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Polyester Leisure Suit
It is not always easy to see polyes-
ter for what it really is: a plastic. Dye-
ing this plastic is complicated, requir-
ing lots of water, heat, pressure and
special dyes to change it into a wide
spectrum of familiar outdoor products.
Its transformation into a textile uses
220 to 440 pounds of water (100 to
200 kilograms) for every pound or ki-
logram manufactured.
To speed the dyeing process to
three or four hours, heat of more than
212 F (100 C) plus tank, jet or roller
pressure is added. Disperse dyes
(chemically enhanced pigment) have
been formulated to dye polyester
and, for various reasons, 8 percent
to 20 percent of the dye is not affixed
to the textile. This amounts to an es-
timated loss of more than 200 tons
of dye annually, most going into local
water supplies
(Ogugbue, CJ. et. al.
in “Bioremediation and Detoxification
of Synthetic Wastewater Containing
Triarylmethane Dyes by Aeromonas
hydrophila Isolated from Industrial
Effluent,” 2011)
.
Since dyes are designed to resist
degradation by “light, temperature,
water, detergents, chemicals, soap and
other parameters such as bleach and
perspiration,” wastewater treatment
plants are not able to adequately treat
factory effluent
(Chequer, Farah Maria
Drumond, et. al. “Chapter 6: Textile
Dyes: Dyeing Process and Environmen-
tal Impact.” Eco-Friendly Textile Dyeing
and Finishing. Ed. Melih Günay. InTech.
2013. 151-176)
. As a result, the local
water supply is not only diminished
by the textile factory’s response to the
growing demand for polyester, water
that does get returned to the community
is damaged goods.
Finally, disperse dyes have their
own set of problems. DNA mutations
has been noted in various studies as
well as allergic contact dermatitis,
eye irritation and chronic toxicity.
Since dyes are designed to resist
degradation by “light, temperature,
water, detergents, chemicals, soap
and other parameters such as bleach
and perspiration,” wastewater treatment
plants are not able to adequately
treat factory effluent.
photo by Zach Doleac
SUMMER
2017
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Inside
Outdoor
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