NEWS

EU has issued a new decision on awarding EU Ecolabel for footwear having a reduced environmental impact during their entire life cycle - COMMISSION DECISION (EU) 2016/1349.  This EU new decision establishes a new set of specific ecological criteria on raw materials, water consumption, environmental emission, volatile organic compounds (VOC), hazardous substances, restricted substances (applicable to any part of the footwear of > 3% by weight), product use durability, labor corporate social responsibility, and packaging,  The most relevant for footwear adhesives are the criteria on VOC, and hazardous or restricted substances, which favor water based footwear adhesives and essentially eliminate the use of their solvent based counterparts.  The new criterion on VOC establishes that total use of VOCs in the final footwear production shall not exceed, on average, 18 g VOC/pair; and for footwear classified as personal protective equipment in accordance with Directive 89/686/EEC, the total use of VOCs during final footwear production shall not exceed, on average, 20 g VOC/pair.  Similarly, the criteria on hazardous and restricted substances also favors the water based footwear adhesives.