SCREENING CHEMICAL FORMULATIONS FOR THE TEXTILE, FOOTWEAR & LEATHER INDUSTRIES

Achieving the variety of colors, styles and functionalities demanded by consumers, requires textile, footwear and leather manufacturers to use a wide variety of complex and chemically intensive processes. Over 9.3 million tons of chemicals are used globally every year in leather tanning and textile dyeing, washing, printing, and finishing. Chemicals that don’t end up in the final product are often discharged from the factory into the environment through air emissions and wastewater.

With so many different chemical formulations being used in production, it can be a challenge for manufacturers to ensure that every chemical they use is safe and regulatory compliant. It is especially difficult when the chemical lacks an MSDS or is delivered with an incomplete MSDS. This can easily be the case in countries where national regulations on chemical product disclosure are not properly enforced. In addition, small-scale producers may also lack an adequate quality control system or product stewardship program. The result can be the unintended presence of hazardous substances or impurities in chemical formulations.

If unsafe chemicals are applied during manufacturing, the final product may not conform to either a brand’s requirements and/or international product safety regulations. This can result in costly product recalls and a negative impact on a brand’s reputation. To mitigate against this risk, manufacturers must either ask chemical suppliers for proof of safety or test the chemicals to enhance the traceability and transparency of chemical information in the supply chain. This will allow manufacturers to achieve continuous improvements by identifying and phasing out hazardous chemicals used in their factories.

SECURING COMPLIANCE OF CHEMICAL FORMULATIONS BEFORE PRODUCTION

Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals(ZDHC) released a new version of the ZDHC MRSL V2.0 and ZDHCConformance Guidance V1.1 in 2019.
In Dec 2020, ZDHC updated the content of ZDHC MRSL V2.0 with some minor adjustment in the requirements,  released the latest version of ZDHC Conformance Guidance V1.2 to phase-out the information of Level 0with the modification of recommended test in Smart Testing Grid.

SGS Chemical Screening (SGS BRS300-2020) is an advanced, innovative and novel solution for commercially available chemical formulations used in the textile, footwear and leather supply chains. This solution can be used to screen chemicals commonly used in textile and leather wet processing, raw materials production, machinery maintenance, wastewater treatment, sanitation, etc.

To ensure this screening program is practical and applicable to industry, SGS’s panel of multi-disciplinary technical experts in the field of textile and leather chemistry has researched and assessed the relevancy of all target analytes to ensure the scope of the screening covers the list of substances per ZDHC MRSL V2.0