Greenpeace turns Detox spotlight on mainstream fashion brands
22/11/2012
The campaign group relaunched its Detox campaign, to encourage clothing brands to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their supply chains by 2020, in Beijing on November 20. This campaign began last year and initially targetted sports brands, most of whom were already working to eliminate toxic chemicals from all aspects of production associated with their clothes.
This time, more mainstream clothing brands were the focus. The group issued a new report entitled “Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up”, naming 20 leading fashion brands, including Zara, Levi’s, Armani and Calvin Klein. “Our investigations found that many of the clothing items tested were contaminated with hazardous chemicals that break down to form hormone-disrupting and even cancer-causing substances when released into the environment,” Greenpeace said.
Asked by sportstextiles.com which chemicals it had found, Detox campaign co-ordinator, Martin Hojsik, said the tested products contained nonylphenol ethoxylates. Mr Hojsik added that these substances “break down in nature to nonylphenol, phthalates toxic for reproduction, and azo dyes that break down to carcinogenic anilines”.
He said chemical screening had also identified “many different industrial chemicals or chemical groups, five of which are classified as toxic or very toxic to aquatic life”.
He accepted that the presence of the chemicals in the clothing products tested were within limits set by legislation and that in some cases there are no limits set currently. “But it is important to note that there are number of restrictions for both nonylphenol ethoxylates and phthalates in the EU and elsewhere, so they are recognised as hazardous chemicals by governments,” he added. “The best way to deal with such hazardous chemicals is to substitute them for safer alternatives. That is where the fashion brands need to lead and governments follow.”
Zara’s parent company, Inditex, also gave us a statement following the new Greenpeace announcement. It said it applies “stringent quality controls to 100% of our products, with the most demanding and highest accuracy levels”. Meeting the regulations it lays down is mandatory for all Inditex suppliers worldwide and compliance is regularly audited.
It said it has sent Greenpeace test results on its products from independent laboratories showing that garments from Zara and its other brands “totally comply with health standards, security and environmental respect”.
On November 19, the day before the Greenpeace announcement, Inditex wrote to the campaign group saying: “Inditex reaffirms its environmental commitment and its public transparency and communication policy, with absolute respect to all parties, including suppliers, and we reiterate our willingness to take the necessary actions to reach, in the shortest time possible, the common goal of Zero Discharge of hazardous substances in textiles.”
This was not enough to prevent Greenpeace from including Zara in its new report. Furthermore, Greenpeace singled the Inditex brand out at the end of its November 20 announcement, encouraging its supporters to protest in Zara stores.
Following the announcement, Greenpeace came in for some criticism because it has had to withdraw from sale to supporters T-shirts and other clothing with slogans that highlight the Detox campaign for the simple reason that it cannot find suppliers who can guarantee to meet the conditions it is attempting to impose on the apparel industry. It said: “We have stopped selling all textile products until suppliers are able to provide us with transparent information proving that they are able to produce clothing using zero hazardous chemicals throughout their supply chains.”
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