Patagonia responds to latest Greenpeace protest over “complex challenge” of PFCs
09/09/2015
Using its blog, Patagonia updated an existing post on PFCs on September 8 following a new report from Greenpeace implicating outdoor brands’ use of PFCs in their clothing and footwear. Greenpeace said it had found traces of PFCs in samples of snow and lakewater from the Alps and other remote parts of the world that are popular with climbers, walkers, skiers and other outdoor enthusiasts. The campaign group made (but did not explain) a link between the presence of PFCs in the samples and the ongoing use of the chemistry in high-end outdoor jackets and footwear.
In its statement, Patagonia said: “For the past decade, we’ve carefully researched and tested every available fluorocarbon-free alternative. Many finishes, including waxes and silicones, will lower the surface tension of a fabric enough to cause water to bead up and disperse rather than saturate. But they are easily contaminated by dirt and oil and rapidly lose their effectiveness, reducing the effective lifetime of a garment.
“The short life span is of special concern. A rain shell that stops preventing saturation functionally degrades into a wind shell long before the garment itself wears out. The garment must be replaced more frequently, which constitutes its own environmental problem. Every replacement garment comes with its own environmental cost in energy and water used and waste and greenhouse gases generated. So sacrificing garment life is not an option.”
Patagonia’s “temporary” solution, also being adopted by other brands and manufacturers, is to move from long-chain PFCs, also known as C8-based treatments, to shorter-chain C6 ones. It said that its transition out of C8 is “nearly complete” and that its spring 2016 line will contain no C8-based durable water-resistant (DWR) finishes.
However, Patagonia said in the same statement that this move from C8 to C6 is “not good enough”, even though it is the best option the brand has found so far. It said its research has shown that shorter-chain C6 treatments, although they are also fluorocarbon-based, have by-products that break down faster in the environment and have less potential toxicity over time, to humans, wildlife and fish.
It said it was continuing its own research into DWR chemistries that will afford high performance with less environmental impact. It added: “We have so far tested about a dozen fluorocarbon-free finishes for our garments, and we know we’re getting close. We will share news about these initiatives as it becomes available. However, we don’t feel comfortable promising a path forward that hasn’t yet been identified. That simply isn’t fair given the complexity of this challenge.”
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