Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Shein is having a tough time these days – first he’s plagued by allegations of plagiarism, and then a British documentary found that workers at some Shein factories in China are being paid the equivalent of three cents a piece of clothing and 18-hour have to work shifts. Now it’s about the clothes themselves – Greenpeace Germany tested them and found that the clothes Shein sold often contained dangerous chemicals.
For its tests, Greenpeace Germany bought 47 items of clothing, which were examined in an independent laboratory for the analysis of harmful substances. Phthalate levels of over 100,000 milligrams per kilogram were found in five boots or shoes; the limit of the European Chemicals Regulation (REACH) is 1,000 milligrams per kilogram. The highest phthalate value was measured in black snow boots and, at 685,000 milligrams per kilogram, is 685 times the legal limit.
A third of the tested products are problematic
Overall, product testing revealed hazardous chemicals exceeding REACH limits in 7 of the items tested, representing 15 percent; A total of 32 percent, or 15 products, contained hazardous chemicals “at worrying levels.” Shein now claims to have removed these products and launched an investigation (see statement below).
Because Shein sells online directly through its app and social media, many transactions bypass the authorities. Greenpeace is therefore calling for better controls and more far-reaching guidelines: “The EU must also enforce its laws to protect the environment and consumers for online retailers and significantly tighten REACH,” demands Viola Wohlgemuth, Greenpeace’s resource protection expert.
“Because chemicals that are potentially carcinogenic in Germany when wearing a textile are even more so for the workers in Shein’s factories in China. Hazardous chemicals must be banned from all textile production by law,” Wohlgemuth adds.
Ultra fast fashion is the problem
The problem goes back to the ultra fast fashion model that Shein operates: The online retailer offers up to 6,000 new designs online every day. In comparison: competitor H&M managed only around 1.4 percent of the volume in the USA in a comparison period of four months and Shein produces about three times as fast as fast fashion pioneer Zara – namely within three to seven days.
“This new ultra-fast fashion business model takes excessive consumption and resource wastage to the extreme. In addition to environmental damage in the production countries, this also creates a huge amount of environmentally harmful textile waste in the Global South,” says Greenpeace.
“Fast fashion is completely incompatible with a climate-friendly future; the new ultra-fast fashion trend is fueling the climate crisis and the destruction of nature so aggressively that it must be stopped immediately by legislation,” summarizes Wohlgemuth.
Shein takes a stand
When asked by FashionUnited, Shein responded to the allegations and responded with a (rather general) statement: “Shein takes product safety very seriously. Our suppliers must comply with the controls and standards we put in place, including chemical control lists and standards aligned with REACH in Europe and CPSIA, CPSA and CA65 in the US, among others.”
“We work closely with international independent testing agencies such as Intertek, SGS, BV and TUV to conduct regular testing to ensure supplier operations comply with our product safety standards. Over the past year, we have conducted more than 300,000 chemical safety tests with these agencies,” continued Shein.
“If we learn of a claim against our products, we will immediately remove the product(s) from our website as a precaution while we conduct our investigations. If non-compliance is detected, we will not hesitate to initiate appropriate follow-up actions with the supplier of the said product. We can also confirm, based on information available through Greenpeace’s social media account, that we immediately removed the mentioned products pending an investigation. Shein strives to always provide consumers with safe and reliable products,” the company concludes.