Gaoyang County, Hebei Province is China's largest towel production base, with an annual output of 5 billion towels, accounting for about one-third of the country. One out of every three towels on the market is produced in Gaoyang. However, the reporter visited more than a dozen production enterprises in Gaoyang and surrounding areas, but found some strange phenomena. Some manufacturers' sales staff told reporters that although the national standards are marked for implementation, some towels are actually unable to guarantee testing.
Reporter: "Is this warranty tested?"
Salesperson of Hebei Gaoyang Towel City: "This? This is not guaranteed."
Person in charge of Hebei Dior Textile Manufacturing Co., Ltd.: "Testing is not guaranteed."
The person in charge of Gaoyang Kangxuan Xinxin Towel Factory: "If you don't guarantee the detection, you won't be guaranteed five yuan, not to mention more than three yuan."
Towels belong to category B textiles that are in direct contact with human skin. To ensure the quality of towels, the National Standard for "Texture of Textile Fibers" and the national standards for towels, all of which include towel cotton content, hair removal rate, color fastness, PH value, etc. Detailed regulations have been made.
The general manager of Jinhaoyang Textile Co., Ltd. said that Jinhaoyang's production line is divided into two types. One is high-speed textile machines, and the towels weaved are mostly in line with national standards, while the other is low-speed textile machines, sometimes using local Cheap yarn processing can not meet the low-grade towels of national standards.
Jin Haoyang Textile Co., Ltd. General Manager: "The hair removal rate cannot be guaranteed (towels woven with 14 yarns). No one can guarantee the hair removal rate, and the hair removal rate will definitely exceed the standard."
Yongliang Towel is one of the larger towel manufacturers in Goyang. Sales Manager Zhai told reporters that towels produced by Yongliang are also divided into two types. One is to ensure that the test is qualified, and the other is called "Temahui". "The low-end towels cannot be guaranteed to pass the test.
Reporter: "Then we specialize in selling this product, should it be guaranteed to be tested?"
Mr. Zhai, Sales Director of Hebei Gaoyang Yongliang Textile Co., Ltd.: "Not guaranteed, our testing standards, we said to guarantee testing, the testing standard is the national standard, it can not reach the national standard."
Why can't some towels be guaranteed to pass the test? The reporter learned that most of the towel manufacturers in Gaoyang purchase yarns from upstream manufacturers and then weave them into towels with textile machines. That is to say, the quality of the yarn directly determines the quality of the towels. The reporter found that the yarns used by these enterprises are basically packaged in white plastic without any information such as product name, factory name and address.
What raw materials are used for these yarns and how are they produced? The reporter decided to follow up the investigation of yarn manufacturers in the upstream of this industry.
Yarn raw material is shocking
In Xinliuzuo Village, Gaoyang County, the reporter found an enterprise specializing in the production of towel yarns, and the warehouse was filled with ready-made yarns.
Reporter: "Your yarn, what do customers do now?"
Manager Feng of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "Make towels."
Reporter: "Towels at most? Is it mainly towels or something else?"
Manager Feng of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "The main thing is to make towels and nothing else."
There is a batching tank in the factory production workshop. The pool is used for spinning towels. Some are white, some are yellow, some are black, and some are stained with green stains and a pungent. Taste, the impurities inside are clearly visible.
Manager Feng of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "This impurity is more, this impurity is more."
Manager Feng told reporters that most of these raw materials are recycled cotton, so the color looks very mixed. The recycled cotton in the industry refers to various waste materials, rags, and thread ends of some textile mills that have been re-carded and re-processed. When flowering, it becomes recycled cotton or recycled cotton, which is cheaper than new cotton.
Manager Feng of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "Use it again, use it again, it belongs to regeneration."
Various waste materials and recycled cotton are spun into yarn after a few simple processes. Manager Feng said that the recycled cotton is short fiber, and the pulling force is not enough. When spinning, a part of chemical fiber has to be added. In addition, the recycled cotton is dirty and large. The yarn cannot be used for weaving towels. Therefore, they The finished yarns are usually in blank packaging, without any information such as raw materials, ingredients, factory name and address.
Reporter: "None of them are marked, are they?"
Manager Feng of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "Do nothing."
The reporter has visited many companies producing yarns for towel factories in and around Goyang. The output of each one ranges from 100 tons to hundreds of tons. Recycled cotton is the main raw material of these yarn factories.
Manager Li, head of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "This kind of ash looks so big, it's dirty, it's cheap."
A person in charge of the yarn factory told reporters that in some domestic cities, there are distribution centers that specialize in processing and selling recycled cotton.
Manager Feng of Hebei Gaoyang Yarn Production Enterprise: "When we receive raw materials, we generally look like Zhengzhou, Shandong, and sometimes (Shandong) Plains and Xiajin."
How are these recycled cottons used in yarn factories processed? The reporter decided to continue to follow the upstream of this industry chain.
How can waste clothing become the raw material for towel production?
In Wenshang Cotton Industry in Xinmi City, Henan Province, nearly 100 cotton processing enterprises are concentrated and they enter a factory workshop, where recycled cotton is being processed. The reporter noticed that the cotton-like raw materials are full of dust, except for some chemical fiber. It looks very white, and the rest of the raw materials are yellowed, blackened, or even clumped together.
Reporter: "What's this? This is green? Hairy."
Workers in the processing workshop of Xinmi Wenshang Cotton Industry in Henan Province: "Well, right, right."
These dirty and poor cotton wool-like raw materials are mixed together by the workers. After simple processing and packaging, the cotton bales of different colors are turned into a whole bundle of finished products to be sold.
Henan Xinmi Wenshang Cotton Industry Merchants: "All are sold to Gaoyang, Hebei to make towel yarn, there is no problem with towel yarn."
In order to standardize the processing and use of recycled cotton, the "Code of Conduct for Reprocessed Fiber Quality" promulgated by the former AQSIQ clearly stipulates that direct or indirect use of reprocessed fiber for the production of baby and child products and products that directly contact the skin is prohibited and is in a prominent position. Mark relevant warnings.
However, here, the reporter will not see any warnings and other product information on the bundle of recycled cotton that will be sent to the downstream yarn factory.
Reporter: "Do you have ready-made labels?"
The person in charge of the merchants of the Wenshang Cotton Industry in Xinmi City, Henan Province: "No, we have not posted, and the entire market is not."
In an old factory yard in Shandong Plain, there are more than ten recycled cotton processing plants, which also process raw materials for towel yarn manufacturers.
Reporter: "Towel gauze, right? Goyang made towel gauze, right?"
The person in charge of the Shandong Plain Cotton Processing Factory: "Yes, they have more than two thousand yuan (yuan), and more than three thousand yuan (yuan), he pulls this kind of spinning."
Walking into a factory workshop, workers are sorting raw materials. The person in charge of the factory told reporters that these raw materials were all scraps bought from some spinning mills and textile mills. After sorting and flowering, they were finally packaged into whole bundles. Cotton.
The finished product was also not marked with product information, manufacturers and warnings. The boss took out the label from the drawer that the local regulatory department had asked them to label, which read: "Warning: Prohibited for medical and health Supplies, baby products, products that directly contact the skin, and fiber products for household use."
Such an important warning was locked in the drawer.
In Nanjingzhai Village of Handan, Hebei, the raw materials for producing recycled cotton are even more shocking. The old clothes in the factory are piled up like mountains, with sweaters, coats, autumn clothes and trousers, and even underwear and socks worn through.
Reporter: "Generally we throw away this old clothes. Where did it come from? Did someone specifically collect this old clothes?"
Person in charge of the recycled cotton processing factory in Nanzhai Village, Handan, Hebei: "Well, yes."
Reporter: "Where do you usually collect it?"
Person in charge of the recycled cotton processing plant in Nanzhai Village, Handan, Hebei: "From the South."
Without any disinfection procedures, old clothes were put into the machine and cut into pieces, which were piled up on the ground in a mess. After machine crushing and several flowering procedures, the old clothes turned into cotton again. Due to the various colors of the clothes, the finished cotton that appeared was not particularly white, and it was full of dust and impurities.
Reporter: "This is because its clothes are red in color? Is it out (it is red)?"
The person in charge of the recycled cotton processing factory in Nanzhai Village, Handan, Hebei Province: "Yes, it becomes red."
There are still no warning signs on the product packaging.
Reporter: "Towel gauze does not know if this is there?"
The person in charge of the recycled cotton processing factory in Nanzhai Village, Handan, Hebei Province: "All put, all use, all mixed, I haven't told you all? All mixed, mixed with materials, I have been going to Gaoyang."
Reporters surveyed in Henan, Shandong and Hebei found that all kinds of scraps and even recycled cotton processed from old clothes were sold to yarn factories to make yarn and yarn without marking any product information and warnings. The product information and warnings were also not marked online, and they were sold to the towel factory, and eventually made into towels, and practitioners in every link knew the various problems in the raw materials.
Jin Haoyang Textile Co., Ltd. General Manager: "Let’s use this 14-count yarn, which is also the type with 14 feet of yarn. The 14-count yarn, the cheaper yarn, will have the bottom of the yarn (material). I really want to say that there is no bottom. (Material), let me tell you this. Every ton of cotton is more than 16,000 (yuan). Everyone knows that when you spin it, you can see from the online reading of the price that it is reasonable to say that it should not produce 14 yarns. Line) towels, the hair removal rate is not up to standard."
Hebei Gaoyang yarn practitioners: old clothes and old denim clothes, once bleached, the machine is turned on, so this yarn, Gaoyang towels, generally wipe the face hair. "
Knowing that such towels are unqualified, they are affixed with labels that comply with national standards and are sold throughout the country through small and medium-sized supermarkets, wholesale markets, and e-commerce.
Jin Haoyang Textile Co., Ltd. General Manager: "Throughout the whole year, this price segment can go for five or six million (yuan) goods."
Reporter: "How much can Temahui take in a year?"
Mr. Zhai, Sales Director of Hebei Gaoyang Yongliang Textile Co., Ltd.: "Let's do 50 million yuan."