The Textiles Industry comprising spinning, weaving, knitting and finishing of fabrics had a total of 889 manufacturing establishments as of September 2006, which is one of the Hong Kong's major export earners.

The bleaching and dyeing sub-sector faces significant compliance problems with environmental legislation. This is mainly due to:

• Large volumes of effluent to be treated.
• The space and loading constraints imposed by the location of many firms in multi-storey industrial buildings.
  

In general, the values of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) vary depending on the unit processes and types of dye materials or chemicals used.

The environmental characteristics of printing sector include:

• Wastewater generation which arises from washing of the printing blanket and sourcing of the printed fabric.
• Small quantities of chemical waste may be generated where silk screening is used, from the solvents used for cleaning the screens.
• Emissions of VOC originate from solvent-based processes in the form of fugitive emissions during application of print paste to the fabric and process emissions when the solvents are driven off in the drying step.
  

The Garments Industry is a major manufacturing sector of Hong Kong. It is the second largest manufacturing sector with 1,649 establishments as of June 2006.

The Garments Industry is not generally a heavy water user. Typically, water only used for the final washing of the finished garments. This is not considered a major polluting sub-sector.

(Source: Hong Kong Trade Development Council & Trade and Industry Department)

Challenges for SMEs

Owing to regulatory requirements which are becoming more stringent, Textile & Garment Industry will suffer from the environmental pressure if they could not find cost-effective ways to tackle their environmental problems.

However, SME manufacturers face a number of barriers during the course of looking for self-improvement and becoming a green and responsible industrialist. The main barriers for SME in improving their environmental performance are:

• Ability in adopting the right cleaner production concepts in production process
• Know-how in eco-product design
• Identifying a cost-effective pollution control technology
• Understanding the local and global legal requirements in environmental protection
• Proper ways in responding global environmental supply chain pressures
• Strategic planning for long-term environmental improvement
• Constraints from capital and human resources

Want to know more about the Key Environmental Issues of Textile & Garment Industry? Go to the section of Key Environmental Issues.