Leaders from the global nonwoven associations held a joint strategy meeting at the IDEA 2019 Conference, in Miami Beach, FL, March 26, to advance coordination on two key issues common to all: free and fair trade in nonwovens, and the growing concern about plastics in the environment and the need for coordinating messaging on the issue.

“The shared vision of our association leaders is to effectively represent, protect, and actively promote common interests of nonwovens and their related industries throughout the world.  I believe our initial steps on these two current issues are a good start toward global coordination,” says Dave Rousse, INDA president, organizer of the meeting.

The first step in advancing free and fair trade in nonwovens has been achieved with an updated and uniform nonwoven definition recently approved and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9092:2019. The new definition establishes nonwovens without reference to “Textiles” as did the previous definition and introduces the concept of an engineered material. The new definition describes a nonwoven as an “engineered fibrous assembly, primarily planar, which has been given a designed level of structural integrity by physical and/or chemical means, excluding weaving, knitting or papermaking.”

The group agreed to encourage the adoption and use of this definition in the Harmonized Commodity description and Coding System (HS) to achieve a more relevant classification of all nonwovens and nonwoven articles in tariff classifications.

The group was presented with INDA’s overview of how growing public concern about plastics in the environment can impact nonwovens with some guidelines on how to manage the issue. Additionally, EDANA presented the current state of play on the European Union Single Plastics Directive and its development of Extended Producers Responsibility.

All agreed that the meeting was constructive and such coordination should be continued at future global nonwoven events. Attending this meeting were:

• Carlos Benatto, president, Brazil Association of the Nonwovens Industries, (ABINT)
• Dr. Hiroaki Kanai, chairman, and Hideo Tsuchiya, secretary general (Deputy), Asia Nonwoven Fabrics Association (ANFA)
• Masato Miki, vice president, All Nippon Nonwovens Association (ANNA)
• Li Lingshen, president, and Eric Zhang, general manager, China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Association (CNITA)
• Yang Xiang, general manager, China Nonwovens Technical Association (CNTA)
• Pierre Wiertz, general manager, and Gil Stevens, external relations & sustainability director, European Disposables and Nonwovens Association (EDANA)
• Socrates Ng, president and Michael Wong, secretary, Hong Kong Nonwovens Association
• Dave Rousse, president, and C.K. Wong, executive committee appointee, Association of Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA)
• Samir Gupta, managing director, INDIA Nonwovens Association
• Billy Hidjaja, chairman, Indonesia Nonwovens Association
• Steven Chen, chairman, Taiwan Nonwovens Association