Current location: JICS Archive > Vol. 3 > No. 4 > Articles : 8

Eco-efficiency Analysis of Textile Coating Materials

S.M. Bidoki^a,*, R. Wittlinger^b, A.A. Alamdar^a and J. Burger^b

^aTextile Department, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
^bBASF Aktiengesellschaft, D-67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany

Eco-efficiency is critical for organisations that seek to be both environmentally conscious and profitable. It helps to "produce more out of less" to avoid wasting natural resources and to reduce emissions and damage to the environment. The textile coating and laminating industry, utilising solvent or water-based polymeric mixtures, is one of the industries coming under extreme environmental pressure to replace traditional procedures and use eco-efficient coating agents. In this study, eco-efficiency analysis was used to compare the eco-effectiveness of two different coating agents, polyacrylate and polyurethane, each in organic solution as well as aqueous dispersion forms. The "ecological fingerprint" and eco-efficiency portfolio were graphically illustrated for these coating agents based on the customer benefit, defined as coating one square meter of a textile fabric in a conventional laminating unit. According to the analysis results, polyacrylate dispersion in water was the most eco-efficient coating agent whilst polyurethane resin dissolved in organic solvent was found as the coating agent with the least acceptability as an eco-efficient product.

Keywords: Eco-efficiency analysis, Cradle to grave analysis, Life cycle assessment, Textile coating, Polyacrylate resins, Polyurethane resins