Greenpeace has reported that Chinese plants making products for Adidas,...

Greenpeace has reported that Chinese plants making products for Adidas, Nike and Puma polluted rivers in the country, sending toxic, hormone-disrupting chemicals that are banned in Europe and elsewhere into the water. The plants were subcontractors of the big athletic companies as well as other brands such as Li Ning, Calvin Klein, Lacoste and Abercrombie & Fitch. Greenpeace spent a year investigating two major suppliers in China, the Youngor Textile Complex in Ningbo and the Well Dyeing Factory near Hong Kong. They are on the Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas, respectively. Li Yifang of Greenpeace told Reuters that while China needed to come up with a chemical management policy, contractors also needed to be more careful about the practices of companies doing work for them. Reuters reported that Nike, Puma and Adidas all said the companies ran only cut-and-sew facilities, which do not use chemicals.