt to the demands of a public wanting both ecologically-safe and affordable products. For more than 20 years after that first Earth Day, these industries remained mostly reactive in its responses to these challenges and resistive to further change, as they feared decreasing profit margins and sales as a result.

The 1990s, however, birthed a movement by government, industry leaders, trade and professional associations, and academicians to become proactive in adopting new technologies and systems to eliminate waste—improving the bottom line for companies—as well as to create safer chemical products and product use. Thus, the age of Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌý came into being. Sustainability and green chemistry are  however; the former being a longer-term, resource-oriented concept and the latter focused on chemical processes that lead to intermediates and products that are safe (or safer) from a human and ecological health perspective. Even so, green chemistry is often referred to as sustainable chemistry.

This year marks the 25^th year since the  created the Green Chemistry Program.

There are many resources on the web to learn about the  and its impact on chemical-based manufacturing. The US Congress took the first major step in 1990 with the  or P2, which was adopted by the US EPA to encourage pollution reduction at the source through innovation. This initiative became the  in 1996. The co-founders of the Challenge, John Warner and Paul Anastas, published  in 1998, which defined what is known as the .Ìý has pioneered green chemistry studies in US centers of higher learning.

The European Union (EU) has also been active in promoting green chemistry along with chemical regulatory measures such as .Ìý is one organization making the effort to bring stakeholders together to help shape policy and encourage innovation in green chemistry. They partner with EU institutions and support EU-funded research to this end, and look forward to the increased funding  will provide to enhance EU-based economic growth through technological advancement. Academic programs, such as those offered by , are helping to bring awareness and newly-trained professionals into the field.

Since this ambitious start, green chemistry has begun to find its way into manufacturing practices in all chemical-based industries, including the textile industry. In Part 2 of this series, we will explore the sources of green chemistry information available to the public.

Opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and not necessarily those of AATCC.