Greenpeace Report: Fourteen Clothing Brands Suspected Of Pollution

Environmental protection group Greenpeace released an investigation report in July 13th, saying that 14 global clothing brands have not been able to effectively solve their suppliers' toxic and hazardous substances and cause water pollution in China.

This is called "fashion poison": the global clothing brand of China.

The two suppliers of the brand are YOUNGOR textile industrial city located in the Yangtze River Delta and Zhongshan Guotai dyeing and finishing Co., Ltd. in the Pearl River Delta.

Li Yifang, director of the Greenpeace pollution prevention project, said that 14 companies have acknowledged to Greenpeace their supply relationship with suppliers through written or e-mail.

According to the survey, two suppliers discharged various toxic substances to the waters of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta respectively.

The EU controls these substances. China also listed nonylphenol in the list of "strictly restricting import and export of toxic chemicals" in January 2011.

Event related party YOUNGOR textile industrial city (hereinafter referred to as)

Liu Xinyu, Secretary of YOUNGOR's listed company, explained to the newspaper that the assets of YOUNGOR Textile City are no longer in the listed companies.

In May 2010, YOUNGOR changed its holdings from holding to shareholding.

Two major clothing bases involved?

The YOUNGOR textile industrial city is located along the Fenghua River in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

The industrial city, established by YOUNGOR group in 2003 for investment of 1 billion yuan, has become one of the largest high-end garment and textile production bases in China.

According to the survey report, there are sustained or recent supply relationships between the textile city and 11 of the 14 garment brands mentioned above, including its own brand YOUNGOR.

In reply to the fax, YOUNGOR said, "YOUNGOR Sino Japan Textile Co., Ltd. will take a serious and responsible attitude towards the problems raised by you and do the relevant work well."

Greenpeace investigators went to the industrial city in June 2010 and March 2011 to collect their sewage samples.

The drainage pipe of the textile city is directly connected to the sewage treatment plant located in the southeast corner, and the sewage pipe discharged the treated sewage into the Fenghua river.

The two collection of sewage samples was then sent to the laboratory of Exeter University in England and the Omegam environmental analysis laboratory in Holland.

The test showed that although the sewage samples were treated by the sewage treatment plant, they still contained a variety of toxic and harmful substances, including environmental hormones, nonylphenol and a variety of perfluorinated compounds.

Nonylphenol is an artificial chemical that can be accumulated in the food chain and is also a hormone disruptor.

The results indicate that YOUNGOR Textile City may discharge this substance in the Fenghua river for a long time or at least periodically.

Perfluorinated compounds are also man-made chemicals and are difficult to degrade. They are widely used in waterproofing, oil proofing and antifouling treatment of textiles.

Greenpeace detection shows that the concentration of perfluorinated compounds in sewage samples is higher than that in surface water.

Especially perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).

PFOA and PFOS have adverse effects on the liver of rodents and monkeys.

Perfluorinated compounds are also hormonal disruptors.

Another case, Zhongshan Guotai dyeing and finishing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cathay dyeing and finishing") is located in Gaoping industrial area of Zhongshan City Triangle Town, Guangdong province. The two tributaries of the Huang Sha Lek waterway are dyeing and finishing with high Shahe around Guotai.

The yellow sand drainage channel is part of the Pearl River Delta and finally flows into the South China Sea.

Abercrombie &Fitch, PVH Corp, Lining and Metersbonwe confirmed to Greenpeace that Cathay Pacific dyeing and finishing is their supplier.

The sewage treatment plant located at the northwest corner of Cathay Pacific dyeing and finishing plant discharged the treated sewage into the aforementioned waterway through the drain pipe.

Greenpeace discovered a variety of organic chemicals in sewage samples collected in June 2010, including two kinds of alkylphenols, including nonylphenol (NP) and octyl phenol (OP).

The danger of NP and OP is to mimic natural estrogens.

This will change the sexual development of some organisms, the most significant of which is the feminization of fish.

DNA may also be damaged in human lymphocytes.

In reply to green peace issued by Metersbonwe's public relations department, the relevant party said that the company had questioned the Cathay Pacific dyeing and finishing process, and the factory has issued environmental protection certificates issued by the state environmental protection department and the international Third Party organizations. However, "the time limit has some limitations".

Cai Minxu, Metersbonwe's public relations manager, said he plans to adopt a more rigorous green assessment system for all suppliers and encourage EMS environmental management system certification.

Whether pollution disputes exist?

However, Liu Xinyu, Secretary of the board of directors of YOUNGOR listed company (600177.SH), told the newspaper that YOUNGOR had hired an international independent third party testing body to detect the sewage. The test report showed "normal" and the report was also sent to Greenpeace, and the two sides are in communication.

According to the official statement of YOUNGOR Textile City, the standard of upstream dyes is referred to European Oeko-Tex 100, while the AAFA RSL restricted substances list and the European REACH regulations are also used.

Greenpeace Li side explained that YOUNGOR hired another testing body, SGS.

The SGS test showed that the PFOA value of the pollutants (0.36 mg per litre) was also greater than the value in the Greenpeace report (0.13-0.14 mg per litre); at the same time, the two values of PFOS and NP were not detected.

Li Yifang analyzed the cause of "not detected". For example, the minimum limit of SGS detection is 0.5 milligrams per litre in the case of NP value, that is, the concentration of NP in water will be detected above this amount. The minimum limit of Greenpeace is 14 micrograms per litre.

However, 6 brands such as Bauer Hockey, Converse, Cortefiel, H&M, Nike and Puma have indicated to Greenpeace that the clothing has not been wet treated in YOUNGOR textile industrial city.

Wet processing requires the use and discharge of large quantities of water, and a large amount of chemicals are used for fabric treatment.

Wet processing will produce a large number of toxic and harmful substances.

Nike said the company's supplier factories in YOUNGOR Textile City are tailoring and sewing processes, excluding chemical use (that is, excluding wet treatment).

Greenpeace Li Fang said that it had not conducted any further investigation and verification on the statement that the 6 brands did not carry out wet processing. However, these enterprises could not guarantee that the suppliers did not discharge toxic and harmful substances.

Greenpeace report: Fourteen clothing brand pollution