New textile product criteria for EU EcoLabel

The EU Ecolabel Regulatory Committee has voted to accept new criteria proposals for textiles labelled to the EU Ecolabel standard, Ecotextile News reports. It is proposed that the new criteria will replace the previous Decision (2009/567/EC) passed in 2009 and will come into force for at least a four year period when it is officially passed by the European Union. The Eco-Label revision comes as part of the European Union’s stated drive to ensure 10 – 20% of textiles sold in Europe are eventually aligned with EU Eco-Label criteria, according to Exotextile News. 

A key change in the new revision that is with Council for final approval now relates to tougher new criteria for synthetic textiles fibres that would ensure EU Eco-Labelled polyester and nylon fabrics either contain a minimum recycled content or address VOC  or N2O (nitrous oxide) emissions to air from fibre and polymer production sites.

The committee also voted through proposals that mean specific cotton apparel items like T-shirts, woman’s tops, jeans, casual shirts and socks and underwear labeled as organic must contain at least 95% organic cotton as per the EU and US NOP standards. All cotton blended with organic cotton will need to come from non-gmo sources. If these same items of clothing are made with non-organic cotton, to meet Eco-Label criteria they must be made up of at least 60% ‘IPM’ cotton that is grown in line with the principles as defined by the FAO IPM programme.  All cotton content must also be free of specific listed pesticides.

Ecotextile News