Manufacturing with zero emissions

A number of major brands intend to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals from manufacturing to zero by 2020.

by John Hubbard

Europe has developed stringent legislation which imposes strict limits on emissions of harmful chemicals to air, water and land and has introduced restrictions effectively prohibiting the use of such chemicals in manufacture within Europe. However, this legislation and restriction is not in force in the regions where many of the shoes and garments destined for the European market are actually manufactured.

A recent report published highlighted the presence of nonyl phenol and nonyl phenol ethoxylate in footwear and apparel purchased in Europe (click here to read SATRA Bulletin article on this subject). While the levels did not make the products illegal to sell with respect to the requirements of the European legislation, the concentration did indicate the these chemicals have been used during the manufacturing process typically as wetting agents or detergents. The argument from the campaign group is that because these chemicals have been recognised as harmful to human health and the environment by the European authorities, it is not acceptable to continue to expose individuals to their effects, no matter where in the world the manufacture takes place.

Collective action

In response to this report and other campaigns, a number of major worldwide brands came together to commit to the phasing out of discharges of harmful chemicals from their manufacturing facilities by 2020. This is a major commitment which has been welcomed by campaign groups. However, in starting this initiative (entitled ‘The road to zero’) there are a number of major challenges that shoemakers must confront.

In order to determine the requirements to move towards zero emissions, the technological background needs to be established. This includes which chemicals to focus on and what levels will require action. Zero emissions will be taken as ‘not increasing the levels of the target substances during the manufacturing process’, so inlet water to a facility will need to be characterised for specific parameters to ensure that the outlet levels are at least no higher than the inlet value. This means that in some parts of the world, the absolute levels of substances in the water will be higher than others. One reason to adopt the approach of comparing the outlet and inlet measurements is because, as improvements are made in the technology and methodology of measuring the presence of potentially harmful substances in water, even smaller trace quantities can be detected.

The initial focus will be on 11 substances or groups of substances:

• Phthalates
• Brominated and chlorinated flame retardants
• Azo dyes (capable of breaking down to carcinogenic amines)
• Organotin compounds
• Chlorobenzenes
• Chlorinated solvents
• Chlorophenols
• Short chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs)
• Heavy metals (cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium)
• Alkyl Phenol Ethoxylates (APEOs)
• Perfluorinated chemicals (PFOS/PFOA).

The first nine of these chemicals are included in many companies’ Restricted Substances List (RSL). Therefore, steps should have been taken to remove them from the supply chain. The first task is for participants to carry out a benchmarking exercise to ensure that discharges from their factories are, in fact, free from these chemicals. If any are detected, the source will need to be tracked back and a proposal developed to eliminate from the supply chain.

APEOs have been used extensively as detergents and degreasing agents. Developing a reliable source of alternatives will be the first step, after which using these alternatives should be implemented across the supply chain.

Perfluorinated chemicals are used to impart stain and water repellency to textiles, and have been withdrawn in Europe for a number of years. The chemicals of concern are the ‘C8’ fluorinated compounds, so there is an initial proposal to move towards ‘C6’ technology that is currently acceptable to global regulators.

However, because of the implementation of the European REACH regulation over the period covered by this project, there is likely to be an increase in the number of chemicals that are restricted from use in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) region. Almost certainly, campaign organisations will want to see global action taken with regard to these chemicals.

The implementation of this programme will require the development of an infrastructure of laboratories capable of carrying out analysis of discharges from factories – particularly from water, but also for the emission to air.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 38 of the July/August 2012 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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