Eurofins Softlines & Leather Monthly Bulletin (July 2022)

EUROPE

Textile Digital Product Passport for 2024

The European Commission are working to have a Digital Product Passport for textiles in 2024.

It is one of several measures that the European strategy for sustainable and circular economy want to implement with the aim of ensuring consumers are informed on the environmental impacts of their purchases and that products are more reliable, reusable, reparable, resource-efficient, and easier to maintain, refurbish and recycle.

In the case of textiles, the Digital Product Passport could cover aspects such as:

• Working conditions under which products are manufactured, reused or recycled
• Environmental footprint of the product
• Bill of materials (BOM)
• Presence of hazardous chemicals including substances of concern used in production
• Use of recycled content
• Durability/expected lifetime
• Microplastics release

In 2022, the European Commission has proposed the co-creation of transition pathways. The process of co-creation with stakeholders was kicked-off in the second quarter of 2022, and by the end of 2022, this process should result in an agreed vision for the ecosystem and specific pledges.

For more information, Consult the European Commission’s website here.

Standards updates

The below table summarises the most recent standard updates and upcoming dates of withdrawal (non-exhaustive):

(*) Date of withdrawal: latest date by which national standards conflicting with an EN (and HD for CENELEC) have to be withdrawn.

UK

Plastic Packaging Tax

On 1 April 2022, the plastic packaging tax came into force in the UK. This new tax applies to plastic packaging components designed to contain, protect, handle, present and/or deliver goods.

This tax does not apply to plastic packaging composed of at least 30% or more recycled plastic.

The responsible person/entity for the packaging must register for Plastic Packaging Tax if they:

• Expect to import into the UK or manufacture in the UK 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in the next 30 days.
• Have imported into the UK or manufactured in the UK 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components since 1 April 2022.

The 10 tonnes of plastic packaging components can be a combination of manufactured and imported packaging. The responsible person/entity must register within 30 days of reaching the 10 tonnes threshold; otherwise, a financial penalty may be issued.

The UK authorities have published guidance, with examples, on packaging that does and doesn’t fall into the scope of this tax and other points as how to work out the percentage of recycled plastic.

For more information, consult the GOV.UK’s website here.

Vietnam

Vietnam Enforces New Product Labelling Rules

Vietnam’s new product labelling rule, Decree No. 111/2021/ND-CP, went into effect on 15 February 2022, replacing Decree No. 43/2017/ND-CP. Under the new rule, consumer goods must contain the following mandatory labelling information:

• Product name
• Name and address of responsible entity
• Country of origin
• Other mandatory information of specific product category as prescribed in Appendix I

Under entry 25 of Appendix I, the following additional information is required on labels of garments and footwear made of textile or leather:

• Material composition
• Technical features
• Warnings
• Care instructions
• Year of production

The new rule also specifies that all labelling information must be in the Vietnamese language.

PRODUCT RECALLS / ALERTS

Below you will find a monthly summary of product recalls and alerts in Europe (Source “RAPEX”) and the U.S. (Source “CPSC”).

Europe

RAPEX (European Commission Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products – Alerts reported by EU national authorities)

The following 11 alerts regarding textile & leather products were reported between week 25 and week 28 of 2022.

UK

OPSS issues Product Safety Alerts on the UK market. The following 2 alerts regarding textiles & leather products were reported between week 25 and week 28 of 2022.

U.S.

Between 23 June 2022 and 21 July 2022, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) published the following recalls: 5 recalls of textile & leather products