IWRA Proceedings

ABSTRACT:

The textile finishing processes, mainly the primary ones, like bleaching and cleaning, or secondary finishing, as dyeing and washing, are recognized to have an effect upon the environment because of the water wasting and the amount of wastewater. The textile wastewaters that are coming from those processes present high concentration of emulsified substances, chlorine particles, solids and organic materials with a lot of toxicity. There´s no doubt the most important problem is the presence of dyes and pigments. Some physical and chemical parameters that are very important on water pollution control are not easy to measure and checking because there are no clear limits for those parameters. This situation may cause wrong evaluation and some contestation on environmental organisms’ decisions. Mainly on color parameter, that subjectivity almost force companies to search for outside values and methods at other national region or even on another country. At Rio de Janeiro, based on the environment state institute technical standard (NT- 202-R10), color should be virtually not present on wastewater. The present research shows how is the situation of the Brazilian environmental legislation for color on industrial effluents, mainly those from textile dyeing process. It also compares others environmental parameters like pH, COD, total solids, besides color, among others countries like as Germany, USA, China, Italy and United Kingdom. In the end some proposals are discussed to standardize one method of measurement of color on industrial effluents all over the country.

Keywords: color measurement, textile wastewater, environmental control;