Sustainable chemistry: A solution to the textile industry in a developing world

With exponential increase in global population and innovations in chemistry during the past century, chemical production has grown enormously. The textile production, which started in the West, gradually moved to low cost developing countries. Inadequate legislation and control in these countries has led to the pollution of the natural water bodies there. The textile industry uses over 8000 chemicals in its supply chain and today faces the challenging demand to move towards cleaner production. NGOs have challenged the industry to achieve the goal of Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals across all pathways by 2020. The industry has taken strong initiatives to address this challenge. In the long term, sustainable chemistry will be the only solution and innovation is the key.