With the aim of promoting comprehensive management of textile products and processes throughout the supply chain, Swiss certification company OEKO-TEX recently introduced a new program for sustainable textile chemicals, called Eco Passport.
Eco Passport will enable textile processing chemicals and chemical compounds’ manufacturers to check whether or not their products can be used in sustainable textile production. It will include a three-step evaluation process, whose result can be used by the applicant to confirm internal quality control and occupational safety guidelines, and create safer and more sustainable formulations, if required.
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The three-step process includes – firstly, the comparison of the formulas of the chemical substances via CAS number (chemical abstracts service) against the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Restricted Substance List (RSL) and the STeP by OEKO-TEX Manufacturing RSL, then each ingredient is evaluated against 22 health and environmental criteria, and finally, to confirm that the product does not contain any unintended by-products or contaminants, an analytical verification is performed.
Eco Passport is granted only to the products that pass all three phases, as it implies that it is safe for consumers, textile industry workers, and the environment. The verification process is currently in pilot mode and will be launched early this summer.
