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DHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Zaber and Zubair Fabrics Ltd, a supplier of home textiles to major European retailers H&M and Lidl, is one of a growing band of Bangladeshi garment factories on a mission to clean up their act - and improve their bottom lines by going greener.
The business on the outskirts of Dhaka previously used large amounts of sulphuric acid to remove excess caustic, a chemical that strengthens fabric, from its waste water.
But in 2010, the factory installed two plants that recover from the water 95% of the caustic used to rinse the fabrics made into goods like sheets and pillow covers, saving 6.5 million litres of caustic soda annually as well as sulphuric acid.
The waste heat recovery system offers textile industries an economic and green solution to save valuable energy.
The system extracts and reuses waste energy from industrial processes instead of dissipating it into the environment, according to the Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT), a programme led by International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Launched in 2013, the PaCT focuses on reducing the environmental impact and resource consumption of Bangladesh s textile sector.
The PaCT said more than 338 factories are using the waste heat recovery systems and gas consumption has annually reduced by 1.26 per cent to 12,74,983 cubic metres from 12,91,122 cubic metres.
Industry operators said the recovered heat can be used for onsite power and steam generation and preheat combustion air.
Low-cost, cleaner production processes paying off
IFC-led initiative helped garment factories cut water, energy use
Bangladesh s textile and garment factories have significantly cut water and energy consumption by adopting low-cost and cleaner production processes and installing new technologies under a programme initiated by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Some 338 washing, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and garment factories are saving 28.7 billion litres of water a year by adopting the solutions of the Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT), a flagship programme of the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group.
Similarly, the factories are saving 2.9 million megawatt-hours (MGh) of electricity annually and avoiding 558,391 tonnes of carbon emission, according to data from the PaCT.