Requirements on Consumer Information about Product ... - ANEC

Consumer Information about PCF
• There exists a variety of other labels from different organisations, the most common
are OEKO-Tex Standard 100 / OEKO-Text 1000 / OEKO-Tex 100plus 18 that focus on
chemicals harmful to human health (dyes, finishing) and/or on an environmentally
friendly production.
• There also exist some EPDs for textiles (e.g. Eurojersey 2009, see also Nieminen-
Kalliala 2004 for a discussion of relevant environmental indicators for EPDs).
The additional value of PCF is small. From the point of view of the picture’s completeness,
the PCF of textiles is helpful as it is one (small) piece of the whole puzzle concerning the
slowing down of climate change. Due to the lack of data, it is unclear what improvement
potential can be expected. Furthermore, it is unclear how large product differentiations are.
Taking into account the information in the catalogue from EarthPositive (2009), which
indicates that all clothes listed are made of organic cotton, it seems that the different
amounts of CO2e are due to different weights of the clothes, a T-Shirt being lightweight
compared to a Sweat Shirt. Hence the choice can not be done on the basis of the PCF as
one either needs a T-Shirt or a Sweat Shirt. It would be more interesting to see a comparison
between products from organic and non-organic cotton and also synthetic materials. Until
now a clear recommendation for consumers concerning the choice of material – e.g. natural
versus synthetic fibres – is not possible.
Variability due to different wearing and washing behaviour would lead to a different PCF. The
lifetime of a textile product, for example, can be very different due to different usage
behaviour. This can lead to conflicts as a T-Shirt with a long life time will be used and
washed more often, which results in a higher PCF then for a short-lived product. Although
unclear at the moment, it is to be expected that the farming system influences the PCF
results of natural fibres (e.g. size of farm, application of chemicals versus manual work etc.).
As in other product groups it is important to determine the PCF of exemplary textile products
in order to get principal conclusions concerning the life cycle and the overall relevance. It
does not seem to be helpful for consumers to request the PCF for each single textile product.
The issue of climate change alternatively can be addressed at the following points (targeting
different groups): energy consumption in the textile chain (manufacturing processes),
application of agrochemicals in cotton production, life time of textile products. Probably the
application of certain chemicals (e.g. non-iron finishing) helps to reduce the PCF for washing
and ironing (see e.g. BASF 2009).
As other environmental aspects are more relevant, PCF must not be addressed directly as a
criterion but should be kept in mind in order to identify possible adverse effects early enough.
There is a variety of other environmental issues relevant in the context of textiles such as
water consumption (e.g. 7-20 m³ water/kg cotton) and use of pesticides for cotton production
18 „Öko-Tex International – Prüfgemeinschaft umweltfreundliche Textilien“ (Öko-Tex).
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