|
In China, the concept of eco-textiles originated from the German
Food and Consumer Goods Act (Second Amendment) issued on Jul 15,
1994. It prohibited the use of azo dyestuffs with cancer-causing
aromatic amines in textiles and consumer goods. The Act had no
significant impact on the Chinese textile industry as whole, but
it did generate serious attention from the government, industry
associations, and academia.
The publication of the Act clearly showed that world consumer
protection trends were focused on eco-safety and environmental
friendliness. Legislative bodies and government authorities of
different countries, as well as manufacturers and suppliers of
consumer goods, began to take the responsibility, in various
ways, of making sure that consumers could buy products that are
safe for human health and the environment. As the largest
manufacturer and exporter of textiles and garments, China relies
on the international market for 35% of its revenue, and the
textile industry plays a critical role in China's national
economy. So, whether China's textile industry can adapt to this
global trend towards eco-textiles and shoulder the social
responsibility of eco-safety will greatly influence the
development and structure of international trade in textiles and
garments. For this reason, the Chinese government attaches great
importance to eco-textile regulation.
When it initially published the Act, the German government
didn't provide related testing methodologies or detailed
implementing measures, so the Act didn't come into actual
practice until the German government issued official testing
methodology in 1998. During this period, big textile and garment
importers including those from other EU countries and Japan
began to study this issue, Holland and Austria published similar
regulations, and the EU issued draft legislation in 1998
prohibiting use of azo dyestuffs containing cancer-causing
aromatic amines. At the same time, Chinese experts began to
introduce the concept of eco-textile related laws and
regulations, production and testing technologies and quality
control measures in China. These allowed Chinese manufacturers,
importers and exporters of textiles and garments, government
authorities and standardization bodies to get a quick overview
of the concepts of eco-textiles and their trends.
 Three indicators can reveal the speed of China's reaction to
this issue. One is that since 1995 when I published my first
article, until 1998, there have been about 300 articles
published on the subject of eco-textiles. The second indicator
is that early in 1995, a Chinese team led by myself began
researching and studying related testing standards. The team
published five national standards on testing methodology for azo
dyestuffs, heavy metals and formaldehyde, which were consistent
with the official testing standards published by the German
government. The third is the book titled “Prohibited Dyestuffs
and the Substitutes”, coauthored by myself and the renowned
Chinese dye expert Chen Rongqi, which for the first time gave
detailed information about the reasons for prohibiting the use
of azo dyestuffs containing cancer-causing aromatic amines, the
names, types and categorization of the suspected azo dyestuffs
and their chemical structures, usage, manufacturers and related
testing technology and methodology. The book was recognized as
the only practical monograph and reference book in the world on
prohibited azo dyestuffs and substitute technology. To keep in
step with scientific trends and development, the book was
amended and supplemented in 1998, and circulation has exceeded
40,000 copies to date.
In 1999, the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 came into China as an
eco-textile certification scheme and gained wide acceptance in a
short time. As the Chinese government and textile industry were
not quite familiar with eco-textiles at that time, the promotion
of the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 gave them a good understanding of
eco-textiles and the requirements set by international standards
for the first time, especially in the EU market. The industry
vision in China was also expanded beyond the simple limitation
values of prohibited azo dyestuffs, extractable heavy metals and
formaldehyde to eco-safety requir-ements for cancer-causing
dyestuffs, allergy-causing dyestuffs, pesticide, organic
chlorine carriers, PCP, etc. With few channels to acquire
additional information and Oeko-Tex as the only service to
promote eco-textile certification in China, for a certain period
of time, most Chinese enterprises and organizations believed
that Oeko-Tex Standard 100 was the international eco-textile
standard, and an Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificate was the
passport to the international market. In actuality, there are
more than 20 eco-textile certification standards in the world,
especially in the EU, and legally, the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is
not even an international standard. According to Oeko-Tex
statistics, the company had certified 695 companies and issued
742 certificates in China by June 2006, but their certification
has still not been officially recognized by the Chinese
government up until now.
 Nonetheless, its professional and authoritative image and
recognition by many overseas buyers won Oeko-Tex Standard 100
acceptance by Chinese textile industry and authorities. In
January 2000, the State Environmental Protection Administration
of China issued HJBZ 30-2000, the Certifiable Technical
Requirements for Environ-mental Labeling Products - Ecotypic
Textile as the technical standard for eco-textiles to apply for
China's environmental label. The Requirements had taken Oeko-Tex
Standard 100-1999 as reference, but with no appropriate testing
methodology in place, the certifications were faulty in terms of
testing and inspection processes. The Chinese government had
made great efforts to promote China's certification of
environmental labeling products among the Chinese textile
industry, but saw little effect. According to the China
Environmental Labeling Certification Consultation Center, the
Center had issued only 95 certificates up to October 2006. The
mild response may be due to two main factors; one is that the
certification is voluntary in China, not obligatory; the second
is that the certification had not obtained recognition by
overseas buyers, and as such it is of little value to Chinese
textile exporters.
In 2002, the General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine of China officially published a
national recommended standard GB/T 18885-2002 Technical
Requirements for Eco-Textiles, which had taken Oeko-Tex Standard
100-2002 as a reference, but its utility was also questionable
due to lack of testing methodologies. However, as the first
national eco-textile standard, its significance was beyond
question. In the same year, studies on related testing
methodologies began, and most of the corresponding testing
methods have been approved by China's national standards and
published. It is expected that in 2007, all the national
standards and related testing methods will come into execution.
On Nov 27 2003, after years of effort, strict examination, and
reporting to the WTO, the first national obligatory standard on
eco-textile safety (GB18401-2003 National General Safety
Technical Regulations for Textile Products) was officially
issued, signifying a big step in China legislation towards the
standardization of the eco-textile industry. In China,
obligatory standards have the same legal force as laws, with
which all products sold in China must comply. The Regulations,
effective from Jan 1, 2005, cover garments and decorative
textiles with natural or chemical fibers as their main
materials. The test items include: pH value, formaldehyde
content, colorfa-stness (to water, acidic perspiration, alkaline
perspiration, dry rubbing and saliva), prohibited azo dyestuffs
and peculiar odors. Compared with some of the current
international eco-textile standards, this obligatory standard
selects only five basic factors to determine the ecological
safety of textiles, and establishes the concept of 'basic
safety', which lays down the basic requirement of doing no harm
to human health. Obviously, this is a relative concept.
Generally speaking, textile products contain various hazardous
substances that may harm human health in different degrees. As a
basic technical regulation with wide application, it was not the
intention of the Regulations to be aligned with higher standards
and jump developments in terms of technology and enforceability.
Hence, the Regulations are not meant to be perfect. At the same
time, besides the technical requirements related to dyes and
chemicals, the Regulations don't cover the harm that can be
caused by products due to mechanical and physical features.
In addition, the Regulations are intended to be aligned with
commonly used international standards in the testing of items,
however, there are still some problems to be resolved in
practice. In particular, some testing methods are different from
those of the EU and other countries as to technical conditions
and assessment methods. Fortu-nately, the Chinese
standardization authority follows the principle of keeping in
line with international practices in establishing national
standards for testing methods, so until now nearly all key
testing methods have been drafted with reference to mature EU or
international standards. This means that both exporting and
importing textiles will comply with similar stand-ards to reduce
unnecessary confusion. This will facilitate China's exports, and
pave the way for international brands to enter the wide China
market.
 Through 12 years of development, the concept of eco-textiles has
found its way deep into the Chinese textile industry. Especially
with the growth of eco-textile standardization in China,
eco-textile safety testing has become a basic requirement for
Chinese textile products. Testing services for eco-textile
compliance are expanding fast. Most exports, especially those to
Europe and the U.S. are all required to submit to eco-safety
testing. Because testing reports issued by Chinese testing
organizations are still not accepted by most international
buyers, eco-safety testing for Chinese textiles and garments are
mostly undertaken by the laboratories set up in China by
world-recognized third party testing and inspection services.
Among them, Intertek has a 60% market share, and the rest is
divided among SGS, BV, TUV and the local Chinese administrations
of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, etc. In the
mean time, various eco-textile certifications have emerged in
mainland China by different organizations, but the standards
that mainly apply are GB18401-2003 National General Safety
Technical Regulations for Textile Products and GB/T18885-2002
Technical Requirements for Eco-textiles and HJBZ 30-2000
Certifiable Technical Requirements for the Environmental
Labeling of Products - Ecotypic Textile. Because they were not
obligatory, promotion of these certifications didn't bring the
desired results; they are unrecognized by international buyers
and most Chinese enterprises, and their potential for
profit-making to Chinese companies is minimal. Most
certification organizations do not have the basic expertise and
testing ability, and are unable to solve practical problems for
companies. Most of the certifications issued were only based on
the testing of samples without factory audits; so in a market of
questionable integrity, this kind of certification is unable to
provide indication of the real quality of an enterprise or
product.
This was also a common problem in other countries. With
different aims of certification, standards, processes and
abilities, there was still no mature and universally accepted
standard at this time. To ameliorate this situation, Intertek
developed the Intertek Eco-Certification Scheme in 2004, which
is more comprehensive, flexible and widely applicable with
strict on-site factory audits and post inspection processes.
Through these practices, this scheme has become acceptable to
more and more international buyers and Chinese enterprises.
From May 1, 2006, the General Administration of Quality
Supervision and the Inspection and Quarantine Administration of
China implemented a new industry standard, SN/T1649-2005 Safety
Inspection Regulations for Imported and Exported Textiles, which
is an improvement in eco-textile testing. According to the
Regulations, all textile products coming into China will be
tested against GB18401-2003 in sample batches, by a percentage
of 5-15%. At the same time, textile
 products for export will
also be required to undergo testing at the same percentage for
compliance with the laws and standards of the importing
countries. Textile manufacturers, exporters, and distri-butors
already operating in or preparing to enter the China market
should note that that all textile products sold in China shall
meet three obligatory standards in addition to related quality
requirements: national standards GB18401-2003, GB5296.4-1998
Usage Instructions on Consumer Goods - Textiles and Garments,
and Chinese textile industry standard FZ/T01053-1998 Textile -
Labeling of Fiber Content. The above three standards are the
basic indicators for market random sample testing of textile
products by related authorities.
In 2005, China's textile and garment exports exceeded 117.5
billion U.S. dollars, including 18.863 billion going to the EU
and 19.576 billion going to the U.S. It is estimated that
China's textile and garments exports will surpass 140 billion US
dollars in 2006 with 20% increase to EU and 10% increase to the
U.S. For textile exports to EU and U.S, eco-safety has become a
basic requirement, and it is believed that in the coming few
years, eco-safety will also become a basic requirement for
textile products in the Chinese market. ¨
|
