The Indonesian Ministry of Environment has been encouraging the textile industry to become environment-friendly since 2000, Mr. Arif Wibowo, deputy head of environment-friendly technology standardization in the Ministry of Environment, said on the sidelines of a workshop on Textile Industry and Eco-labeling in Surakarta.
He said the lack of commitment from top executives is hindering the transition of Indonesian textile industry into clean and green industry.
He said being environment-friendly would mean saving lot of water and energy by the textile industry, and recycling the waste generated and reducing the greenhouse effect.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Liliek Setiawan, the head of Indonesian Textile Association (API)-Central Java said the high cost of investment is a major hurdle in implementing environment-friendly technologies in the textile industry, in the midst of dwindling profit margins.
He said the Chinese textile industry registered the highest growth in the world, but the race to decrease production cost to the minimum has resulted in damage to environment and pollution of water and air, which have reached alarming levels.
The Indonesian textile industry is also growing at high rate and it should consider using green technologies to avoid a China-like scenario, Mr. Setiawan said.
However, the transition to environment-friendly production processes is not easy, he said, and urged the Government to provide incentives to companies that implement them.
