JEANS PROCESSING AND WATER REUSE SYSTEMS IN A BRAZILIAN SEMIARID REGION

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the water reuse and technological innovation employed in industrial jeans processing activities in a dry region. Toritama in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco is a part of a ten-city agglomeration involved in garment production and processing. Laundries in Toritama carry out dyeing, wear, fading, and other interventions that add value to the jeans items. This activity uses large quantities of water, which is scarce in this region. Due to rising environmental concerns, the public control agencies passed legislation to ensure the laundries install a water treatment system to treat the effluents. Laundries view the requirement as a disadvantage as small non-formalized laundries are not obliged to implement reuse technology. Method/design/approach: This study used a combined quantitative and qualitative approach to understand the complexity of the social phenomenon. The research was carried out over 2018 and 2019 in formalized laundries. The use of water in the improvement processes and the stages involved were investigated, in addition to determining the cost impact of water reuse. Results and conclusion: the implementing an innovative water treatment system and reusing water plays a critical role in reducing environmental damage caused by industrial activities while also bringing down production costs. Research implications: thus, the study highlights that it is possible for enterprises to gain a competitive advantage while being mindful of the environment. Originality/value: our research fulfills the important role of clarifying the reality of organizations located in regions of peripheral economy that, despite suffering with their specificities, still have space for environmentally and socially sustainable actions.


INTRODUCTION
The Agreste region of Pernambuco has features typical to a semiarid region, such as a low-temperature range and frequent droughts as well as low economic activity.After the failure of the leather industry, the local population found a way to generate income and bring down the economic hardships through clothing activities (Silva and Xavier, 2020).A significant productive cluster spread out over more than ten cities was developed over the years, with similar economic enterprises related to the production and processing of garments.Among these cities, Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, Caruaru, and Toritama stand out and, together with the others in the cluster, form the Agreste Pernambuco Clothing Hub.The complex's intense economic activity is responsible for the production of more than 800,000 items per year, that together account for more than 120,000 direct and 360,000 indirect jobs, and around 60% of the state and 16% of the national garment production, respectively (SEBRAE, 2019;SEBRAE, 2013;Cabral, 2007;Xavier, 2006).
Recent studies have attempted to understand the externalities and benefits of clustering, including increasing competitiveness significantly (Antonelli et al., 2017;Boschma, 2015;Camagni et al., 2016;Caragliu, Dominicis & Groot, 2016).Furthermore, Michael Porter's (1999) cluster theory has been useful in understanding these clusters, especially the new considerations about competition and competitive advantages, which he relates to the location of such enterprises as it is linked with common and complementary elements.To be competitive, companies need advanced technologies and high-quality technical infrastructure.The cluster configuration facilitates access to and construction of this infrastructure, such as the water treatment system installed in Toritama laundries.There are studies linking sustainable practices with innovation and competitiveness.Including how environmental cost affects firms (Silva, B. L., & Xavier, 2020;Nuzula, 2019;Sehnem, 2016).
The organization of companies in agglomerations has also been defined by Marshall (1996) as industrial districts and interrelating companies of different sizes in specific geographic regions, producing goods and services for internal and external markets.Marshall analyzed and characterized the concentration of micro and small businesses around larger businesses in the suburbs of England's cities.
The location favors all the laundries, as they are close to many of their customers and suppliers.There are specialized services engaged in the maintenance, purchase, and sale of machinery, for example.The advantages of agglomeration are supported by the concept of "collective efficiency" found in the existing literature.Porter (1999) found that agglomeration plays an influential role in furthering the productivity of companies and sectors, increasing their capacity to innovate, and stimulating the formation of new companies by creating an environment of competitiveness.Each of these consequently leads to the use of new technologies and the expansion of the cluster due to its power to access more specialized inputs at a lower cost.
Toritama became a city in 1953, and its productive activity in the last century revolved around the cotton plantation and the precarious activity of cattle raising, which were unsuited to the local climate (Melo, 1980).Its 35,554 inhabitants are concentrated in a territorial area of 25,704 km2, located approximately 160 km from the capital of Pernambuco, Recife (IBGE, 2010).In recent decades, the city has stood out for its denim pieces.In addition to the numerous companies and manufacturers, the city also has 56 industrial laundries that process denim pieces and employ, on average, between 15 and 20 people each.It produces 60 million jeans pieces per year that contribute to 15% of all national jeans production (SEBRAE, 2019).
Despite the important advances brought about by local development through productive agglomeration, Toritama still depends on public policies and income transfer programs, such as the Municipal Participation Fund (FPM) and Bolsa Família.Note that the average salary of workers in the municipality is 1.4 times the minimum wage, and 30.8% of the population lives with a per capita income of 0.5 times the minimum wage, around R$522,005.It should also be noted that 89.6% of the municipality's revenue is sourced from the FPM (SEBRAE, 2019;IBGE, 2010;FADE/UFPE, 2003).
Laundries emerged due to the requirement for dyeing, wasting, fading, and other interventions that add value to garments.These processing companies use water as a primary raw material that is used in most of their processes and is very scarce in the region.They also use firewood, which causes atmospheric pollution, as an essential fuel.The Capibaribe River, along which most laundries are located, has a dry bed for most of the year.Concerns have been raised over the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated effluents by the processing companies (Matos et al., 2013).The inappropriate water use and disposal made the public control bodies exercise their coercive power.A system was thus installed, considered a technological innovation at the time, for treating effluents from all the industrial laundries processing jeans, as verified by Silva and Xavier (2020).Even allowing for a reduction in water purchases, usually delivered by trucks, with increases de costs.The entrepreneurs see the system as a disadvantage because small non-formalized laundries are not obliged to purchase the treatment and reuse systematic.
The innovative entrepreneur is a central figure in the development of capitalist economies.That is, economic growth is closely linked to the presence of an entrepreneur who innovates.Innovations do not necessarily need to be radical inventions, and the term can also be extended to the opening of new markets, new raw materials, new ways of organizing, and even being adaptive.These innovations are economically relevant when carried out, and the 4 more competitive the environment, the more innovations can be found.The power to reinvent is an essential characteristic of the Agreste region.The bankruptcy of the leather industry and dangerous agricultural activities led to effective reorganization and the emergence of clothingrelated activities.
The present study aims to analyze the technological innovation employed to reuse water in the processing activities of the industrial jeans laundries in Toritama, located in the semiarid region of Pernambuco.To do so, it is first essential to characterize the ways in which water is reused in laundries and compare the advantages of reuse in companies with a reduction in costs.The hypothesis was that the reuse of water provides a competitive advantage to industrial laundries.The research question was: Does technological innovation in reuse guarantee competitive advantage?A sampling of laundries was carried out to observe the relationship of laundries with reuse in the comparative models.

Study Design
We used a quantitative approach for the quantification and measurement of results and analysis of variables but also included elements of qualitative research.The combined methods and techniques are essential for understanding the nature of a social phenomenon in all its complexity.The research maintained an exploratory and descriptive character to investigate the phenomenon and observe the patterns, in addition to making inferences about the collected data and identifying relationships between the variables (Richardson, 2012;Creswell, 2007).
The research was guided by the explanation and conceptualization of cluster theory, productive agglomeration, water reuse, and competitive advantage.To approximate previous studies' findings, a study was carried out on the most current literature and the primary theoretical references, as proposed by Richardson (2017).

Setting
The research, including the elaboration of the research project, the construction of the structured interview script, and the collection, processing, and analysis of data, was carried out over 2018 and 2019.We used a questionnaire as well as reports and documentation provided by the companies.The latter were a rich source of data, even though it was difficult all the reports.
An interview was also conducted with the managers of the companies, both in person and digitally.It provided essential data that were useful for understanding the phenomenon.A structured questionnaire, in which the same list of questions is presented to all participants, was shared with the managers, as recommended by Gil (2007).This questionnaire was prepared keeping the theoretical and methodological references in mind.A form tool was used for the filling of the questionnaire to systematically capture the information.
The activities of the laundries and other spaces associated with jeans processing, including their proximity of the river and the production processes, were recorded through photographs.This helped understand the ways in which water was being reused in an illustrative way.

Participants
To explore the common characteristics of the organizational units, three inclusion criteria were defined and identified.The geographic criterion was used so that only the enterprises in Toritama were eligible.In addition to being the city with the largest jeans production and processing units in the cluster, it also underwent several public control agencies' interventions due to which laundries were required to install the treatment systems.Another criterion for inclusion was the productive activity.Only industrial laundries involved in jeans processing were included in the research because the processing of jeans requires large amounts of water.Finally, only formalized companies were included as they had installed the treatment systems and maintained records and data that could be used in the study.
We attempted to create an intentional sample of the eligible industrial laundries.This type of research aims to conduct an investigation through data organization by selecting representative units from the total universe (Richardson, 2017).It was necessary to work with this type of sample as some of the laundries were unwilling to participate and share data, which is common in social research (Bauer and Arts, 2008).The 20 units that were part of the study sample were renamed with the code Ln to preserve their identity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 3.1 Processing Activities: Techniques Used in Industrial Jeans Laundry Processes
Water is the most important raw material in the processing of jeans items.The cycle starts as soon as the factories send pieces to the laundries, from denim skirts to jeans, to carry out the processing interventions as per their requirements, adding value.
Once the items are received, the batch is counted and checked, and a technical sheet is prepared that mentions the processes to be carried out according to the customer's request.The batch is weighed to calculate the ideal volume of water and chemicals needed at each stage of the process.The first stage is the removal of the gum from the tissues.Degumming is carried out in industrial washing machines for 20 min with neutral soap and water at 45 °C.Other processes are carried out only after removing the gum.
Softening is another stage that is carried out to make the garments more malleable and less resistant to processes.This can be done with the use of a color fixer that helps retain the appearance and the original color of the clothing (Silva, 2014;Costa et al., 2009).According to Silva (2014), Oliveira (2008), andPezzolo (2007), most orders placed by customers are fading and aging of denim.The laundries use several techniques for these two requirements.The technique of stone washing is used for fading denim, and it involves mechanical abrasion by stones in industrial machinery or by the use of enzymes in a chemical process.The piece becomes lighter and more malleable after the stone washing process.The aged look is created by using chlorine or potassium permanganate, which gives a used appearance to the piece.Destroyed is the most aggressive aging effect created by using a higher quantity of enzymes, which lightly erode the hem, waistband, and other areas of greater friction.This effect is highly valued by the fashion industry.
The Délavé technique is used for bleaching denim.In this technique, bleach is added to soften and fade the fabric through violent oxidation.Even though it reduces the useful life of the garment, it adds great commercial value.Acid washing creates a white spot through the use of potassium permanganate or pumice stones with chlorine.The dirty washing technique creates a dirty look by making use of dyes.Resin treatment creates an appearance similar to leather with the application of a resin spray that contains a dye and shine.It is dried at 180 °C to ensure the resin adheres to the fabric.The mustache treatment gives an aged look.It is done manually by making small pleats or presses in certain areas.
Many other techniques are used, including wet processes that use chemicals as well as dry means.Reducing the use of chemical products and making use of artisanal ways that only make small interventions, or using advanced equipment such as laser beams can cut down the resources used immensely.However, the existing techniques that require high resource use are widely used because they add value to the product, and there is a demand for items with these fashionable characteristics, such as whitened and light spots, which are made with potassium permanganate jets diluted with water in proportions of 30% to 60% (Silva, 2014;Costa et al., 2009).These techniques are characterized by numerous processes, as shown in Table 1.  1. Finishing processes and their steps Some of these activities consume a lot of water in each stage, consuming more than 200 liters in the processing of 400kg of jeans.Little use of advanced technology, such as lasers applied manually, exists.Most outdated technologies, mainly being used in the washing machinery, result in the loss of large quantities of water due to high evaporation and leakage.
Excess water is removed using centrifuges for an average of 5 min before the pieces go through the drying process at a temperature of 80-90 °C for 30-40 min.This water is treated and can be reused.After carrying out these processes, including the drying process, the batch is taken for review, where any processing failure is verified, such as holes, stains, and other damages, before being subjected to steam ironing at temperatures ranging from 80 to 100 °C, packaged, and delivered to the customer (Lima & Rocha, 2015).It is noteworthy that none of these activities made use of advances in technology to reduce the use of water or changes in the work process.

Water Treatment and Reuse: Innovations and the Environment
The economic activity of jeans processing is marked by the use of large quantities of water, which is the primary raw material.In an environment where droughts occur frequently and the main river is polluted, it is important to implement an efficient water treatment system that would enable reuse.
The evident pollution of the Capibaribe River led citizens to denounce water pollution in 2000.This resulted in the State Environmental Agency (CPRH) monitoring and inspecting the laundries.Furthermore, even in states apart from Pernambuco, such as Paraná, legislation has been enacted limiting the use of water resources and implementing environmental licensing (Silva & Xavier, 2020;Porto & Schoenhal, 2012).
The implementation of innovation and reuse technologies has emerged as a significant factor in reducing the environmental impact and costs while providing a competitive advantage.The available technologies that can be used to treat laundry effluents can perform functions such as separating waste, removing coloring, decanting, and other processes, depending on whether the system performs physical-chemical treatment or complements it with biological methods.In some cases, up to 80% of the water is reused in industrial laundries (Silva & Xavier, 2020).
The innovations implemented to comply with the Conduct Adjustment Terms (in the case of Pernambuco) and current legislation are intended to minimize environmental impacts and return water to nature in minimum quality conditions.The effluents from the laundries first go through sieving to remove significant solid residues, which are visible to the eyes, such as wires.The homogenization stage is intended to make the effluents more uniform for the effluent treatment station (ETS).It is followed by a percent hydrogen ion (pH) adjustment, in which the pH is lowered to close to 6 in the first tank and then raised to close to 8.5 in the second tank.In the next stage, organic matter flakes are formed in the flocculation tank by the addition of poly aluminum chloride (Oliveira, 2008).
Subsequently, the effluents pass through three decanters under the force of gravity and travel to the lung tank.From there, they go through an activated carbon filter before being released into a pond from where they can return to the laundry process.The treated effluents must be stored in a tank, and sodium hypochlorite has to be added to prevent the proliferation of bacteria (Silva & Xavier, 2020).Although sodium hypochlorite is a low-cost and highefficiency product, there is no automation, and there is limited control over its use.
The basic process involves physical and chemical treatments.Only the physical and chemical treatment does not render the effluents suitable for reuse or return to the environment.Biological treatments are complementary to the physical and chemical treatment.In the biological treatment, organic matter into inert mineralized products through self-cleaning by inserting a technology that controls efficiency conditions, using bacteria, protozoa, fungi, algae, and worms (von Sperling, 1995).The only laundry in the study sample that made use of this complementary process did not reuse water and simply discarded it in the sewer system.
The systems in use are an innovative technology imported from Germany in 2003 through a partnership between an institute, the most oversized laundries and the local industry and clothing union.Most advanced laundries in developed economies carry out the washing processes using little to no water through advanced laser machinery.

Water Treatment and Reuse as a Competitive Advantage
The sampling carried out provided essential data for the 20 laundries.Based on their size, the laundries could be classified as micro-enterprise (3), small (11), medium-sized (5), and large (1).This classification was done using the number of employees as the criteria, according to the classification proposed by SEBRAE (2013) for the service sector, where a company with up to nine employees can be characterized as a micro-enterprise, 10 to 49 employees classifies as a small business, medium-sized companies are those with between 50 and 99 employees, and above that, are considered large companies.
Data regarding the number of employees, size, and work time were collected from the laundries in the study sample.The literature supports this data.Other studies have found the same proportion with this characteristic, as Silva and Xavier (2020) Lima and others (2014) and Santos (2007).The industrial laundries of Toritama, which offer services for the processing of jeans items made in the region, do not evolve in size, which can be explained by the low 8 competitiveness of the location that prevents any one competitor from preponderating (Porter, 1980).2. Characterization of laundries by number of employees, size, time of operation, production, and functioning 1 -Years; 2 -in 1000 pieces, and 3hours.Source: Authors.
An important observation was made regarding daily functioning.While companies that work 8 hours a day have only one shift (17 out of 20), those that work for 12 hours a day have two shifts (only one out of 20), and companies that work 24 hours a day carry out their activities in three shifts (two out of 20).
Regarding the duration of existence of the laundries, most had been in operation for 10 years, ten had been operating for 1 to 5 years, six of them for 6 to 10 years, three for 11 to 15 years of operation, and only one exceeded 20 years in operation.This indicates that most laundries have a high level of permanence.That is, they are stable in the market.
If we look at the number of pieces produced, 11 laundries produce less than 50 thousand per month, and five produce more than 100 thousand pieces per month.From the data obtained, which includes the number of hours the 20 laundries operate daily and the number of parts processed per month, it is possible to calculate how many items the laundries churn out per hour or per day.On average, all companies carry out their processes from Monday to Friday, resulting in 22 working days per month.
However, even though increasing the daily hours of operation can increase the volume produced, it is not the only factor that should be considered, since the number of employees is another essential factor that impacts productivity.In other words, the structure of some laundries makes it possible to increase production without increasing the shifts, for example, by employing more workers and machinery.When the daily production and the number of employees were compared, the laundries L1, L2, L13, and L14 stood out.
It is necessary to understand the impact of water reuse on companies.The relationship between the production process and water reuse is significant for a competitive advantage.When overestimated, all financial sacrifices expended by the company to carry out production activities or service provision (Martins, 2010), can result in lost opportunities and, if underestimated, in losses for the company (Niazi and others., 2006).Table 3  From this comparison, it can be seen that it is not necessary that a large company will have lower production costs.Many micro and small companies have maintained lower production costs per part than the larger companies.It is vital to understand the impact of implementing water reuse technologies and innovations in reducing or increasing costs.Companies L2 and L6 stand out because of their low production cost compared to the others.Since the size of the company is not related to the cost per part produced, the importance of clarifying the role of water reuse technology and innovation as a competitive advantage stands out.
All the companies surveyed had installed a treatment plant so that water could be treated and reused.The plants carried out physical and chemical treatment of the effluents.In only one of the laundries, physical and chemical treatment was complemented with biological treatment (L15).However, even after this additional treatment, the laundry discarded the water into the sewage system.The manager understood that the water quality improves but does not reuse it in production.
Not all laundries reuse the treated water, and among those that do, the percentage of water reused varies.About 10% of the laundries do not reuse water.The laundries highlighted above (L2 and L6), reuse as much as 80% of the treated water due to their low production cost compared to the others.
Companies L1, L8, and L9 are also noteworthy for their low production costs and the reuse of more than 70% of the treated water.The laundry that complements the physicalchemical treatment with biological treatment did not have a low production cost, which can be explained by the fact that the treated water is not reused.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
This study shows the importance of innovative water treatment and reuse as key factors influencing the environmental impact of industrial laundries.The agglomeration of Pernambuco is located in a water-deficient region, and this impacts companies and locals alike.The chief economic activity in this region prone to frequent droughts is highly contradictory, especially since homes go for weeks without receiving any water from the distribution company.
The Brazilian Semiarid found in this activity is a way to develop and minimize negative social and economic impacts.Even so, it still depends on substantial and crucial state assistance.Coercive power was used to curb environmental abuse, in principle, by pressure the community.As a result of the public ministry initiative, treatment plants were installed so that water could be successfully reused.Although it is necessary to implement biological treatments to reduce chemical products in the process, reducing production and environment costs.
The data show that the industrial laundries in the locality use the same technology for reuse.What differentiates them from each other is precisely one factor that impacts production costs: the amount of treated water reused in processing activities.From this perspective, the use of more efficient techniques and technologies, such as lasers and more efficient chemicals, which reduce the amount of water used in the processing, can give a competitive advantage to companies.Therefore, that the present study highlights that an enterprise can be mindful of the environment and still gain a competitive advantage.Effective water use and reuse can have a positive impact on production costs as well as on the common good.
This study provides important findings about the real possibility of producing more using fewer natural resources.In the case of the water treatment and reuse activity, the gain for the environment is clear, but also for the enterprises -which is important.It is also important for showing the scientific community and society that sustainable practices are being carried out in dry regions, including South America, along with economic development.
Table 2 below provides essential data about the laundries in the study sample.

Table 3 .
lists the costs per piece of each laundry.Production of laundries by month, hour, day, cost per piece and percentual of water reuse.