Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

The concept of closed loop supply chains sounds a laudable, if possibly Utopian ideal: a virtuous circle of production from cradle to grave and back to cradle again. However, as Ulf Eriksson, product manager for textiles and shoes at the Sweden-government-owned Ecolabelling Sweden (or Svanen – Swedish for swan), pointed out: “A closed loop is a challenge for the garment industry because this is a fashion business.…

IF there is one country where the need to improve environmental performance in clothing and textile production is clear it is surely Bangladesh. With more care and attention paid to industrial processes and premises comes improved safety and working conditions, and after the recent factory collapse and fire, Bangladesh knows it has to raise its game.…

According to the non-governmental organisation (NGO) China Water Risk, it can require 40,000 litres of water to grow 1 kilogramme (kg) of cotton and 600 litres of wastewater can be produced to make just 1kg of textiles. And the average Chinese apparel factory discards 27.2 tonnes of usable, pre-consumer excess textiles every week, which includes new thread, fabric, buttons and trimmings.…

The challenges of working out whether textiles are sourced, produced or manufactured ethically are magnified by the plethora of eco-labelling schemes that apply to the industry. According to the Vancouver, Canada-based Ecolabel Index (www.ecolabelindex.com) there are 436 ecolabels worldwide, of which at least 24 cover textiles, clothes, other apparel and garments (while several others potentially overlap into the industry).…

A fire at a slaughterhouse near the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun has so far claimed the lives of 119 people and left a further 60 hospitalized, state media reported Monday night – the victim’s families are demanding answers about the fire’s cause.…

The privatisation and expansion of the Brazilian airport sector has proved to be a significant opportunity for the American civil aviation sector, which has been vying for opportunities in Brazil’s air navigation, airport and airport-related services. These opportunities are set to increase with the United States Trade and Development Agency’s (USTDA) having brokered a US-Brazil Aviation Partnership, signed last April and now being rolled out in earnest.…

WASTE -to-energy gasification is a game changer, experts say, because it offers renewable and low carbon heat and power, security of supply and short delivery times when energy prices are high.

Advanced thermal gasification, as opposed to combustion – burning waste in an incinerator to produce energy, is “clean, safe, very efficient, and being of a moderate scale is acceptable to local communities, because nobody wants a huge incinerator in their back yard,” stressed George Willacy, the chairman of Refgas UK, a Flintshire-based specialist in gasification fuelled by waste and biomass.…

TEXTILE and clothing finishing chemicals have been added to the European Union’s (EU) ‘authorisation’ list under REACH because of wide ranging environmental health concerns. A listing requires companies wanting to integrate these chemicals in their products or manufacturing processes to seek permission from the European Commission first.…

INDIA has a long tradition of cottage industry dyeing, but today, these skills are brought to bear for supplies to larger manufacturers who make clothing, fibre and textiles for major domestic and international markets.

International Dyer visited such a traditional dyeing hub last month – Barabanki, a small town in north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.…

may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…