Verband TEGEWA e.V.
TEGEWA
Der Verband TEGEWA e.V.
ID: 349782310982-97
Lobbying Activity
Response to EU strategy for sustainable textiles
1 Feb 2021
The association TEGEWA represents companies manufacturing process and performance chemicals for a large variety of applications, i.e. textiles auxiliaries and colourants, being used in the production process of textiles or as chemical ingredients of finished textiles, providing specific properties to the final product.
TEGEWA fully supports the efforts for a more sustainable manufacturing of textiles. We underline in parallel that it must be a manageable and reasonable process aligned with existing regulations and under consideration of technical feasibility and scientific knowledge.
Sustainability improvements has have been one of the major goals in the last decades for TEGEWA’s member companies. They are focussing on developing and promoting sustainable chemicals and sustainable processes for textile production, as it helps establishing innovations offering ecological and economic advantages. The more chemical products support sustainable production of textiles (meaning environmentally friendly and resource saving), the more the chemicals as well as the produced textiles have the potential to pay off in future.
TEGEWA provides extraordinary expertise in textile auxiliaries and colourants, in sustainability and additionally in chemical legislation. We, the association, have contributed to various public consultations and support authorities on national and European level for decades. TEGEWA provided substantial input, as well in cooperation with other associations, to numerous public consultations or activities on EU level. To illustrate this with a few examples from the recent past:
- Regulation (EU) 2018/1513 for CMR Restrictions for Textile and Footwear Products
- Restriction on skin sensitizing substances in textile and leather articles (ongoing)
- Several consultations regarding fluoro chemistry (e.g. PFOA, short-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs),
undecafluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA))
- Call on evidence on formaldehyde releasers on their own, in mixtures or in articles, by workers, professionals and consumers
- “Best practices in chemicals management in industry” of the HAZBREF project regarding the activity 4.2 “Sectoral guidance for three IED
sectors (chemicals, textile, surface treatment of metals and plastics)”
- …
TEGEWA offers to be a dialogue partner regarding the intended EU strategy for sustainable textiles, too. As important actors within the textile supply chain we are looking forward to bringing in our knowledge and experience on textile processing and finishing. In addition, we want to support the activities of the EU strategy for sustainable textiles with examples and activities already performed by our member companies.
We are convinced that we can give substantial input to numerous different aspects which are addressed in the roadmap document on the EU strategy for sustainable textiles published by the EU Commission on January 5th, 2021.
Together with Federchimica/Aispec, TEGEWA has constituted a new European association (EUCTL - European Chemistry for Textiles and Leather). It is the aim of EUCTL to represent, on an EU level, chemical companies manufacturing textile and leather auxiliaries as well as dyestuffs and pigments to give these sectors a European voice. We will contribute to the EU strategy for sustainable textiles on behalf of this new European association EUCTL.
Read full responseResponse to Restriction of CMR substances in textile articles and clothing for consumer use under REACH
6 Mar 2018
Preliminary remark:
In general, TEGEWA supports the European Commission’s intention to restrict cmr substances in textiles. TEGEWA’s contribution to this public consultation is limited to some comments with regard to the substance list. We will not comment on the scope of the planned regulation in view of the articles concerned. In this regard, we would like to refer to the Euratex contribution.
In general:
TEGEWA welcomes that almost all substances with no textile relevance have been removed from the substance list. (There are two exemptions which will be mentioned under “Comments with regard to substances and limits”.)
We support the clarification that the limits are defined basing on the extractable amount. We want to stress that there should be a list of recommended test procedures which should be made public to all stakeholders.
The limits which have been laid down in the current restriction proposal seem to be more or less reasonable – again, with few exemptions: see below.
Comments with regard to substances and limits:
Formaldehyde: we support the Commission’s proposal of 75ppm for articles worn near the skin and 300ppm for articles used away from the skin (jackets, coats etc.) for 5 additional years after entry-into-force.
Heavy metals: We still see no textile relevance regarding Pb and As and propose to remove those substances from the substance list.
Quinoline: There are no sufficient experiences in analytics regarding quinoline. We therefore propose 100ppm instead of 50ppm, in order to avoid false-positive results.
Benzene: With the limit of 5ppm, as laid down in the current draft, there is a big risk of false-positive results – as experience shows. We therefore propose 20ppm instead of 5ppm, in order to avoid false-positive results.
Read full responseResponse to Criteria to identify endocrine disruptors for biocidal products
27 Jul 2016
Die Mitgliedsfirmen des Verbandes TEGEWA e.V. – hierunter eine Vielzahl kleiner und mittelständischer Unternehmen – sind in unterschiedlichsten Anwendungsgebieten und sehr anspruchsvollen Märkten tätig, die mit zeitgemäßen und hoch-technischen, anwendungsspezifischen Produkten versorgt werden müssen. Dazu gehört in vielen Bereichen ganz wesentlich der Einsatz von Bioziden. Diese werden zur Konservierung der Produkte, zur Verhinderung mikrobiellen Befalls oder zur Gewährleistung längerer Standzeiten und hoher technischer Funktionsfähigkeiten eingesetzt. Mikrobieller Befall und dessen Stoffwechselprodukte stellen ein großes Risiko für Produkte und Anwender und dessen Produktionsabläufe dar. Daher ist es ganz substantiell, dass für die anwendungsspezifisch formulierten Produkte ausreichend viele und unterschiedliche Substanzen verfügbar sind.
Die nunmehr von der Europäischen Kommission (COM) vorgelegten Kriterien zu endokrinen Disruptoren sind nicht geeignet, zwischen Substanzen, die sicher gehandhabt werden können, und solchen, die regulierungsbedürftig sind, zu unterscheiden.
Die von der COM vorgelegten Kriterien basieren auf der ED-Definition der WHO; zudem wurde ein „Weight-of Evidence“-Ansatz für die Bewertung aller relevanten wissenschaftlichen Informationen etabliert. Gleichwohl fehlen wichtige Punkte, um das wirkliche und konkrete Gefahrenpotential einer Substanz wissenschaftlich zu bewerten, wie:
1. Potency and severity of effects – Details: hierzu verweisen wir auf den Beitrag des Verbandes der Chemischen Industrie e.V. (VCI) vom 21. Juli 2016, Reference F 80
2. Only one category „endocrine disruptors of regulatory concern“ is needed – Details: s. Beitrag des Verbandes der Chemischen Industrie e.V. ( VCI) vom 21. Juli 2016, Referenz F 80
3. Give more consideration to the results from the impact assessment – Details: s. Beitrag des Verbandes der Chemischen Industrie e.V. ( VCI) vom 21. Juli 2016, Referenz F 80
4. Risk assessments are essential for decision-making – Details: s. Beitrag vom Verband der Chemischen Industrie e.V. (VCI) v. 21. Juli 2016, Referenz F 80
Read full response