Berg River Textiles in Paarl, one of the largest cotton mills in South Africa, has shown how environmental improvement can go hand in hand with increased profits.
Over the past 18 months the company has embarked on initiatives to improve waste management and to introduce cleaner manufacturing processes, in the process saving millions of rands every year.
The judges said Berg River was an appropriate winner in the category of Companies/Organisations with the Most-Improved Environmental Practices because the textile industry is often ‘a dirty industry” responsible for high pollution and consumption.
‘Berg River Textiles has gone out of its way to clean up,” the judges said. ‘It has taken a leadership position and shown that this has actually improved its business. It is an inspiration to other businesses.”
Central to the cleaner production programme has been increased optimisation of utilities such as steam, water and electricity. ‘We have found that improving our resource optimisation, waste reduction and optimisation of processes led to both environmental and financial symbiosis,” says Juan Laubscher, the manager responsible for cleaner production, process improvement and quality control.
For water and steam, the company introduced a monitoring and targeting system throughout the manufacturing process. A hot water reuse system has been introduced, whereby effluent from one process is used in another process without treatment.
These changes have led to a drop in water consumption of 48,5%, saving the company about R2-million a year. Steam consumption has been reduced by 21,8%, saving about R1,5-million a year. The reduced steam consumption also directly reduces the amount of coal burnt to generate electricity.
Berg River has also improved its chemical waste practices. All effluent is treated at a municipal plant under controlled conditions. Coal boilers have been replaced with high-voltage boilers in order to reduce emissions.
Obsolete dyestuffs, chemicals and waste oil are disposed of using a waste management company. Product waste is sold to rag merchants at reduced prices and other waste products are sold as raw materials to recycled-product manufacturers.
As part of the cleaner production programme there has been an increased focus on effluent stream segregation. This process involves removing concentrated chemical wastage from the total effluent line before it gets diluted. It is more economically viable and enables the company to reuse certain effluents.
The effluent is segregated into two major chemicals — caustic soda and waste dyestuff. The caustic soda is fully recovered and reused. The waste dyestuff is collected and used to dye a cheaper outlet product.
Berg River projects that by the end of the year wastage will be reduced by 80% as a result of the cleaner production programme. A saving of about R400 000 a year has already been achieved.
Numerous smaller projects to reduce chemical wastage have also been introduced, including monitoring systems at various process points.
An essential element of improvement is sustainability and continual improvement. In pursuit of this aim, Laubscher says, the company has introduced the cleaner production programme at all levels of production and of the workforce.
‘Initially the project started out with myself as the project leader and champion,” says Laubscher. ‘Eventually we realised the project had to involve everybody. Now we have teams that work together.”
Awareness programmes have been introduced. ‘These are concerned with all our monitoring and targeting processes,” explains Laubscher.
‘The financial impact to the company at each point of the process is described and explained. The macro-environmental impact is also set out.
‘This has resulted in a sense of urgency, commitment and enthusiasm at shopfloor level.”
Weekly reports are presented to management, and a cleaner production coordinator has been appointed.
‘We’ve recently introduced a waste minimisation coordinator for our factory, whose sole responsibility is monitoring existing controls, implementing and identifying new control points and coordinating the awareness training and project implementation. This ensures continual sustainability of implemented projects,” says Laubscher.
The company intends to continue improving waste management processes. It has embarked on a pilot programme to implement a scoring system to classify dyestuffs and chemicals. This programme is being conducted in cooperation with the Danish textile industry, which has managed successfully to apply a similar system in Denmark. The system will allow the company to know which chemicals to focus on in terms of environmental impact.
Measures to reduce electricity and compressed air usage are due to be implemented next month.
‘Our programme of cleaner and more efficient production is a continual process of improvement,” says Laubscher.
‘We have implemented monitoring and targeting programmes to ensure that after implementation these processes are maintained and sustained for the long future.”