A Review on Life Cycle Assessment in Silk Textile Industry

The use of green materials in textile industries is a need for sustainable production. Life cycle assessment (LCA) of silk textile industry is performed from the manufacturing of silk, which starts from its extraction to the overall lifespan of the silk fiber. The LCA results will help to quantify the overall impacts related to resource depletion and major reduction of other adverse effects on the environment. The silk-based textile industries are one of the greatest sources of environmental degradation. To control this pollution, a subsection of silk industries came into existence known as spun silk which uses waste products from various stages at the time of production of silk which is referred to recycling of waste material of silk. Environmental contamination, low efficiency in production, wastage of material, and over usage of energy are some of the major issues with which spun silk sector is currently dealing. This review presents an eco-friendly approach for the production of mulberry spun silk fabric by the elimination of hazardous environmental impacts. Silk industry pollutes our natural ecosystem by discharging waste like dust, odors, gases, huge amount of material is wasted and production cost is also very high. The new process of utilizing silk waste reduces carbon emissions, material wastage, and also a lot of energy in the entire process which is a very big achievement in the production of spun silk fiber. In this paper, a comparative analysis is done between silk and cotton fiber to evaluate which fiber plays a more effective role in atmospheric degradation.