Viscose Fibres or Eco Disaster . Ringing the Warning Bell.

Viscose was the first industry where I started my work as a student in the year 1981. Though, it was quite accidentally then planned, but as a young man, I would walk down the alleys of reactors where cellulose was being washed with caustic soda, then pressed and moved to Xanthation, a process of treating with carbodisulphide. Finally after all the washing again with caustic, ripening and filteration, the natural polymer was extruded through small jets in a sulpheric acid bath. I would find it very funny, how the workers would take the broken filaments with bare hands in a sulpheric acid bath and join to restart the position. At this time, the filaments were also drawn and taken to the next job of washing and finally winding to a marketable size. Funny thing was it was called a " Viscose Cake"

This is all I recall of my training at the Viscose filament plant, which religiously was shut down by the " Red Flag " communist , who successfully shut many more textile mills across India.

What was most striking during my training was the level of Pollution caused in the manufactuing of Viscose Fibres. The whole place use to stink so badly that I wondered, how a normal person survived working there for his life time. Then working with latex gloves in sulphuric acid bath was never a discipline. Workers invariably would choose to use bare hands. And at the end the disposal of effluent into the nearby river was such a pathetic site.

Anyway, the above short description is to give only an idea on the manufacturing process of Viscose Fibre. Wherein against all other polymers which go through a direct polymerization process, the Viscose, which is cellulose based first gets Caustic washing and CS2 treatment and again caustic washing and then extrusion through sulphuric acid ,before reaching a sensible stage of textile fibre.

Let us now deeply explore, if viscose even merits manufacturing in the global fibre space?

I cannot research anywhere on the net, how much cellulose is used in making of one kg of viscose fibre, however, going by the Law of Physics on " Conservation of Mass" I would still assume 1 kg of viscose fibre will atleast use 1.25 kgs of air dried wood pulp or say around 2 kgs of oven dired wood or 4 kgs of tree wood. ( I have taken very conservative numbers , actual wood consumped could be much higher) Therfore , if the global capacity of viscose fibre production is pitched around 2.5 million tonnes per annum. This would need around 10 million tonnes of Tree wood. Assuming a standard tree yield is approximately 500 kgs ( which is actually very generous ) , the number of trees to be cut to satiate the global viscose demand would be

MIND BOGGLING 20 MILLION TREES PER YEAR.

Where does so much wood come from ? Thanks to some of the legal forest logging allowed in Canada, Indonesia and some other countries that cellulose users are still surviving. Some of the viscose comes out of Bamboo pulp and is still within an acceptable Eco Frame.

But , the bigger question is not just about the usage of cellulose for maunufactuing of fibre, because anyway cellulose also gets used for making of paper. Every time you get an email. you get a note, print only if no other option ,otherwise save a tree.

Does a viscose fibre maker put on each bale : Do not use unless no other option . Using one bale is like logging 2 trees of age 20 years . Does a Viscose Garment supplier put a warning label on his produce> Do not wear, until no other option. By not wearing you are saving a tree.

Or is it that I have to start a global campaign of awareness that viscose is cellulose based and is consuming our forest. Perhaps , most of the non textile world does not know this.

Further, let us explore technically, if viscose fibre actually merits such a large usage in textile fibre space.

Viscose has a very poor wet strength, soft, lustrous and not so friendly in dyeing ( specially in filament form, though fibre dyeing is still simpler ) . Because of its lustre and soft appeal, it was more of a ladies dress fibre and found its way in lingerie's , blouses, scarfs, etc . And later got extended in being used in home furnishings etc. But the fact remained, unless it was blended with polyester , the 100% viscose fabrics would after a few washes crumble away. However, each product finds its own market and in 100 years of its offering in market, it has found a large global space for itself.

Till very late around 1970, it was generally Rayon Filament yarns, which were used in textile applications and only the waste was cut and then made into fibre and used along with cotton. Polyester staple fibre had just been introduced and polyester spun yarn was considered the : "King of All The Yarns" However, given the limitation of polyester on its moisture regain, the industry started blending viscose around 35% to the polyester. This then became the famous PV or TR yarns. Till date, these yarns are the most popular yarns. The other reason was ofcourse that Polyester was obscenely priced and viscose prices were much lower, so any mix of the two would make the yarn more economical for the market.

The option to be used should have been Polyester Cotton Yarns, but processing cotton in a polyester plant was always a very messy operation and hence the industry found viscose as a good solution. Though PC yarns were any day much nicer and better then PV yarns. Therefore, viscose during all its lifetime has had a much nicer substitute fibre , which if the industry wants, it can shift in short time.

Viscose in the last one decade suddenly found a better application out of Open End Spinning and MVS spinning. The soft handle became the darling of the South American Textile Industry and started selling at obscene prices. However , textile is fashion related and nothing lasts forever. The romance ended and viscose prices came to sensible levels.

Actually, viscose is nowhere comparable to Cotton as a fibre in all its properties. But then the industry works only on demand and supply. There are no innovators, no genius marketers, who can shape the industry to rethink that viscose in not a fibre of choice. But was always an optional offering. The way the industry works is that the yarn makers have very little idea on the final fabrics that are taking trends since these are in the hands of Merchandizers and Brands. Both these channels have no clue of Textile Fibre properties and generally manipulate designs and colours to fit a season. Therefore , industry largely works on the cave man textile principle of churning out volumes , without having any influence on the market. Otherwise any sensible marketing manager would have pitched Cotton against Viscose as the most preferred fibre.

However , with the current " Green Revolution " Viscose needs to be highly restricted a fibre .

Further, in case of paper, there are no other options available ,except cellulose base. But for viscose, there are plenty of fibres which fill in the space easily. Then why should the world allow falling of 20 million trees per year?

It is about time that either Industry itself takes a moral route or the Regulators step in to make laws that the viscose fibre usage has to be not more then certain percentage ( 10 to 15% ) in their supplies and 100% viscose yarns will have to pay a penal duty of 100% of the value of the yarn. We cannot enjoy short term viscose share holders profits with long term Eco disasters.

I am still not writing anything on the pollution effects of this industry. But here I think , companies are so well rich that they have shown quite a lot of decency to make it pollution free.

The one company I admire in viscose making is " Lenzing " . Though I have a strong bias towards Austria and it is one of my favorite nations for its great folk music, opera, landscapes, medical science and above all the nicest people in Europe. However, nothing against " Lenzing" or any other viscose fibre maker, it is just that we as textile specialist should bring " Green Revolution " into our industries voluntarily and not wait to be forced by Greenpeace of any other such organization some day.

Interestingly , because of its monopolistic or oligopolistic nature of business, the customers have to stand in a Q, pay in advance and then hope the goods will be delivered. I once jokingly sent an email to the marketing dept of Lenzing ( Indonesia ) that if next time, they have a vacancy in Marketing, I would like my CV to be considered, as then I would move the office from Jakarta to Bali and have a ocean front office and sell the produce within the first month and then run naked to the ocean to celebrate the next 11 months. Now after 10 years again I contacted Lenzing for a request from one of my International customer, whom I many times told that if he wants supply from Lenzing, he has to become a shareholder there, otherwise, his chance of getting the supply is only in the next century. But he insisted and I wrote again . Promptly the expected reply came. But, I was still thinking why did Lenzing not move its office from Urban Disaster Jakarta to a more greener area outside Jakarta, if not to Bali. Sometimes I don't understand why companies choke the urban cities by having a glamor office there. Customers never visit the office, suppliers will visit only the factory. Then why have a show piece, which is choking the roads of Jakarta. But this is something which has to be noted by each of the textile company which has its head office or some office located in the capital city . Urban Life has become such a mess , because of the poor management of governments and the corporate sector equally. If only 100 textile companies shut their Jakarta office and move it outside Jakarta, it would already mean 1000 less cars on the street of Jakarta during rush hours. City offices are generally liaison offices and work on telephone, Internet and an occasional stepping out or a visitor . It can be moved anywhere under the sun in short time. Absolutely no reason, why companies have their offices in capital cities. All it takes is a very heavy taxation on the city office and within 1 year, all global congested cities will be clear of the urban choking. ( Ofcourse in case of Lenzing, even if the tax is 1000%, it can still live happily there )