Eco-friendly and employment aspects
Rama Lakshmi explains the eco-friendly issues that come into play 
in silk production. “Silk waste consists of cooking waste that comes out as fibre at the time of boiling the cocoons in hot water to get true end of the silk fibre. Such a silk waste fetches more price to reelers. Pupa which is a by-product of Silk reeling is sold as either fish /poultry feed and also for oil extraction used in cosmetics and medicines. Thus the entire process of silk reeling is eco-friendly and zero waste process besides generating 10% additional income to the reeler.”
Sadly, sericulture and weaving are dying occupations today. In order to keep the tradition alive and to promote the Silk Industry, the Government of Andhra Pradesh is providing a lot of incentives to farmers, reelers and weavers.
Cleaning Solutions
Driven by the health and environmental concerns associated with traditional dry cleaning solvents, recent advances in textile manufacturing have resulted in the emergence of commercial wet cleaning as a viable and environmentally-preferable clothes cleaning technology. Trained professional cleaners are now able to wetclean many garments that typically have been drycleaned, such as silks, woollens and linens.
The process of extracting Raw Silk in a hygienic way
The production process of silk may seem simple but indeed has several steps. In fact, the process of creating silk fibres of the highest quality takes a few weeks to complete.
The process
The new born larvae of the silkworms are kept in a warm and stable environment and given plenty of mulberry leaves to feed them.
The silkworms produce cocoons around themselves to pupate. This process is done through spinning in which the worm secretes a dense fluid from its gland resulting in the fibre of the cocoon.The cocoons are sorted carefully according to size and quality.
Boiling water with soap is used to extract the silk fibres from the cocoon. This is known as the degumming process.
The outer shell of the cocoon is then fed into the spinning reel, which is operated manually. The long fibre threads that are extracted from the cocoon are then cleaned and stripped for any deficiency.
The silk fibres are ready to be made into products such as bedding and clothes.
Vijayalakshmi Sridhar
