Sub-Saharan Africa has natural resources that aids the development of renewable energy, it has lots of sun, plentiful wind, and much potentially sustainable biomass. With the development of small-scale affordable renewable energy technologies, such systems have been promoted by major aid agencies keen to prevent deforestation and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, that – even where they are plentiful, have not usually led to widespread economic development.

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a revision of the island’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Law, partly to help paint and coatings manufacturers maintain access to the European Union (EU) market. The reform will take account of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which may levy duties on products the EU deems have been made with excess carbon emissions.…

Researchers from England’s Lancaster University and Aston University, plus the Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, have developed a technique of making textile additives from spent nuclear fuel. They argue the system offers economic and environmental gains regarding the processing of waste, as well as substituting sodium dithionite, which can help form toxic gases.…

The European Commission has warned that European Union (EU) member states are making “alarmingly slow progress” in reviewing the safety of active biocidal substances on sale before May 2000 – covering most products. A review of the operation of the 2012 EU biocidal product regulation (BPR) of 2012 concluded that while the system was “fully operational”, there has been a “substantial delay in active substance approval,” whose completion deadline has already been extended from 2014 to 2024.…

Ireland’s burgeoning medtech sector has supported changes in the latest Irish government budget, announced on October 12, which could boost investment and start-ups in this globally important Irish industry. The Fianna Fail-Fine Gail-Green coalition unveiled reforms to the country’s Employment Investment Incentive (EII) scheme, which grants tax exemptions to investors in industries such as medtech.…

THE FINNISH can manufacturing industry has been growing, with new production coming online in the past 10 years to diversify a sector that is able to draw on effective access to raw materials and a highly skilled workforce.

Both Rexam (now part of Ball) and Poland-based Canpack operate efficient Finnish can-making plants.…

INTRODUCTION

Think of finishing and some consumers may conclude that integrating chemicals with or within fibres will always be the most effective way to create a performance or protective textile. But the reality is that applying coatings to textiles and yarns is anything but superficial as a finishing technique.…

The increasing decriminalisation and legalisation of cannabis as a recreational and medicinal substance has encouraged the liberalisation of hemp as a fibre crop, whose use in some jurisdictions had been restricted because of laws against the plant’s chemically-active ingredients.

This is starting to change, most notably in the USA, which used to have severe anti-marijuana laws, but which now has 18 states that have legalised recreational cannabis use.…

The relationship between the USA textile industry and its counterparts in Latin America has never been straightforward, given the US exports fabrics and fibre to its neighbours as well as importing apparel, but the Covid-19 pandemic has increased complexity in this relationship.…

INTRODUCTION

Textile and clothing companies are well aware of two major trends driving sales in the industry – sustainability and digitisation. One is driven by the need to adopt sustainable manufacturing processes and materials, to boost sales amongst environmentally conscious consumers and reduce financial and regulatory costs associated with pollution and carbon emissions.…