CONTINENTAL ACCREDITED BY THE SOIL ASSOCIATION

On Thursday 6th September 2007, the Continental® Clothing Company warehouses were audited by the UK's organic certification body The Soil Association, this being the final step toward Continental® being accredited by The Soil Association as suppliers of authentic organic cotton garments. Continental now proudly label it's organic garments with the Soil Association's organic certification mark.

To achieve this licence, Continental® ensures that the organic production is kept quarantined at all times throughout manufacture, so that it does not become contaminated by non-organic fibres. This even extends to the UK warehouses, where organic garments are kept isolated, and are picked, boxed and shipped independently of non-organic garments. All Continental® staff receive training in organic standards and environmental issues, in order to help Continental® become a genuinely sustainable company.

SUPPORT FOR FARMERS

Continental^® continues to offer support to farmers in local communities who wish to transition from conventional to organic cotton, and to factories that wish to gain organic certification. In July 2007 Continental® worked in partnership with Pesticide Action Network UK to produce their information leaflet 'My sustainable T-shirt' as a Turkish language version, and sponsored its dissemination to conventional cotton farmers and farm workers across Turkey to aid in their understanding of the principles behind organic agriculture.

Background: The unethical clothing industry

The textile industry has tremendous negative impacts on the environment, health and livelihood of cotton farmers and workers.

Pressure to produce quickly increasing quantities of cheap textiles has led the industry to adopt some of the most unethical trade practices on the planet. Sweatshop practices have been denounced very successfully in the past 10 years, and you are probably aware of the unacceptable working conditions which have been the norm in many manufacturing mills in the developing world, such as long working hours, low wages, and child labor. As a result, your expectations as a consumer have forced popular brands to look into the conditions in which their products are manufactured.

On the other hand, the negative environmental and social impact of fibre production and fibre processing are only starting to be addressed. Most consumers are still unaware of how severe and wide-ranging are the problems. Those that do, have contributed to the growth of the organic movement. And while it is true that cotton can be produced in an environmentally friendly way (ORGANIC), while contributing to alleviate poverty in some of the least developed countries (FAIR TRADE), in practice, this is not what we mostly observe today.

The major textile certification schemes are Organic, Fair Trade, and other “Eco Labels”.
In order to understand what these standards are designed for, and what an organic or fair trade cotton T-shirt means, it is important to know how cotton textile is made.

How are T-shirts made?

There is a negative impact to conventional cotton production. Cotton is grown commercially using a large amount of pesticides and herbicides, toxic chemicals designed, as the name suggests, to kill pests, insects, weeds, fungus, or any other kind of living things. Most cotton is also grown on poorly managed soils, which would be almost sterile without large amounts of synthetic fertilizers. More insecticides are sprayed on cotton than on any other major crop. Many problems are associated with this production method. Severe negative impacts include: loss of biodiversity and damage to ecosystems and wildlife, depletion of precious natural resources such as water and soil, and heavy contamination of water bodies. The ecological devastation of the Aral Sea area in central Asia, one of the most visible ecological disasters on the planet, almost entirely due to cotton production, symbolises cotton’s environmental impacts.

Other impacts include poisoning (sometime fatal) of farmers, and intolerable indebtedness of poor farmers trapped on the “pesticide treadmill”. In some areas, the cost of chemicals is now reaching 60% of farmers’ production costs. The use of pesticides on small-scale cotton farms in developing countries has unacceptable negative impacts on the health of farmers and their families, and on their environment. On such farms, the level of training required to avoid hazards when using pesticides is seldom attainable. The necessary protective equipment is almost never used because of its lack of availability and its prohibitive price, and is inappropriate for use in tropical climates.

The positive impact of organic cotton production

However, cotton can be grown following the strict principles of organic agriculture. Organic agriculture uses no synthetic chemical pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, and no Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Organic fertilizers (such as manure) and plant-based pest management products (such as neem or garlic extract) are used. However, organic agriculture is not only a mere substitution of synthetic inputs with natural inputs. The major principle is to restore a natural balance within farms, with healthy and well-structured soils, rich in organic matter. In such an environment, the pests (any living things which damage the crop) are not systematically destroyed by poisons, but are kept under control by their natural predators. Biodiversity (the diverse range of living species: plants, animals, microorganisms) and agro-diversity (the diverse range of crops planted by the farmer, as well as livestock) are integral parts of an organic farm.
The organic cotton fibre that is harvested is similar to most conventional cotton fibres, except that it is guaranteed non-GM, and is not contaminated with pesticides. The main difference is that the ecosystem where it has been produced has not been damaged, and chemicals have not poisoned the farmer and his or her family.

The cotton produced while converting from conventional farming to organic farming is called ‘organic in conversion’. This is a necessary but difficult stage for any organic farmer, as the cotton may cost more to produce, but cannot be sold at the premium that certified organic cotton can achieve. Some companies have decided to incorporate this cotton into their conventional cotton production, as an indication to consumers of their support for, and understanding of organic issues, and forward thinking business ethics.

Fully organic cotton fiber is certified as an organic agricultural product, along with other crops on the farm, by a private certification body, which guarantees that the rigorous organic standards have been strictly followed. The UK-based Soil Association, for example, is one among over 100 such certification agencies worldwide, which are accredited and audited by various bodies such as the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement, Control Union Group, which now, at last, are being brought together under a single GLOBAL ORGANIC TEXTILE STANDARD (GOTS).

Therefore, the certification of cotton fiber as an organic agricultural product is extremely reliable. If the label of your T-shirt claims that it has been made with organic cotton, you can be confident that the cotton fiber has really been grown organically. There is no need for a logo, the word “organic” is sufficient.

However, the word ‘organic’ only refers to a guarantee on the growing stage of the cotton fiber, and not on the processing or the manufacturing, and there is still a long way from the fiber to a T-shirt.

Fiber processing

There are many stages required to process cotton from fibers to fabrics. The fibers are cleaned, carded (combed), spun into yarn, coated with starches or chemicals, woven into fabric (or knitted in the case of a T-shirt), cleaned up from their coating and their natural wax, bleached, immersed in concentrated caustic soda, dyed or printed, and chemically treated for easy care and other properties. All these stages require a large number of chemicals of various toxicity and hazards. Some of these chemicals threaten the health of workers, while others cause environmental pollution from the mills’ waste water. Finally, many of these chemicals are found as residues in the finished product, and some of them may affect the health of consumers, and are suspected to cause allergies, eczema, and even cancers.

In order to address those processing and manufacturing stages, a handful of organisations, mostly organic certification agencies, have developed their own private voluntary “organic” or “sustainable” standards for textile, and are certifying finished products according to those standards.

Such organic certification agencies and their textile processing scheme include the Soil Association and the Control Union International (aka SKAL International); the new GOTS will encompass those.

And so, what we commonly call in Europe an “organic T-shirt” is a T-shirt made with certified organic cotton fiber, and processed according to those textile processing standards. The certification agency then authorises the manufacturer to add its logo (or mark, or symbol) on the T-shirt’s label or their marketing literature. This is essential in order to recognize an Organic T-shirt.

While the processing and manufacturing are not really “organic” in a similar way that agricultural products are “organic”, what those standards aim to achieve is to maintain the integrity of the organic nature of the fiber as much as possible. This is achieved by using as much organic material as possible, and by adopting alternative chemicals and processing practices that minimize the impact on the environment, and protect the health of consumers, while insuring textiles of high quality that are economically viable. The Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Mark is one such standard.

The OKEO-TEX Standard 100 Mark

The Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Mark (or Öko-Tex ) is probably the most widely recognised standard in textiles, which sets strict limits on the amount of substances harmful to consumers which can be found in the finished textile product. The mark states “Confidence in Textiles” is displayed on textile products which have been tested by one of the member institutes. Criteria are even more stringent for baby clothes than any other textiles. Most of the criteria for residues in the baby clothes category are comparable to health criteria of the organic textile standards.

Although Oeko-Tex standards only address specifically consumer’s health issues, the necessity to comply with the criteria induces better environmental practices at the processing and manufacturing level. The standards offer significant environmental benefits. Therefore, when choosing a sustainable T-shirt, look for Oeko-Tex certified T-shirts, made with 100% organic certified cotton.

                                                     

 Ethical Trading

Some companies go further, and open up their manufacturing processes and business practices to scrutiny by organizations set up to promote fair labor conditions such as the ‘FAIR WEAR FOUNDATION’ (FWF).

The FWF exists to promote fair labour conditions in the garment industry world wide; this means it’s member companies have undersigned FWF's Code of Labor practices, and thereby the company has committed itself to monitor the factories of its suppliers, and the Fair Wear Foundation verifies that the Code of Labor Practices is actually implemented and respected at the factories.