Contamination in raw cotton - an evil

Pakistan textile industry receives heavy claims from the foreign buyers because of excessive contamination in textile products, the yarn in particular. There are various types of contaminations which include pieces of jute, polypropylene, hair, feathers, fabric pieces, wrappers, polythene and coloured thread etc. These contaminations obviously come from the cotton used to produce the yarn.
Till 2000, contamination in our cotton ranged from 25gm to 40gm per bale which was very high as compared to the other origins. On APTMA's appeal, the government took a serious view of the situation and launched campaign against it, which however, was restricted to only two districts ie Rahimyar Khan and Ghotki.
In the first step, the campaign brought fruitful results. The government imposed a ban (first in two districts then in the whole of Punjab) on the use of jute bags for the transportation of seed cotton that reduced the jute contamination substantially.
The textile sector worked hard on the issue and created awareness amongst the ginners regarding the evil of contamination which helped reduce it to about 5gm (jute only).
The ginners in certain areas, arranged the picking of other contaminations too in their factories and managed to reduce it to some extent. But the result was not up to the mark. However it was a good beginning to improve the quality of cotton.
Razzaq Dawood, the then minister of commerce, took personal interest and worked hard on the issue of the elimination of contamination. Unfortunately the matter was thrown in to cold storage by the government after he left the office. The textile sector, however, has been struggling on its own in this regard.
The government has announced certain incentives to the textile sector in the budget for the fiscal year 2005-06. But that will hardly bear fruit unless proper emphasis is given on the aspect of the quality of the product.
In order to enhance (or at least maintain) our textile exports we have to deliver the quality under tough market competition under the regime of the WTO. The main obstacle, in terms of quality, in yarn export is the contamination. The textile sector and the government in particular have to be on their feet to combat against this evil. In this regard, the government should not hesitate to take some bold steps.
A number of claims received from foreign buyers pertains to the contamination of polypropylene and polythene. The transparent polypropylene strings are hardly visible in the white coloured cotton. Therefore its picking is not easy in ginneries and the blow rooms of textile mills hence they generally pass through to the yarn.
The main source of polypropylene contamination are the urea bags used by farmers. To get rid of this sort of contamination, at least local fertiliser companies may be asked to use thick fabric cotton bags instead of polypropylene bags.
The biggest evil, from different angles, is the use of polythene as shopping bags. These are widely used, rather badly, in Pakistan so no one can avoid their presence everywhere. Therefore this contamination is hard to avoid under the circumstances. The best solution to overcome this problem is the imposition of ban on the use/manufacturing of polythene bags by the government.
The use of paper bags or cotton bags may be accustomed for shopping purposes. The ban on the use of polythene bags will not only help reduce contamination in cotton but also curtail pollution and avoid the choking of the sewerage system in the country. This will be a great service to the nation.
The optimum control over contamination is only possible in the ginning factories. It is a very costly and a laborious job to remove contamination from raw cotton in the blow rooms of spinning mills. Therefore the ginners have to make extra efforts to overcome this problem in their factories. The conveyer belt, to shift seed cotton from platform to the ginning standout is a useful device for this purpose.
The pickers standing along both sides can thoroughly pick contamination of all kinds. Besides, the other methods like the use of rock catcher, picking at the platform, also serves the purpose to some extent. The textile sector, the main buyer, is paying a premium on the cotton with low contamination. We have to be more concerned and enthusiastic to control the contamination in our raw cotton to meet the challenges of the globalisation of trade.
Proper packing of cotton bales is also a part of contamination controlling measures. In our country, the ginners have started using wire instead of hoops to pack the cotton bales. Unfortunately, most of them have been using substandard/breakable wire with low tensile strength. A number of bales burst shortly after pressing in the ginning factories. While repressing a lot of dust, foreign mailer/contamination is added to the cotton. Lose/broken bales are inflammable also.
Many fire cases took place in the textile mills during the last season due to the loose/substandard packing of bales. Only cotton cloth should be used to cover the bales. It is very unfortunate that the TCP has allowed the ginners to wrap the bales with Hessian cloth that will again increase the jute contamination. TCP authorities must give it a thought.
Moreover, the government should immediately implement seed cotton grading system, which is pending since long, though the PCSI. The system has already been approved by the parliament as well as the cabinet long ago. The implementation thereof is pending due to reasons better known to the authorities.
Besides the segregation of seed cotton according to the grade, the classer posted in the ginning factory will also supervise the contamination picking. The implementation of seed cotton grading system at the ginning stage will definitely help improve the quality as well as reduce the contamination in raw cotton.