Effluent and emissions
To support working towards a cleaner world, Coats is implementing online, realtime monitoring of liquid waste effluent for sites discharging to the environment. It is investing in the construction of new or upgraded wastewater treatment plants at sites as well as recycling water where appropriate. It currently recycles 20% of process water.
Leader's Voice
“Legislation is getting stricter
and stricter around the world.
The standards that we are
required to meet are becoming
ever more stringent. If we fail
to meet these standards, then
we risk penalties, fines and
disruption to our operations,
and most importantly damage
to our reputation amongst
neighbouring communities
and with our customers,
employees and shareholders.
But we are also keenly
aware that employing clean
production processes has
benefits that extend far
beyond just avoiding these
risks. It can boost productivity,
reduce costs and help further
enhance our reputation. We
do not operate in a silo, but
as part of a multitude of local
communities and ecosystems
and we take extremely
seriously our responsibility to
protect the environment and
watersheds we share. That
is why we are committed to
adopting the Zero Discharge
of Hazardous Chemicals
standards.”
Stuart Morgan
Chief Legal & Risk Officer and
Group Company Secretary
By 2022, we will build on our global standard by complying with the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) effluent standards
Consistent high standards across the business
More than two thirds of the water we use is ultimately discharged as waste effluent. This water is treated in several ways, either through our own waste treatment plants or through shared municipal facilities. Either way, we do all we can to minimise any impact on the environment from the effluent that we discharge.
We seek to comply with in-country legislation and discharge limits, but also work towards meeting our own internal global effluent policy – which in most cases is tougher than national legislation in terms of the limits we specify. This policy was developed to ensure that all our operations, regardless of location, will meet a consistent high standard in terms of the effluent they discharge. Meeting these standards requires our operations to measure and monitor the quality of effluent discharges in terms of several criteria, including oxygen demand, pH and metals content.
Investing in new treatment plants and monitoring
Over the past five years, we have spent or have committed to spend over $20 million on new effluent treatment plants and technology. We have adopted a three-step approach, depending on the specific circumstances of our plants. Firstly, a review of the in-country requirements will determine whether we are able to employ biological water treatment, rather than a chemical process. Where possible we favour the former. Secondly, where an existing site is unable to meet the standards we will invest in the construction of a new water treatment plant. Recent investments include those in Honduras, Vietnam and India.
Finally, in some instances we share water treatment facilities with either other businesses or the neighbouring community. If these are unable to meet our standards, then we will invest in improving these facilities or build our own water treatment facilities to the mutual benefit of Coats and the community.
We have invested in new wastewater monitoring systems at most sites to give us continual, online measurement of effluent water quality. The new system automatically measures the levels of five parameters and sends the data to a live dashboard and an alarm is triggered if the level of any of the parameters gets close to, or above, the limits we have set. This enables us to monitor the levels of the parameters in real time and decide what action to take to ensure compliance with our high standards. Developing a way to prove our wastewater complies with the required standards 24 hours a day, seven days a week is a leading step in our industry.
Recycling our waste water
Over recent years, we have recognised that the best solution for dealing with wastewater is to not produce any at all. To this end, we have invested in water recycling facilities at some of our plants or for specific process within our plants – for example, within dye houses. In some cases, such as in China, we can recycle almost all the water we use. Other plants with recycling facilities include those in Sri Lanka and India, and Bangladesh is planned for the future.
Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals
In 2016, we signed up to the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Programme. Through our commitment to ZDHC, we will be working with the industry to eliminate hazardous chemicals from not only our own operations but also the rest of the supply chain. ZDHC is a not-for-profit organisation with the vision to phase out hazardous chemicals and drive the widespread implementation of sustainable chemistry, related innovations and best practices in the textile, apparel and footwear industry.
Closing the loop in Southern India
Our manufacturing facility at Ambas in Southern India has seen major investments over recent years to place it amongst the most advanced and sustainable sites across Coats. This has included a new synthetic dye house, a biomass-based steam boiler and a solar power plant, as well as a reverse osmosis effluent treatment plant.
One of the key features of this plant is that it can recycle 95% of the water it uses during the manufacturing process, with zero discharges of effluent to the environment. This process involves the filtration and cleaning of some 28,000 litres of water a day which is then reused. The plant uses a combination of biological and physical processes to ensure the high quality of water used.
This has only been possible due to the introduction of a new biomass plant, owing to the high level of heating required during the process. Without this the amount of fossil fuel energy used would have been prohibitive, from both cost and environmental points of view. As the wastewater is heated, it evaporates leaving behind a waste residue while the clean water condenses for reuse. To close the loop on this process the solid waste or ‘sludge’ is collected and used by a nearby factory as a material for cement production.
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