Textiles Outlook International reports that world trade in t-shirts has seen global imports rise at an annual average rate of 14 percent, reaching US$26 bn, over the four years to 2006. 

The largest market for t -shirts in the EU in 2006 imported US$ 9bn worth of t-shirts, more than one-third of global imports and Turkey was the largest supplier to the EU by value in 2006.  Imports from the country were worth euro2.1 bn (US$2.6bn) and represented 29 percent of total EU T-shirt imports during the year.

www.textilesintelligence.com/tistoi/

Neal’s Yard Remedies is to fund a three-year PhD studentship on ethical and eco-fashion at the Textile Futures Research Group, University of the Arts London, worth £20,000 per year, including fees, to the successful candidate.  The Textiles Futures Research Group, University of the Arts London is a cross-college research group promoting collaboration between the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Chelsea College of Arts and London College of Fashion.

The Organic Exchange, a California – based organisation whose main aim is to increase the production of organically grown fibres such as cotton, has recently established a European office in Amsterdam.

The purpose of opening the Amsterdam office is to focus on expanding, connecting, stimulating and supporting the market for organic and sustainable textiles in Europe.

Organic Exchange organises seminars for brands, retailers and suppliers in several European markets offering basic training for those new to organic and sustainable textiles as well as more advanced training for those with more knowledge and understanding.

The first seminar was held last month in Amsterdam in collaboration with the MADE-BY, an umbrella label for sustain ably produced fashion and the next seminar is to be held in Bremen, Germany at the Bremen Cotton Exchange, 8^th and 9^th April 2008. 

For more information visit www.organicexchange.org

Sir Steve Redgrave, who has won Olympic gold consecutively five times for rowing has designed a new Fairtrade clothing range for men that will be sold in Debenham stores across the UK.

Steve has spent many years campaigning for his own charitable trust, comic relief and sports relief and it was after one particular trip to Zambia with comic relief that he decided he didn’t want to set up just a clothing range he wanted it to be a Fairtrade clothing range.

www.debenhams.com 

There has been almost no change in the amount of packaging on Easter eggs despite manufacturers’ pledges to reduce the amount of card, plastic and foil they use, a survey has revealed.  Some of the eggs on offer are so over-packaged that the chocolate makes up less than 10 per cent of the volume of their wrapping, with names such as Nestlé, Cadbury and Green & Black’s among the chief offenders.

The eight days around Easter are estimated to bring in £8bn to retailers, nearly £280m of which will be spent on chocolate eggs. Easter eggs generate about 3,000 tons of waste each year. Failure to act on excess packaging contrasts with the rhetoric of chocolate brands, many of whom are stressing their green credentials.

Source: The Independent

The UK’s Advertising Standards has banned a series of adverts by Cotton Council International for claiming that its cotton is produced in an environmentally sustainable way.

Trading under the Cotton USA banner, the adverts described its cotton as “Soft, sensual and sustainable”, but the advertising regulators received three complaints challenging the advert arguing that cotton is a “pesticide- and insecticide-intensive crop” that could “seriously deplete” groundwater in the high plains region of the USA.

In its ruling, the ASA concluded that magazine and poster adverts for Cotton USA, which state “soft, sensual and sustainable, it‘s Cotton USA,” should “no longer appear in their current form.”

One complainant also challenged whether US cotton subsidies had a negative impact on cotton farmers in the developing world, particularly in West Africa.

Cotton Council International (CCI) said they believed US cotton production, whether produced conventionally or organically, met reasonable and generally accepted definitions of ‘sustainability’. They quoted the United Nations definition, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s definition and a US Congress definition of the term sustainable. They also said whilst definitions could vary, they believed the basic principles remained constant: “economic viability, protection for the environment and social responsibility.”

“In light of the recent ASA ruling regarding the use of the word ‘sustainable’ in our advertising, we firmly believe that our U.S. cotton production systems are sustainable and environmentally sound,” said Allen Terhaar, executive director of Cotton Council International.

The CCI also maintained that cotton had been wrongly cited as a water intensive crop. They said it was very drought tolerant and used about the same amount of water as other major crops and provided evidence to show that just 35% of the US crop was irrigated.

CCI also said there was an overwhelming move to the planting of biotech or genetically modified (GM) cotton in the US, and that biotech varieties used less pesticide.

However, the ASA upheld the complaints saying “we considered that evidence that the current switch to GM cotton in the US was responsible for less pesticide use than previously was not equivalent to evidence that US cotton production was ‘sustainable’.” The Authority also noted that it was “concerned that there was a division of informed and scientific opinion as to the relative water efficiency of cotton as a crop.”

The authority decided that since it believed “there was no universally agreed definition of the term ‘sustainable’ and there appeared to be a significant division of informed opinion as to whether cotton production in the US could be described as ‘sustainable’ or not under various available definitions, the term ‘sustainable’ in the CCI ad was likely to be ambiguous and unclear to consumers.”

“We concluded that CCI had not justified the claim,” said the ASA.

Failure to comply with the ASA judgments could result in an advertiser being brought before the UK’s Office of Fair Trading.

Source: ecotextile news

US retailer JCPenney has introduced a new ‘Simply Green’ label for clothing and home accessories.  The large retailer has over 1000 department stores in the US and with this scheme it will highlight merchandise that is made with a lower impact on the environment than traditionally manufactured products.

JCPenney commented “that in order for a product to qualify for this new label, goods must fall into one of three categories: Organic, Renewable or Recycled.  Simply Green products designated as organic must be made from at least 70% organic raw materials, while clothing marked ‘renewable’ must be from at least 25% ‘renewable’ materials such as bamboo, Sorona, Ingeo, soy, capiz shells or wood that comes from certified, well-managed forests. Recycled – Simply Green’ products must contain at least 25% recycled materials, such as recycled cotton, recycled glass (home products), and recycled polyester made from soda bottles.

Japanese telecoms firm OKI Electric Industry is to start recycling its corporate uniforms with the help of Teijin Fibers and garment maker Chikuma to reduce its carbon footprint.

The telecoms firm said that by March 2009 it plans to recycle approximately 2000 uniforms, equivalent to a gross weight of 1.2 tons and it has calculated that this process will immediately reduce its CO2 footprint by 3.7 tons.

Reebok has been fined one million dollars for giving away toxic bracelets that came free with a purchase of children’s shoes.

Hundreds of thousands of lead-laced bracelets that reported caused the death of one child, were distributed by the American sportswear company.

“The penalty settles allegations that Reebok International Ltd imported and distributed charm bracelets that contained toxic levels of lead,” the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. A worldwide recall was announced in March 2006 of more than 500,000 of the Chinese-made bracelets, including 300,000 in the United States, after a four-year-old American boy died after swallowing the pendant on the jewellery.

Reebok said in a statement that it has introduced tough, mandatory product-checks since the recall. “Reebok has implemented strict, mandatory policies and procedures which ensure all gift-with-purchase and promotional items and premium products associated with our brand meet or exceed the highest quality and safety standards,” chief executive Paul Harrington said.

Statistics have shown that 45% of us would like to think that we reuse plastic bags - however only 12% of us act on this! Lucy Siegle commented on GMTV