ZDHC publishes Wastewater Treatment Technologies Document

ZDHC publishes Wastewater Treatment Technologies Document for the Apparel, Textile and Footwear Industry

06/27/2018

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Today, the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme publishes the ZDHC Wastewater Treatment Technologies document that can be used as guidance to improve the quality of wastewater discharge in the apparel, textile and footwear industry.

The apparel, textile and footwear industry uses huge amounts of water in production processes, after which the water is often discharged in a way that harms the environment and surrounding communities. Especially in China, South and Southeast Asia and other production countries around the world, this has become a huge problem over the last few years.

To improve wastewater management in the industry, ZDHC released the first ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines for the apparel, textile and footwear industry in 2016. These Guidelines set unified expectations on wastewater quality.

“When we released the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines, we took the first step for the industry to treat wastewater in a harmonised way. The Guidelines present a aligned set of parameters, limit values and test methods to ensure brands and suppliers are working to the same set of expectations,” says Frank Michel, ZDHC Executive Director.

“Now we are excited to publish the ZDHC Wastewater Treatment Technologies Document for the Apparel, Textile and Footwear Industry to support the supply chain in implementing the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines and help improve the quality of wastewater discharge. We would like to thank Mohan Seneviratne, who wrote and gifted us with this great document.”

Wastewater treatment is a complex process, and ZDHC hopes that in combination with regional training programmes and other relevant references, this technical overview of wastewater treatment technologies will help the supply chain to close the knowledge gap. It is also intended to motivate wet processing facilities and elevate their knowledge to implement the necessary treatment systems in order to meet the requirements of the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines.

For now, the document is currently only available in English.

Download the ZDHC Wastewater Treatment Technologies Document here.

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