While many major clothing companies are cleaning up their acts others are lagging behind. This constitutes a dangerous reputational risk for those who ignore consumer desires for safer and healthier clothing. The most common reason that companies use of toxins is due to the mistaken belief that there are no alternatives or that it is too expensive.
The Putex treatment proves that textiles can be made without toxins that are injurious to human health. Greenpeace has done a wonderful job urging consumers to put pressure directly on manufacturers. So far 20 brands have adopted Greenpeace's "detox" standards to clean-up their clothing lines.
There are a number of companies that have provided alternatives to the toxins in clothing commonly in use. German company Purtex which is responding to consumer demand for safe and healthy textiles.
Purtex has a number of eco-friendly alternatives for the textile industry. For example they use a water-based treatment to repel moisture from textiles. When it comes to softeners like phthalates, they use emulsifiers that are completely biogradable and free from fluorocarbons like PFOE and PFOA, or metals like antimony.
Greenpeace advocates cleaning supply chains as the fastest way to prevent chemicals from entering the environment. However, supply chains are often complex including around 100 to 200 direct suppliers in China, Pakistan or Bangladesh. These suppliers, in turn rely on their own supply chains to buy a range of chemicals needed for the processing of the textiles.
Despite the difficulties it is important to note that there are alternate chemicals to toxins that would increase the cost of production by only a few cents.
Purtex provides alternatives that demonstrate that you can get the same performance from inexpensive alternatives, which proves that you can clean up your act and make a profit at the same time.
© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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