A worse problem is the used textiles. In the countries of Europe and US textile consumption reaches 20-25kg / person per year. In our country Macedonia, because of the low one living standard this quantity of waste is very small (500 tons of daily waste at the landfill Drizla contains only 15 kg of textile and leather waste. With the approach to the EU, increasing the standard of living is expected to increase the consumption of textiles as well which will impose finding appropriate solutions for its removal or conversion.
Waste in liquid aggregate state are wastewater from refinishing plants which they consume large quantities of water, energy and chemicals, whose degree of pollution depends of the technological phases of finishing and is the largest in the washing and wool washing phase, decomposition, cotton wool, washing after printing, followed by colouring, mercerization of cotton, carbonization and wool painting. According to the results of a survey only 5 firms out of 26 responded have wastewater treatment stations while the rest, waste water directly drained into the city sewer or in the watercourses.
Wastewaters are categorized into five classes: the first one includes the pits, in the second water can be cleansed and become chaste, in the third unclean, in the fourth very unclean in the fifth dead. The waters in the Republic of Macedonia can most often be classified into the first three classes, and the fourth occurs depending on the season and the month in year.
Environmental problems and their resolution
Export of textile products to the markets of developed countries can be only if certain conditions are met from an environmental point of view. Today, a quality textile product is considered only if it contributes in the entire cycle protection of the health and safety of people during the production, use, maintenance and postponement after use, i.e. realization of production with minimal consumption of all types of resources, without adverse impact on the user, environment and society, and which are defined by international quality norms and standards of ecology ISO.
Textile ecology is divided into three areas: ecology of production, humane ecology and ecology of waste disposal. The ecology of production includes the procedures for obtaining fibers, textiles and clothing and finishing the products, which are environmentally friendly.
In the past, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had developed a basic textile industry and was a major producer of synthetic (polyester, polyacrylonitrile and polypropylene) and natural fibers (cotton, wool and silk). Today, small volumes of wool are produced with very limited application in the textile industry. In addition, the production of textile products for the most part (95%) consists of production of various types of clothing. Therefore, all types of fibers, yarns are ready-made and will be imported in the coming period as well as 100% of fabrics or knitted fabrics made with one or two or more fibers. This requires, when importing raw materials, to strictly apply the ecological criteria which for textile are divided into three groups A, B, C.