Cleaner Production Practices Help Saving for Textile Units
Cleaner production (CP) practices have helped a dozen of textile processing units of garment companies save money and become more competitive. These 12 factories invested $212,700 on cleaner production technologies, and saved $570,400 or 268 percent in the first year of adoption.“The return on investments may go up to 550 percent in three years,” according to a report of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the benefits of the cleaner production practices.
The SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF), which is managed by the IFC, has provided technical assistance to these factories to implement the CP concept. The CP system applies improved technologies that help factories reduce waste generation and carbon emission and consumption of raw materials, energy and water. Consequently, the costs are reduced substantially.“We used to require 75 litres of water for processing every kilogram of fabrics, which has come down to 65 litres now due to the CP practices,” said MA Jabbar, managing director of DBL Group that has introduced the concept since the beginning of 2011. During January-September of 2011, the company produced 14 percent more fabrics than the same period a year ago, but consumed gas, electricity and water less by 18 percent, 13 percent and 13 percent respectively.
“Financial savings were nearly $200,000 (Tk 1.5 crore) in nine months from gas and electricity only. The amount will be higher by around three times if savings of water, steam and compressed air are taken into account,” said Jabbar. Before the adoption of the CP concept, the company did not know how much carbon dioxide (CO2) its factories used to emit. Even the company had no clear idea of its energy use. Not only DBL Group, 11 other apparel makers -- ABA Group, Comptex Bangladesh, Cosmopolitan Industries, Fakir Knitwear, Interstoff Apparels, Knit Concern, Liberty Knitwear, Multifabs, SF Fashion, Tarasima Apparels and Utah Knitting & Dyeing -- have taken up the CP practices for their textile processing units. “We have invested Tk 1.44 crore for the CP technology, which is helping us save Tk 11 lakh a month,” said Kamruzzaman Khan, director (merchandise) of Knit Concern.
Khan stressed competitiveness, as a difference between prices by only one cent also matters a lot to buyers. The IFC report said the 12 factories saved a total of 1.33 gigawatt-hour of electricity, about 6,200 million cubic metres of gas, 75,000 million cubic metres of water and 11.67 million tonnes of CO2 as a result of the CP practices. Apparel industry has been the main export sector and a major source of foreign exchange for Bangladesh since mid 1980s. The country earned $23 billion from exports in fiscal 2010-11, of which nearly 80 percent were from the apparel sector. But the textile processing industries are very water intensive by nature. Energy is another important resource used. Also, the factories -- woven, knitwear and denim -- discharge a huge quantity of pollutants.
According to the IFC report, 1,700 washing, dyeing and finishing factories are discharging 5.6 crore tonnes of toxic water every year affecting 60 lakh people. The report said, if improvements are not made, buyers may opt for imported fabrics, which would reduce value addition, foreign currency earnings and increase lead time and costs. A senior IFC official said cleaner production is urgent for Bangladeshi factories to remain competitive as it helps cut costs and attract buyers who emphasise environment-friendly production. “It was not so easy to introduce the concept as there was no case study available for guidance and steerage purposes. However, buyers' engagement has helped us to introduce the CP practices,” said Mrinal Sircar, programme manager, advisory services in South Asia of the SEDF. Encouraged by the outcome of the 12 factories, the SEDF has now partnered with another six units to help them adopt the CP practices by this year.
From Internet
17 April, 2012
