Read also our debate on boron salt: https://www.econologie.com/forums/ouate-de-c ... 10528.html
Wadding Case "(1 / 4): salty addition for recycled newspaper insulation manufacturers
The microcosm of cellulose wadding is turned upside down. Recycled newspaper insulation manufacturers saw their technical advice with Bore Salt canceled and then re-accepted. The turnaround made by the committee responsible for formulating technical advice (CCFAT) leaves the skies of small players in the sector, the shadow of large industrial groups. Diving into the Kafkaesque universe of "the cotton business", in four episodes.
The cellulose wadding insulation represents less than 5% of the French insulation market, but its growth is exponential. In recent years, several SMEs specialized in this field have been born in France and have installed production lines. Of about 10 000 tons produced in 2009 (less than 1% of the insulation market), production approached 50 000 tons in 2012. If we are far from the quantities of mineral wool produced each year in France, the examples of development abroad show that the potential is enormous. In the USA, the production of 50 factories established on the territory has exceeded 700 000 tons in 2007.
It is in the light of these economic issues that we must read the events that have been shaking up the microcosm of cellulose wadding over the last two years, starting with the reversal of the cancellation of technical advice from the wadis, a non-mandatory document but sesame for French shipyards.
The origin of the controversy
After a few warning messages from the Scientific and Technical Center for Building (CSTB), the previous months, the decision falls in June 2011. Instructing, under the authority of the Technical Advisory Committee (CCFAT), requests concerning "special insulation products and processes", the specialized group number 20 (GS20) announces that it will cancel, before the end of the summer 2011, the technical advice he has previously issued for cellulose wadding with boron salt. Explanation: The European Biocide Directive prohibits the use of boron salts as an antifungal agent. At the same meeting, he delivered a technical opinion to the Soprema group for cellulose wadding treated, not with boron salt as is the case for other manufacturers, but with ammonium salt.
In small producers of wadding, which all add boron salt to their cellulose wadding, the question arises whether it is only a coincidence of the calendar.
To justify their decision on boron salt, the GS 20 emphasizes the fact that the European Reach regulation authorizes its use as flame retardant, but that that on biocides prohibits it. Manufacturers must therefore, in order to comply with the two European texts, present boron salt as an element to slow down the development of fire and not as a molecule preventing mold from developing or repelling rodents.
Thierry Toniutti, founder of the family SME Ouateco and, at the time, president of the European union of producers of cellulose wadding (Ecima), is also surprised that the GS 20 is not interested in the boron salt present in the mineral wools. On this subject, CSTB makes a formal denial that no technical advice has been issued for mineral wool insulation with boron salts.
The GS 20 has 35 members whose identity is not made public. For its defenders, this anonymity makes it possible to remove GS 20 members from any form of pressure. However, in the small family of insulation, there are really no secrets and we know that, alongside companies and controllers, industrialists are widely represented, whether they are producers of mineral wool (Isover, Rockwool), manufacturers of biobased insulation (Buitex) or manufacturers of cellulose wadding (Soprema, which has several thousand employees and Isofloc SME). For Thierry Toniutti, former president of the Ecima trade union, to which Isofloc is a member, it would be necessary to withdraw the industrialists from the group responsible for issuing the technical opinions, in order to remove the questions about the supposed influence of the manufacturers.
The deputies get involved
Following the decision of the GS 20 to cancel the technical advice for borate cellulose wadding, some deputies seize the subject and take the defense of the SMEs that have recently started manufacturing these insulators on their territory. The mayor of Epinal and Vosges MP Mickael Heinrich is particularly attentive to the issue. In its region is located the company Nrgaïa within which the agglomeration community of Epinal sits through a mixed economy company. The MP therefore expressed his questioning of a possible conflict of interests within the GS 20 the President of CSTB, Bertrand Delcambre.
The latter explains, in a letter sent in July 2011, to Thierry Toniutti, then president of Ecima, that the disagreement between the SMEs and the GS 20 "is based on different interpretations of the regulations in force on health issues". The commission responsible for formulating technical advice (CCFAT) then seizes the problem. "After long debates, a compromise was found," says Georges Debiesse, president of the CCFAT. In November 2011, it is decided that the technical opinions will be valid until June 2012 "to give the time to SMEs using boron salt to turn around".
The companies of Ecima put forward the wide diffusion of wadding with boron salt on the American continent or in the Rhine but nothing helps. "We did not want to put the knife under the throat of SMEs, but their argument did not convince us. Although the wadding with boron salt has many virtues, because made from old newspapers, it has excellent gray energy, it still contains a product that, from a certain threshold, can be reprotoxic ( affecting reproductive capacity, reducing fertility or causing infertility), "says the CCFAT President.
Forced by the CCFAT to change their products, cotton manufacturers are now preparing a new ammonium formulation. More reluctant than other companies to accept the decision of the CCFAT, Ouateco wants more time. At the approach of the suspension of the technical opinions, the atmosphere is electrified and Thierry Toniutti initiates a procedure before the courts. A mediator appointed by the State, Nadia Bouyer, then tries to restore dialogue between Thierry Toniutti and CCFAT. Finally, the CCFAT will extend the validity of technical advice with boron salt until September 2012. "It was necessary to give the time to the manufacturers who asked for new technical advice with ammonium salt", explains Nadia Bouyer.
Reverse all
At the end of the summer 2012, the storm seems past. All the producers have started to use ammonium salt and their new products are investing in the shelves. But the respite will be short-lived. In early August, Thierry Toniutti reports to the President of the CCFAT and the Directorate of Housing, Town Planning and Landscapes, ammonia releases on some sites and requests the maintenance of the formulation with boron salt, time to carry out additional tests. At the end of October 2012, Olivier Legrand, founder of Nrgaïa and new president of the Ecima, noted about thirty cases of releases of ammonia in homes. He decides to have all members of Ecima stop production and alert the CCFAT.
At the beginning of November 2012, Georges Debiesse organizes an exceptional meeting of crisis. "The chemists lost their Latin. Although it meant that the CCFAT could give the impression of saying black after saying blank, we had no choice and decided to reopen the door to borated products until 30 June 2013 ". And Georges Debiesse specifies that in June, he will propose to the CCFAT to extend for at least a year the technical advice with boron salt. "I want producers of cotton wool to find a formulation that eliminates both boron salts and the risk of ammonia release. And that may take a long time, "said the CCFAT President.
In the end, products with boron salt will have finally been banned by the CCFAT only a few weeks.
Intervention of the Risks Department
At the same time, studies have been launched on the toxicity of ammonium. The first results were presented on Friday 26 last April. Laboratory tests conducted by CSTB have shown that at high temperatures and high relative humidity, the ammonium salt can degrade to ammonia. And on the side of the General Directorate of Health, we conclude that "we can reassure the people concerned, but the removal of ammonia-releasing isolates is recommended and the substitution of ammonium salts flame retardant cellulose wadding is already to recommend. "
The Directorate General for Risk Prevention has drafted a draft decree to prohibit the manufacture and marketing of wadding adjuvanted ammonium salts whose final version could be published in late May. A decision obviously unfavorable to manufacturers still using ammonium salts. Starting with Soprema, which has always made the absence of boron salt a commercial argument for its products.
In retrospect, the Ombudsman Nadia Bouyer considers that "there were hasty decisions". A precipitation that leaves a salt addition to the cotton industry and a bitter taste among its actors.
Source: http://www.lemoniteur.fr/199-materiaux/ ... x-recycles
Episode 2: Case wadding "(2 / 4): the technical-administrative framework killed me
http://www.lemoniteur.fr/199-materiaux/ ... f-m-a-tuee
Episode 3: Case wadding "(3 / 4): who wants the skin of the sector?
http://www.lemoniteur.fr/199-materiaux/ ... la-filiere
Episode 4: coming soon