This joint interview from two leading independent experts in the field gives listeners a unique, deep insight into what direction the industry could, and should be taking when it comes to the management of potentially hazardous substances in the context of wider environmental issues.
On the subject of the industry’s contribution to climate change, Patterson, also the managing director of Colour Connections, told Schragger: “as consumers, we’ve probably never been safer, as citizens, we’ve probably never been so unsafe. But people don’t see that yet; they see a few more storms, a few more dry periods.”
Greer added: “in the big picture, we’re complicit in this problem. But I think people don’t really realise that there’s such a huge environmental footprint in the clothing that they buy. It’s not really very well understood and those consumers that are concerned often worry about the wrong thing.”
But Patterson also shared his optimism that “a few brands are starting to look very seriously at water consumption. And when you’ve got areas of the world where water is free to the factory, why would they save it? So you’ve got some brands that are beginning to build it into their ways of working.
“What I’m also optimistic about is that recently I’ve seen zero liquid discharge, a system in which they remediate the effluent and recycle all the water – reducing net water consumption by about 90 per cent.
“When I first looked at this maybe 10 – 15 years ago it was very expensive and very energy intensive. But the technology’s moved on to make it affordable with a lower energy footprint, and I think we’re at a stage where we could start to see this becoming the norm,” he noted.
