EcoCouncil’s New Publication on the substitution of hazardous chemicals

EcoCouncil’s New Publication on the substitution of hazardous chemicals EEB 2nd 2012 Chemicals/Nano Working Group meeting Centre International de Séjour Ravel (CISP) - Paris

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

What is‘Substitution’?

• The replacement of hazardous chemicals used in processes or products with less hazardous chemicals • The alternatives can be both other chemicals, procedural changes or alternative technologies

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

New publication In May 2012 we published a new booklet about substitution.

A follow-up to an earlier publication from 2006 ‘Hazardous chemicals can be substituted – developments since 2006’ Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Contents

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

- Why substitute? (from company’s point of view) • Demand from customers • New knowledge about production methods or new chemicals on the market • New legislation • Staying ahead of the law can give a competitive advantage • To retain or create a green image  can attract more groups of consumers

Why not substitute?

• Too time consuming • Initially an expense for the company Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Substitution and REACH The EU chemicals legislation REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals)

How REACH promotes substitution: •Mandatory substitution-planning when applying for authorisation to use a substance of very high concern (SVHC) on the authorisation list •

Including an analysis of alternatives

•

If suitable alternatives are available, a substitution plan must be presented

•Public access to Candidate- and Authorisation lists •’Right to know’ principle – 45 days reply

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Substitution tools Warning lists - to avoid replacing one hazardous chemical with another: • the REACH candidate list (84 subs.)

• the Danish EPA list of undesirable substances (app. 90 subs. and groups) • the SIN list (by Swedish NGO ChemSec) (378

subs.) and trade union list (ETUC) Substitution portals and –network •SUBSPORT (subsport.eu) – four partners (Grontmij, Chemsec etc), supported by EU/Life, Germany, Austria •Business groups, e.g. ChemSec Business Group

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Substitution tools Green taxes contribute to levelling out the economic differences between traditional and substituted products, can prepare a ban, e.g.

• Soft PVC and phthalate tax , y. 2000 • Tax on industrial green house gasses

• DEC-proposal: tax on brominated flame retardants and wood preservatives

The opportunity to obtain an Eco-label gives the consumer easy access to more safe products, e.g.

• the EU flower • the Nordic Swan Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Substitution tools Substitution through Green Procurement Policies -EU: minimum 50% green procurement within 10 product groups. Cleaning products&services, furniture, IT equipment etc.

-ICLEI – Local governments for sustainablity – tools and training for GPP -Cologne in Germany; rules for the procurement of toys, furniture and sports equipment for municipal facilities.

-Denmark; ’Partnership for public green procurement’ – collaboration between the Ministry of Environment and six local authorities

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Substitution examples

NKT CABLES -Substituted phthalates and lead from cables -NOPOVIC® is based on polyethylene, polypropylene and ethylene vinyl acetate -Before tax: too expensive -After: more than 50% of DK market.

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

KYMI RENS • Substituted perchloroethylene (a ground water pollutant) - as cleaning agent • Can not only use one substitute • Uses CO2, AquaClean (environmentally and textile friendly method - chemicals are replaced by water), GreenEarth (applying liquid silicone) and SYSTEM K4 (halogen free solvent, biodegradable)

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

HOSPITALS Substitution of PVC and phthalates in hospitals •Westfriesgasthuis (NL) – children’s section – almost phthalate and PVC free •Sygehus Sønderjylland (DK) – neonate section – substituted intravenous (IV) catheters, administration sets and tubes, feeding tubes, gloves, pacifiers (dummy/soother), and bandages.

•Karolinske Universitetshospital (SE) – substituted gloves, haemodialysis equipment, IV bags and tubes, urine bags, feeding tubes, and catheters.

• EU project to create a PVC and phthalate free blood bag: www.pvcfreebloodbag .eu

Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

MELITEK

• Produces plastic granulate based on e.g. polyolefin and polypropylene

• Used in products such as infusion-, dialysis- and nutrition bags • Part of PVCfreeBloodBag project

• (MELITEK will be featured in our film: Working title Hazardous chemicals in the blood) • Ready app. 1 January Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

DANA LIM • Produces glue and fillers – have products without oximes and polyurethanes and most phthalates • Still uses DINP – awaiting regulatory action before phasing out DINP – wants to avoid another temporary substitution • Currently on a substitution ”standby” – awaiting more results from REACH – feel that it’s difficult to substitute without being aided by the law • On standby because of the financial crisis – customers are more focused on economy and competition than on health and environment Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

BOSTON SHOECARE • Makes shoe care products without PFOA and PFOS

• Substituted in 2007 due to a lively debate in Sweden and a press release from a Swedish environmental organisation about the dangers of the compounds

• They now use PFBS – short chained per-fluorocompound (better – but still a problem) • New formulation – builds bigger particles so less volatile and less risk of exposure • Primarily younger consumers show an interest Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council

Thank you for your attention Find the publication on our webshop:

http://www.ecocouncil.dk/index.php?option=co m_docman&task=doc_download&gid=1024&Ite mid=1024 Or order it from our office in DK – free - except from postage costs – info@ecocouncil.dk Christian Ege – 6th December 2012

The Danish Ecological Council