United Colours of Industry | Analysis | Down To Earth magazine 13/04/09 4:48 PM

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United Colours of Industry

Of all dyes produced across the world, 11 per cent goes out as effluents. 2
per cent from manufacturing and as much as 9 per cent from colouring.
Each year, India produces 64,000 tonnes of dyes, 7,040 tonnes of which
are directly discharged into the environment. Enough to dye the river
Sabarmati!

While colours brighten our world, they are also ubiquitous and pervasive.
We’re not talking nature here, but products that are created by industry.
Feb 28, 2005 Like food colours, textile dyes, printing inks, pigments, acids, paints, even
colours used in plastic. What goes into them? How are they
THIS ISSUE manufactured? What is the monitoring mechanism? What are the
Letters procedures governing effluents? Can using them affect our health? What
Editor's Page about the other end of the spectrum? What is the footprint we leave by
using so many coloured products? Does industrial discharge affect the
News
drinking water sources of villages and towns far away? What are the
Analysis regulations and how can they be enforced?
Debate

Factsheet
Issues like this also need to be addressed, says KUSHAL PAL SINGH YADAV

Opinion Colours are inescapably embedded in everyday life. So it’s critical to know, and
News Briefs to regulate, the way they operate. Having said that, it’s not easy to recognise
the problems associated with their use. Adulteration in food colours, or allergic
Features
reactions to elements in fabric apart, consumers are unaware of problems caused
Media & Review by agents and vehicles of colour.
Web Exclusives
But a look at the tailpipe in any industrial zone can cure that. Colour problem
comes from two types of industries:

• Makers or users of colouring matter: dyestuffs, pigments, textiles, dyeing and

tanneries are the principal ones

• Users of raw materials with colour as by-product: pulp and paper sector (where
lignin imparts colour to effluents) and distilleries (where spent water is highly
coloured)

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB ) has listed the dyes and dye
intermediates, pulp and paper and tanneries as heavily polluting industries.
Untreated (and sometimes even treated) effluents from these industries, released
into rivers, lakes or through the drainage systems, seep into the groundwater
and adjoining water bodies.

Colours that last: dyes & dye intermediates The huge growth, by over 50 per
cent of the Indian dyestuff industry during the last decade, makes it the second
largest producer of dyes and intermediates in Asia. The CPCB puts their number at
900 units. Only a third of these are in the organised sector, while the remaining
come from the unregulated small-scale sector, which produces more than half of
India’s aggregate volumes. Most of these units are located in Gujarat (more than
60 per cent of the total production) and Maharashtra. In India, dyestuffs are
consumed mainly by textile, paint and printing ink industries. The textile industry
consumes up to 80 per cent.

Budget over quality

The domestic textile industry looks for manageable costs rather than consistent
quality. So the bulk of its demand for dyes is met by the small-scale sector,
while the organised sector looks to exports or high-end producers. The small-
scale sector’s substantially lower investment in pollution control measures also
makes it more economical.

We dye, they just buy

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United Colours of Industry | Analysis | Down To Earth magazine 13/04/09 4:48 PM

Dye production in India is estimated to be around 60,000 tonnes, or about 6.6

per cent of world production. There are around 700 varieties of dyes and dye
intermediates produced in India, mainly direct dyes, acid dyes, reactive dyes and
pigments. Most of these dyes have not been evaluated for their impact on health
and the environment. Yet, they are widely used by textiles, leather, paper,
paints, plastics, printing and even in the food industry.

The largest producer of dyes in the world is Germany at 22 per cent, followed by
the US at 18 per cent. Till recently, big global players (American Colour, Atlantis
Chemicals, Bayer AG and Hoechst AG) controlled 60 per cent of the global dyes
output. However, a gradual shift is discernible in global dye production. The
number of large-scale dyestuff manufacturers in the US has reduced drastically
(from 21 in 1976 to a mere ten in 2001) and the overall share of developed
nations has also dropped from 65 per cent to 50 per cent. Faced with spiralling
labour and environment costs, developed countries are slowly disengaging
themselves from the manufacture of dyestuffs (setting up a dyeing plant in India,
for instance, costs just a quarter of what it would to start up a similar plant in
the West). Lack of enforcement and monitoring of regulations related to
environment also make the industrialising countries in Asia a lucrative place to
set up polluting industries. As China, South Korea, Taiwan and India become the
new large producers, the extent of environmental and health problems are likely
to shoot. Thus, the South ends up paying the real ecological costs to produce
dyes for the North.

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