Tüv Süd Tapped by Textile Exchange to Certify for GRS and RCS
Textile and leather testing company, Tüv Süd, has been granted accreditation by Textile Exchange to perform certification tests according to the Global Recycle Standard (GRS) and Recycled Claim Standard (RCS).
The move comes as the European Union gears up to initiate new, more stringent standards for the textile industry in order to promote sustainability and circularity in the textile industry which generates 92 million tons of textile waste annually. New rules take effect in January 2024.
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Certification per the GRS and RCS demonstrates that any player in the clothing and textile industries are considering environmental and social factors in the value chain and doing the maximum to save resources by increasing the recycled content in their products.
The GRS standard overseen by Textile Exchange is concentrated on the textile industry and several stages throughout its production chain. It focuses on tracking recycled materials in keeping with environmental and social standards, and includes specific standards for chemical management, water use and waste minimization. The RCS standard goes beyond textiles and is applied across various industries where it focuses on identifying and verifying recycled content in any product and verifying chain of custody.
More and more companies are using recycled raw materials in their textiles. Voluntary certification in line with GRS and RCS standards dictate that those textiles contain at least 50 percent recycled content and that it be 100 percent traceable, according to Matthias Rosenthal, vice president, consumer products business line, softlines at Tüv Süd.
“By offering this certification, we help companies to live up to their responsibility for a sustainable, circular economy,” he said.
Headquartered in Munich, Tüv Süd has a global network of 25 laboratories for testing leather and textiles. It provides physical product tests and chemical analysis, and on-site pre-shipment inspection in addition to testing for all international auditing and certification standards.
Tüv Süd’s rigorous durability tests subject textile raw materials and products to standards for tensile and bend strength, color fastness, wash resistance, surface abrasion, wrinkling and pilling. All information gleaned from test results goes into improving the products down the line, enhancing its sustainability profile.
The new EU textile regulations are designed to optimize energy efficiency in addition to increasing durability and repairability of products from the outset, to prolong the life of products and minimize any negative environmental impact. To effect that, the EU will prohibit the destruction of unsold or returned textiles, increase recyclability and the amount of recycled content contained in any product, and require digital passports documenting 100 percent traceability to allow consumers and recyclers to make informed decisions.
According to Raffaela Santoro, global strategic solutions director, softlines, Tüv Süd, getting everyone to work together and investing in innovative and sustainable production facilities will be imperative to reaching imagined goals for textile waste. Only then, she said, will “ the outcome be a more sustainable and transparent recycling system, enabling us to minimize textile waste and environmental impacts.”
