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The chemical footprint (ChF) can identify the harmful effects of discharged chemical pollutants, helping producers to select environmentally friendly chemicals to reduce their negative environmental impact. This paper quantified and evaluated the ChF of the wet processing of cotton fabric with data collected from a dyeing enterprise. The results showed that the discharged sodium hydroxide caused the most severe impact in terms of both human toxicity and ecotoxicity due to the extensive usage and its high toxicity. The discharged sodium carbonate and dimethyl silicone oil also had a greater environmental impact. Comprehensive evaluation of human toxicity and ecotoxicity with a multi-objective grey target decision-making model indicated that the pretreatment process had the most significant impact, followed by the finishing process and dyeing process. More attention should be paid to the pretreatment process, such as the selection of environmentally friendly textile chemicals, in order to reduce the native impacts of the wet processing of cotton fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metals discharged from textile production have serious impacts on human beings and the environment. Chemical footprint (ChF) methodology is an important method in quantifying the environmental loads of discharged chemical pollutants. With the help of ChF methodology, this study used the mean impact method to assess the environmental loads of heavy metals discharged from a textile enterprise. The results showed that the ChFs of discharged heavy metals calculated based on the aquatic environment of Lake Tai and Lake Poyang were 1.43E+8L and 4.64E+8L respectively. Zinc was the largest contributor, followed by copper, lead and cadmium for the two lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]