O o d h e a d p u b L i s h I n g L i m I t e d

Other types of textile eco-labels
While there are around 40 environmental standards applicable to textile
processing, many, including the EU eco-label, have small market share. By
far the largest and best recognised textile eco-label is the privately owned
Oeko-tex 100 label, but its philosophy and intent are quite different from the
Type 1 or supply chain eco-labels. Oeko-Tex 100 is a ‘human ecology’ eco-
label that seeks to demonstrate that manufactured articles will contain less
than certain arbitrary concentrations of designated toxic agents. The Oeko-
Tex 100 label is granted on the basis of chemical analysis of completed
garments. This eco-label takes no consideration of environmental discharges
in processing and thus cannot be used to support a claim that a specific
product has been manufactured with low environmental impact. It is much
simpler to obtain than the EU eco-label; however, there is less transparency
© 2009 Woodhead Publishing Limited

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Wool as a natural renewable fibre
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(many test methods are not available) and its claims are (or at least should
be) correspondingly limited.
Oeko-tex 100 should be easily achievable for finished or partly finished
wool goods given the extent of removal of sheep ectoparasiticides from the
wool during scouring and then in dyeing. Unfortunately Oeko-tex 100 cannot
be used for identification of low-residue wools for environmental accreditation
as it does not include the hydrophobic insect growth regulators, diflubenzuron
and triflumuron, the main chemicals used on sheep in Australia and New
Zealand. It is entirely appropriate that these pesticides are not included in
Oeko-tex 100 as they are of low toxicity to humans, the main target of the
Oeko-tex 100 label. However, these agents are toxic to aquatic organisms,