Hundreds of incidents occur yearly where children are harmed after contact with dangerous chemicals. According to national poison centres these accidents happen frequently with household chemical products that require child-resistant fastenings.
Chances are that your product contains PFAS and PFCA! Restrictions are already in place. Some additional restrictions will come into effect early next year. PFAS are used in a wide variety of consumer products because of their unique chemical and physical properties.
The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) 94/62/EC aims to reduce the impact of packaging (waste) to the environment. The first priority is to reduce packaging amounts. Packaging shall be limited to the minimum volume and weight while still maintaining an adequate level of safety, hygiene and practicality
The Environmental Code is the French law that includes many obligations regarding ecodesign, fight against waste and on the circular economy. The repairability of products fits perfectly in those environmental objectives. France has added new articles to the Environmental Code related to information for consumers
The European Commission has the ambition to make the EU ‘climate neutral’ by 2050 or sooner. Part of this ambition is to tackle the problem of marine litter (plastic soup) in the form of disposed plastics and fishing gear. The EU has adopted a new directive (EU) 2019/904 (link), which entered
Product legislation often includes the same requirement: manufacturers shall ensure that the product is accompanied by instructions and safety information in a language which can be easily understood by consumers and other end-users.
Artificial leather, also called synthetic or imitation leather, is a material intended to substitute for leather in upholstery, clothing, footwear, and other uses. Artificial leather is marketed under many names, including "leatherette", "faux leather", "vegan leather", "PU leather" and “pleather”.
Tanning is the method of preserving animal skin, with or without hair using tannins. These are acidic chemical compounds that stabilise the fibre structure of the skin and prevent it from decaying, decomposing and oxidising.
Textile dyes and pigments are chemical substances used to colour fabrics. The main difference between both is that dyes are soluble in water and pigments are not.
Softeners are finishing agents that are applied to textile materials to provide them with a pleasing touch or feel. As a general rule, the softening agents applied are lubricating agents, which facilitate the fiber sliding within the fabric structure, thus granting easier deformation and creasing of the fabric.
Many products - such as textiles, inks/paints/coatings, plastics, paper, - are coloured with dyes and pigments. These colours can fade or change when the products are exposed to water, light, rubbing, washing, perspiration etc.
Flame retardants are typically added to consumer products to meet flammability standards for furniture, textiles, electronics, and building products like insulation. Fire resistant fabrics could be of two types: natural flame resistant fibers or treated with a flame resistant chemical.
In order to add the required functional properties to textiles, it is customary to subject textile (yarn and/or fabric) to different types of physical and chemical treatments. Textile wet processing is done on manufactured fabrics or yarns.