Torture The Fashion Of "Poison"

In July 13th and August 23rd, the international environmental protection organization "green" peace After more than one year of sampling survey, two survey reports have been published successively, weighing many well-known international and domestic clothing brands in industrial waste water discharged by two suppliers in China, containing a variety of toxic chemicals that are harmful to human health. Once the news is published, it is misunderstood by the public that wearing clothes containing "environmental hormone" will be harmful to the human body, but in fact, "environmental hormones" can affect the human body through the food chain.

After the release of the report, Clothing brand The performance varies. Among them, international brands obviously experience more quickly and react positively, while the way of handling domestic brands seems to be somewhat stiff and eager to show innocence. How to treat and deal with this incident is a test for the fashion industry.

To poison, we must first go to the poison of vanity.

Mr. Jing Xuefeng, the design director of Shenzhen Huan Jue clothing company, talks about the topic of environmental protection and gets unexpected views every time. Because the brand name calling brand is one of the few garment enterprises that focus on pure plant life in China, in the 8 years of operation, every link in the fashion manufacturing process has been included in the environmental protection plan. Their awareness and action led them to the forefront of similar enterprises in China. Although he says every time: "the scale of the brand is not large, there are only 30 outlets in the country. However, their brand integrity and creative level have made many people see the wonderful Chinese people's environmental fashion.

In August, when the "fashion poison" was hit by the Internet media, the reporter once again linked up the fashionable designer, Mr. Jing, who did not take the unusual road. Every time he talks about the polluters of fashion pollution, he has to smile helplessly. On the one hand, only by calling a company, he can not change the status quo. On the other hand, the level of local consumers in the aspect of fashion values is far from that of other countries, so that the brand's contribution to environmental protection is in a "high and low" state.

"When a brand is not just making money, it has to bear the mission of changing the market environment. Nowadays, a brand with a high starting point such as a caller is going to be more difficult to enter the shopping mall, but it also shows how insensitive the market environment is towards environmental protection. Bo Tao, a famous fashion designer in China, said.

Indeed, in recent years, to enter the shopping mall, it has cost too much money and time. In the process, observers found that "detoxification" is definitely not a task that brand enterprises can carry on.

Environmental protection is actually not environmentally friendly.

Reporter: Hello, Mr. Jing. Your company has always taken "environmental protection" as the brand objective. Is the clothing produced by your brand all non-toxic and harmless?

Jing Xuefeng: I can not tell myself that the brand of clothing must be "totally innocuous and pollution-free". Although the brand name product is much better than the similar brand product. For example, we had a cotton padded material instead of fur material last winter. This material can not be degraded. Our production is very small. From this point of view, our products will also cause some burden to the earth, and we are very concerned about this. {page_break}

Reporter: so how does your brand make products "green"?

Jing Xuefeng: at the beginning of our business, that is, 8 years ago, we asked our own brand products according to the national standards. It can be said that over the years, all our products will be produced according to national standards. But the trouble is, later we found that the national standard can not guarantee environmental protection.

Reporter: why do we say that national standards do not guarantee environmental protection?

Jing Xuefeng: it may be hard to understand this. The national standard does not have strict environmental requirements for the brand product testing requirements of the shopping mall, but the requirements for color fastness are relatively strict. Color fastness will cause great environmental pollution. As long as the brand products entering the market require the water to wash without decoloring, the more unbleached products are, the more difficult it is to ensure the pollution-free printing and dyeing.

Interviewer: is there any problem with all dyed textiles? What kind of technology can make dyeing get rid of the problem of public nuisance?

Jing Xuefeng: not only chemical staining will do harm to the environment, but also bleaching technology is harmful to the environment. However, there is no problem with a pure plant dyeing. In Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Yunnan, China has pure plant printing and dyeing technology, but washing water will definitely fade. Consumers do not understand that discoloration is not good enough, and the brightest the color is, the better. This is the frustration of many environmentally-friendly fashion designers. For example, the tannin cloth of the original jeans is woven from pure plant dyed yarns, and it will fade somewhat. But later, some people developed and designed new denim fabrics which are not decolorizing, so they call it "green denim fabric". In fact, the chemical industry printing and dyeing manufacturing process is very serious. Therefore, at some point, the environmental products that the public thinks is essentially not environmentally friendly.

Try not to poison the poison.

Reporter: does not decolorization, do not fade technology can not be non-toxic?

Jing Xuefeng: no decolorization and good color fastness is a direct convenience for consumers. It will not dye the skin into other colors. It will not stain other colors when washing in the washing machine. However, the chemical agents in the production process will destroy the plant tissue structure of fabric such as cotton and linen, and produce a lot of harmful waste water in the production process. We have not yet encountered any non staining printing and dyeing technology that is absolutely harmless to the environment. Therefore, we have no way to say that our products are "non-toxic, pollution-free". We are only looking for ways to reduce public nuisance in the course of operation. Therefore, using organic cotton is better than using ordinary cotton. {page_break}

Reporter: how much better is organic cotton than ordinary cotton?

Jing Xuefeng: organic planting makes plants and soil free from pesticide pollution. On the one hand, it is good for facing grey cloth, and on the other hand, it is good for soil environment. It can be said that common cotton fabrics already contain pesticide chemicals, and when they encounter printing and dyeing chemicals again, it can be described as "poison plus poison", and the situation will be much more complicated. However, the use of organic cotton fabrics will be much better. At least, consumers are faced with the influence of chemical agents left behind by printing and dyeing.

Reporter: most of the products that call for brand awareness are pure cotton, and how many of them are organic cotton products?

Jing Xuefeng: our company started making organic cotton products in the past year. 50% of this summer's products are organic cotton products. China has just started to use organic cotton, and domestic organic cotton is 30% more expensive than ordinary cotton. However, as domestic certification of organic products is not recognized internationally, we import more organic cotton. Most of the imported organic cotton is 30% more expensive than domestic organic cotton. So we chose Japan's organic landing regenerated cotton as the main fabric, so as to ensure that the product is simple, and in order to control the cost. Because this organic cotton is not as expensive as imported organic cotton at cost.

Reporter: when choosing grey cloth, this environmental protection criterion will affect your design creativity?

Jing Xuefeng: organic cotton has relatively few choices. This will bring some difficulties to the design work. At least, such selective production is much safer than those that are totally disregard for the environment, and the burden on the earth is much smaller.

Had to take the upper line.

Reporter: so taking into account the environmental conditions, we must bear the pressure of strong cost increase, will your company's profit margins be affected? After all, businesses should consider profits.

Jing Xuefeng: Yes. However, our enterprises themselves did not regard this as pressure, but instead regarded it as a challenge. However, another pressure comes from the threshold of channels. Our brand is going through shopping malls. Many shopping malls don't give us special treatment. As a result, the pressure of upstream raw material costs and channel pressure are very great. {page_break}

Reporter: it is said that you should bear the same buckles as other non environmental brands. Will this bring you some bad mood?

Jing Xuefeng: I am very confident in design. So, for 8 years, we have always taken the limited profit to do public welfare activities, or help the stray animals, or spread plant life. Even if we encounter many problems, we have never been in bad mood. Because doing environmental protection is not for others, but for ourselves. Although most people do not have enough knowledge of environmental protection and environmental protection, protecting the environment is still the obligation of every citizen.

Reporter: will such a cost increase affect the price of clothing products? Will the price too high affect the business performance of the brand?

Jing Xuefeng: for ordinary people, the price most concerned is, and for artists, celebrities and politicians, maybe the price problem becomes blurred. So, in our brand operation, these two years have been upgrading the positioning style, so that products can be designed on the basis of health and safety to use the creativity of the designer to conquer the consumers who are not too sensitive to the price.

Reporter: the price is too high, which means that the acceptance of the crowd is becoming less and less. Does the brand do not want to sell to more people?

Jing Xuefeng: of course, we also want a lot of people to wear our brand clothes, while passing on the concept of environmental protection and healthy lifestyle, and on the one hand, to make the business bigger. However, more popular fashion followers just follow the stars or follow the fashionable leaders, so it is difficult for them to enter the environmental protection fashion consumption first. Therefore, we think that we should first get a consensus among some high-income groups and be accepted, and the second step can be popularized. This brand development path will be smoother.

Walking inward

Reporter: what do you think of some fashion companies that are promoting themselves under the banner of environmental protection?

Jing Xuefeng: there are many brands under the banner of environmental protection, the real purpose is to make money. I personally feel that it is not a good way to publicize the brand under the banner of environmental protection, which will lead consumers astray. But think carefully about playing the banner. Because it may take many efforts to make life change. It is a long process. Maybe we can take the brand advertised under the "environmental protection" banner as the first step in the healthy consumption of the whole people.

Reporter: so, will you be misunderstood by others in protecting the environment, or is it the kind of brand that is gilded with environmental protection?

Jing Xuefeng: sometimes, maybe. However, we really did not regard environmental protection as a shortcut for South China. On the contrary, this is a very difficult road, which requires great courage. You can drift along like other businesses, so you don't need to take any effort to get confused and moved. Instead, it is very difficult to make changes. But harvest is also a brand that other brands follow. We have always been proud that our brand has not harmed any animal. Although our products will also use chemical fiber sewing thread, chemical stains will be used. However, we have already studied many feasible ways on this road. Although we can not say that it is totally pollution-free, we ask ourselves to minimize public hazards. I think this is the result of practicing yoga all the year round. I always find the connection between myself and the world in doing a thing. We firmly believe that no harm to the environment is a blessing to our soul. {page_break}

Interviewer: you told us before the interview that your Brand Company is very hard to work. Do you want any help from the government?

Jing Xuefeng: I imagine that one day my phone will be full of organic cotton suppliers, so that I can kill the price or sell three goods. We hope that the mall will give our brand a green channel. Ha ha, at this stage, there should not be too much hope. Government help? We certainly need it, but we still need to wait for it.

Reporter: I would like to ask, for such a fancy and environment-friendly clothing enterprise like you, if the pressure on the channel and the upstream cost pressure, which pressure needs to be solved as soon as possible?

Jing Xuefeng: these two problems are not the most important to me. The most important thing is the concept of mass consumers. They like luxury, like famous brands, wrinkles and shiny fabrics, and fur and silk. Therefore, fashion designers in the market have to satisfy their tastes to produce something that is very luxurious. These vanity has created the "fashion poison". Because most of the cheap products, but luxury products are chemical products. They will be very toxic. The production process will hurt the environment and consumers will wear themselves. Pure cotton pure linen is the most environmentally friendly choice of pure plants, but the mainstream aesthetic trend of society is not enough to advocate this kind of aesthetics. Therefore, mass fashion value is the most important issue. If we can arouse the awakening of popular fashion, the pressure of channel and the pressure of upstream cost will not be a problem.

Government to curb drug sources

The supply chain is complex, cost pressure is high, and market share is scattered. The inherent characteristics of China's textile and garment industry make it face some "helplessness future". How to make rational changes on the basis of respect for reality? The experience of textile industry in developed countries is worth learning from, and the electronic industry can also bring some useful enlightenment.

Developed countries: pressure on law to adopt alternatives

In the global textile and apparel economic map, although the production of textiles has mostly been transferred to China and other emerging economies, the European Union, the United States and Canada are still the world's leading textile exporting countries and regions. These developed countries still retain part of their production capacity, and they have experienced a gradual process in terms of laws and regulations and the implementation of pollution prevention and control plans. At present, the textile industry's emissions of specific toxic and harmful substances are no longer a serious problem.

As early as the 80s of last century, the textile industry in North Carolina (now migrated to India and China) flourished, and most of the wastewater from the public sewage treatment plant in the state came from the textile industry. Because the waste water discharged from the textile industry is toxic, it can not pass the toxicity test of the sewage treatment plant, and the waste water is also difficult to process. Therefore, the polluting enterprise must pay the sewage treatment cost. According to the state's "pollution prevention charge" plan, the root of the problem is APEO, especially the nonylphenol polyoxyethylene (NPEO). Linear polyethoxylates (LAEO) have the same function as NPEO and lower toxicity, but their cost is about 30% higher than that of NPEO, so the textile companies did not use LAEO at that time. {page_break}

In order to solve the waste water problem in the treatment plant, the first attempt in North Carolina was delayed aeration and later activated carbon, but these expensive methods could not prevent pollution. Later, the pollution control charge plan proved that the use of LAEO instead of APEO and NPEO could solve the problem of toxic and harmful emissions. The state's textile enterprises immediately switched to LAEO and passed the toxicity test of the plant successfully. This practice not only improves the quality of the environment, but also prevents stakeholders from spending heavily on the law. At that time, if the alternatives were not adopted, the high cost of sewage treatment would make it impossible for the relevant companies to continue operation. Thanks to a successful alternative, more than 100 companies continued to operate for more than 10 years.

In Canada, when the national laws confirm that NPEO is a toxic and harmful substance, the consumption of NPEO in the domestic textile industry has dropped significantly. By 2006, most textile mills met the target of 97% reduction in Canada's Ministry of environmental protection. Currently in Canada, NPEO is mainly used in the oil of knitwear and knitwear production equipment. HafnerInc is Canada's largest manufacturer of furniture and elastic woven fabrics. Its annual emissions from NPEO dropped from 6800 kilograms in 2001 to 68 kilograms in 2003, while its chemical oxygen demand decreased by half, thereby saving 15000 of the company's sewage charges annually.

Electronics industry: leading enterprises take the lead in improving

The popularity of electronic products has also caused the electronics industry to face pollution problems. However, the leading enterprises in the industry have taken the lead in improving their products and greatly promoted their green process.

In recent years, the electronics industry has adopted measures in the two stages of the product life cycle, design and processing, to reduce the toxic and hazardous substances emitted by the disposal or recycling of discarded products (also known as electronic wastes). The emphasis is on reducing the use of brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). These substances exist in e-waste and produce a large number of toxic by-products, and these by-products are released through the "informal recycling" commonly used in countries such as China and India. The release of these by-products will endanger the local environment and the health of the workers.

To this end, NOKIA, Sony Ericsson and apple and other leading mobile phone companies took the lead in redesigning their electronic products in order to stop using the above two kinds of toxic and harmful substances. It is estimated that by 2012, more than half of the mobile phones and personal computers in the market will no longer use PVC and BFR. The actions of these brands are even more advanced than the requirements of EU electronic product regulations. At present, EU electronic products regulations are not restricted to BFR or PVC.

Moreover, a number of international electronic brands are also implementing recycling projects in the countries where their products are sold and those which do not exist relevant recycling laws, such as the EU Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment, and recycle their electronic wastes.

These cases prove that it is feasible for a brand enterprise to voluntarily assume responsibility for the environmental impact caused by its products. This practice is practical and feasible, especially before the relevant laws are promulgated. Especially for countries that cannot implement relevant laws or laws in the near future, the voluntary behavior of enterprises is particularly important, which plays a major role in the formulation of laws and regulations.

How to make yourself safer: Interview with Jiang Hong, technical director of consumer goods division of SGS group, Asia Pacific Region

Recently, Greenpeace released a series of investigation reports called "fashion poison", which made several famous brand clothes fall into a "drug related" storm. For a while, the pollution problem of the textile and garment industry has aroused the concern of the whole society. How to ensure that their products meet the corresponding environmental requirements, how to grasp the current requirements of product safety performance in various countries has become a problem that many enterprises need to solve immediately.

To help enterprises enhance their safety performance and comply with domestic and foreign laws and regulations on textiles and clothing, the world's leading third party testing, testing, certification and certification organization will organize a series of roving seminars in the Asia Pacific region in recent years. Besides focusing on the use of NPEO in textile and garment industry, it will also propose solutions to control chemical substances in textile and garment supply chain. SGS Before the seminar, the reporter interviewed Dr. Jiang Hong, technical director of the consumer goods division of the SGS group in several hot topics.

Reporter: will SGS hold a series of seminars on "textile and clothing chemical substance control"? Is it because Greenpeace has released a series of survey reports called "fashion poison"?

Jiang Hong: SGS's chemical control project has been in operation for several years from R & D to concrete implementation. Protecting the earth, sustainable development, minimizing chemicals and reducing the impact on the environment has always been our company's strategic policy. Recently, NGO has released reports on brands and manufacturers, which has attracted the attention of the entire textile supply chain, giving us the opportunity to work closely with Chinese and international enterprises.

Reporter: what do you think of a series of investigation reports released by Greenpeace?

Jiang Hong: I have always appreciated the principles and ideas of Greenpeace, though the chemicals they are concerned about are not necessarily reflected in laws and regulations. There are many laws and regulations in the world, such as REACH, the Washington children's safety products act and so on, all of which are control of chemicals. The quantity and type of chemicals are different from each other, and the requirements for final goods and chemicals themselves are different. For example, recent attention to NPEO has not yet been provided with NPEO requirements for final items. Therefore, this advanced concept of green environmental organizations is praiseworthy. Their demand is to guide the trend. We also hope that all sectors of the textile manufacturing industry, chemical manufacturing industry and so on are heading in this direction.

Reporter: can you talk about the use of NPEO in the textile and garment industry?

Jiang Hong: APEO includes nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (NPEO) 80% - 85%, octyl phenol polyoxyethylene ether (OPEO) account for more than 15%, twelve alkylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (DPEO) and two nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (DNPEO) each account for 1%. APEO series products have many excellent functions such as wetting, permeating, emulsifying, dispersing, solubilizing, decontamination and so on. Therefore, there are many varieties and large quantities used in textile auxiliaries. The annual consumption of alkyl phenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO) is 880 million pounds, of which more than 80% are nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (NPEO).

The restriction on APEO content in ecological textiles and clothing seems to be a matter of printing and dyeing enterprises, but in fact, the production chain is inseparable from the close cooperation of auxiliaries. In the face of the prohibition of APEO, we should first attach importance to it and take effective measures to eliminate production and use of auxiliaries containing APEO. However, according to the actual situation, it is difficult to stop or eliminate in the short term.

Reporter: after the release of the report on "fashion poison", some of the enterprises involved have different public responses. Some of them are positive and committed. Others do not admit, ignore it. How do you see this?

Jiang Hong: as far as I know, the brand represented by Adidas and Puma has put forward a plan to eliminate all the toxic and harmful substances in its supply chain and products by 2020. This is quite positive. Chinese enterprises or brands should also respond positively to the world trend at the first time. If not, I think it will have a certain negative impact on the brand. Consumers will also feel that there is a problem with such brands. As a result, enterprises will not have a foothold in the society.

Reporter: how do you think the enterprise can ensure that its products meet the corresponding requirements of chemical substances regulations?

Jiang Hong: I think every enterprise should have its own chemical control system. For all kinds of laws and regulations and NGO (non-governmental organizations) requirements, enterprises must read the original text and fully understand the specific contents. After understanding, the enterprise will know what these requirements are currently achieved by the enterprise, and match with the current situation of their own enterprises, so as to work out a set of management and control system suitable for them.

Reporter: there are many laws and regulations on textiles. Are there any links between them?

Jiang Hong: our country's basic safety regulations for textiles are GB18401, which stipulates several items, including azo dyes, formaldehyde, pH value, color fastness and smell. In the European Union's REACH, appendix 17 provides for the requirements of 60 chemical substances. The Washington children's Safety Products Act (CSPA) stipulates 66 chemicals and so on. Although there are some differences in the specific varieties of the chemicals in these regulations, they are all issued from the perspective of safety. {page_break}

Reporter: so how can enterprises control the chemical safety requirements of products in all countries in time?

Jiang Hong: there are always some updated versions of laws and regulations, so there are three basic points in my proposal: first, enterprises have the expertise to understand the changes in this area; two, product safety issues need great attention in the management of the company. It is better for a team to specialize in this aspect of work. There is a complete set of chemical safety management and control system. Three, it is also important for all relevant personnel of enterprises to understand the knowledge and information about chemicals. An enterprise should pay attention to every link of the industrial chain. For example, MSDS (material safety data sheet), enterprises need to know what MSDS is and why there is MSDS. But now, from a global perspective, enterprises do not know enough about this aspect.

Reporter: what did you mention just now, MSDS, what is MSDS? What information can enterprises learn from it?

Jiang Hong: with the enhancement of the consciousness of safe use and disposal of harmful chemicals in the production industry, more and more groups begin to pay attention to material safety data sheet (MSDS). Many countries and regions require chemical manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that MSDS is provided to downstream users in the entire production chain. For example, REACH regulations in Europe have put forward relevant requirements for MSDS. MSDS is a document showing the potential hazards (environmental, health and safety) information and how to safely use certain chemicals. The material safety data sheet provides information on the use, storage, disposal and emergency response related to material hazards, which includes more information than ordinary labels. Material safety data sheets are made by suppliers or producers of materials. Enterprises can learn 16 kinds of information, such as physical and chemical characteristics, dangerous signs, stability and reactivity, and ecotoxicology information.

Reporter: in view of the chemicals control in the textile and garment supply chain, what do you think the solution is?

Jiang Hong: we think that the most effective way is upstream control. Based on this concept, SGS's ecological process services can provide a comprehensive solution for chemical control and help customers identify and solve the safety problems of chemical products in the textile production process. The ecological process is the core of preventing the introduction of restricted chemicals, rather than relying solely on the safety testing of the final products. We can help customers implement chemical control over the entire production process and provide comprehensive services such as training to ensure the safety of the final product. At the same time, we can customize and implement the consumer safety strategy for our customers, effectively enhance the global competitiveness of textile producers, help them overcome all kinds of green and safe trade barriers, and make their safety and quality acceptable to the global consumers.

Reporter: in addition to setting an example, do you think the state related organizations or industry associations should provide guidance or support to enterprises?

Chiang Hong: at the national level, we should regularly publish the latest information on some laws and regulations in the world, and trade associations should also publish and conduct related training regularly. In addition, the third party just like SGS has more contacts with laws and regulations, and is also responsible for sharing the information and solutions they know.