Sustainability and recycling are the most important agenda items of textile manufacturers in the world. Brands that do not make clean production in the next 10 years, the European Union (EU), especially the world countries will not be able to sell goods. Considering these developments, DSO (the Chamber of Marine Industry) and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) launched the 'Clean Production in Textile' project in 2017. The project, which aims to enable the textile manufacturers operating in Big Menderes Basin to adopt environmentally sensitive production processes, has invested 6.5 million Euros in two years and reduced water consumption by 2 million cubic meters.
The Purpose is ZERO Waste Production
Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of DSO Selim Kasapoğlu was invited to the “International Water Week” event held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At the workshop, Kasapoğlu explained the modern production methods of Turkish textile manufacturers and said, “This workshop was attended by officials from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which allocated € 160 million to clean production. Our goal in the future to make zero waste production. These negotiations in the Netherlands were a good opportunity to bring low interest and long term financial instruments to Denizli and our country.”
2 Million Cubic Meters Water Saving
Within the scope of 'Clean Production in Textile' project, home textile, ready-to-wear clothing and fabric manufacturers from Denizli invested 6.5 million Euros. They started to use less energy consuming machinery in production and turned to renewable energy sources. In the dyeing processes, 10 liters were used for 1 kg of fabric, while new processes decreased to 1 to 3 liters. In the first stage, 17 textile manufacturers participated in the project in which 7 companies participated and 2 million cubic meters of water were saved.
25 Billion Dollars Exports per Year
The world's sixth and Europe's third largest garment manufacturer Turkey’s textile and apparel export costs $ 26 billion a year. Denizli is one of the important cities in textile and ready-to-wear garments with its $ 1.5 billion export. Kasapoğlu stated that companies that do not make clean production within 10 years cannot sell goods to the world and said, “Zara has created a special corner for the creations produced in sustainable fabrics in many stores. And H&M also made the same things. Consumers also prefer such products. We must focus on sustainable production in order to continue to be the supplier of world brands.”
