Green Care for Textiles

Textiles often need to be washed during use. Common washing uses “water washing”, which is an ordinary water washing method using water as a solvent and adding a chemical detergent such as soap and washing powder. The substances that play an important role in the washing process here are the various types of detergents added, neutral and slightly alkaline detergents, and phosphorus and non-phosphorus detergents. Since the discharge of phosphorus-containing detergent into the environment will cause eutrophication of water bodies such as rivers and lakes, resulting in the death of aquatic organisms in the water body, it is necessary to choose non-phosphorus environmentally-friendly detergents when washing.

In addition, in order to improve the feel of textiles and clothing, it is sometimes necessary to add softeners and the like. However, it must be noted that most of the softeners are cationic surfactants, and have inherent toxicity and poor biodegradability. At the same time, chlorine bleach should be used as little as possible when washing clothes. On the one hand, it is easy to cause damage to the fabric, and on the other hand, it causes pollution to the water body.

Because ordinary washing methods can cause problems such as shrinkage, discoloration, wrinkling, stiffening, and deformation of some fabrics or garments, “dry-cleaning” is also a common care method for high-grade textiles, leather products, etc., but the main solvents for dry cleaning are Tetrachloroethylene, Freon, petroleum (hydrocarbons, solvents, etc.) Tetrachloroethylene and Freon are the main chemicals that cause ozone damage and greenhouse effect; and washing clothes often leave residual tetrachloroethylene causing irritation to human skin, resulting in clothing. The symptoms of skin allergies, itching, etc., and the absorption of the main component "Chlorine" through the skin and into the body's circulation may also lead to liver disease. According to the World Environment Organization "Montreal Convention Protocol", developing countries will stop using fluorine in 2006 and The open four-gas ethylene.Petroleum (carbon and hydrogen) solvent washing After nearly four decades of technological transformation, the solvent's safety performance, molecular structure stability (volatile) problems have been largely solved, and are becoming Alternatives to tetrachloroethylene.

The international fabric washing industry has also tried liquid carbon dioxide dry cleaning, ultrasonic dry cleaning, and other technologies that have been used only in high-tech fields such as military and aerospace. However, the conversion and docking of such technologies to civilian use still needs time.

In addition, for fur textiles and clothing, it is usually necessary to place some anti-mildew and anti-caries preparations on storage. At present, there are many non-environmental products on the festival and field sites, and they should be used with caution and be used as ecological textiles according to the requirements. Therefore, the development and selection of some natural anti-mold and anti-caries preparations will be the future direction.