Impacts of textile and leather effluent on environment: an assessment through life cycle of fishes and plants

Abstract

The textile and tannery industry in Bangladesh is liable for polluting the soil and water body owing to the discharge of untreated effluents. They use enormous amounts of water, chemicals, and colorants for processing textile and leather products and release a complex mixture of organic and inorganic pollutants and metal contents, which negatively impact the environment. The main objective of this research was to study the deleterious impact of untreated textile and leather effluents on the environment in Bangladesh. For this purpose, textile and leather effluents were collected from industries during discharging after processing. Parameters, such as BOD, COD, pH, TDS, TSS, TH, Turbidity, conductivity, alkalinity, Dissolved Fe, metal contents, etc., were tested to determine the characteristics of the effluents. Moreover, the impact of these effluents on tree plants as well as on fishes was observed over 24 days. The results showed that the effluents contain extremely high values of BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, hardness, conductivity, alkalinity, silica from the recommended discharge limit. It was also observed that leather effluents cause a more harmful effect on the survival of fishes and trees due to the presence of high metal contents than textile effluents. The findings will help address this alarming situation in the ecosystem of Bangladesh and recommend immediate action to save the ecosystem from untreated discharges of industrial effluents.