{"id":16507,"date":"2026-08-26T15:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/the-missing-list-the-mrsl-for-metal-accessories-is-born\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:17:12","slug":"the-missing-list-the-mrsl-for-metal-accessories-is-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/the-missing-list-the-mrsl-for-metal-accessories-is-born\/","title":{"rendered":"The missing list: the MRSL for metal accessories is born"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"articleWrapper _hero-content-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"articleContent _hero-content-body\">\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1ddala6tn0\">On 23 September 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter probe, which cost around 125 million dollars, disintegrated in the Martian atmosphere. No malfunction, no calculation error: one team of engineers was working in metric units, the other in imperial units. The numbers were correct. It was the reference list used to interpret them that was wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3d0cq0\">Space probes aren\u2019t lost in electroplating workshops. But the mechanism behind the error is identical: taking the \u2018grammar\u2019 of one process and applying it to a process that \u2018speaks\u2019 a different language. This is what has been happening for years in the metal accessories supply chain, which has been asked to reduce or eliminate substances on the basis of lists written for textiles, leather and plastics. Serious, well-constructed lists. Except they were designed for something else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3d0cs0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3d0cu0\"><b>A LIST THAT DIDN\u2019T EXIST<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3d0d00\">MRSL stands for Manufacturing Restricted Substance List: the list of substances subject to restrictions in manufacturing processes. The version published today within the ZDHC framework \u2014 the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals programme, which aims for zero discharge of hazardous chemicals into the environment \u2014 covers textiles, leather and plastics. Metal accessories have never been taken into account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3d0d10\">Ester Falletta, technical director of the Physis Consortium, uses two precise terms to describe what has happened in the vacuum left by that omission: distortions and misrepresentations. Demands were nevertheless made of suppliers, because brands could not afford to wait for a list that nobody was actually drawing up. And so a buckle, a zip or a clamp ended up being measured against a standard designed for other products.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed\" data-doc-label=\"Incorpora\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v380hb0\">\n<div doc-html=\"html\"><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HVgVENvdjV8?si=CVtlLED0bg227ang\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v32pb90\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v391e31\"><b>WHO IS ACTUALLY QUALIFIED TO DRAW IT UP?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtr80\">The real question is who is qualified to draw up such a list. Not a single manufacturer, who knows only their own ring well. Not a brand, which views the supply chain from the outside and from above.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtrb0\">Physis is the first consortium established to represent the entire metal accessory production chain: from metal refining to manufacturing plants, from software to supporting technological solutions, from base materials to semi-finished products, right through to surface treatments such as electroplating and &nbsp;varnishing. This structure has made it possible to bring together, around a single table, technicians overseeing different stages of production, supplemented by an international network of experts.<span style=\"white-space: pre;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtrd0\">In 2025, the project to develop the MRSL for metal accessories officially began, with the Physis Consortium acting as lead organisation, in tandem with ZDHC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtrf0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtrg0\"><b>ELECTROPLATING, CHAPTER ONE<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtri0\">By the end of 2025, the working group had finalised the first list: substances subject to restriction in electroplating processes applied to metal accessories.<span style=\"white-space: pre;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtrk0\">This list comprises three main categories: metallic, organic and inorganic substances.<span style=\"white-space: pre;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3dtrl0\">The document was submitted to the MRSL Council, which established a Technical Expert Group (TEG) comprising international experts in formulation, industrial plants and processes, sustainability, and brand representatives. The TEG, chaired by Ester Falletta, is finalising its review of the document, with final validation by the MRSL Council \u2013 the body responsible for its independent technical review \u2013 scheduled for October 2026.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\" data-tap-fullscreen=\"\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v37ini0\">\n<div doc-image=\"image\" doc-link=\"hyperlink\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/141989-141985.jpeg'); background-position: 50% 50%;\"><\/div><figcaption doc-editable=\"caption\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3eebq0\">\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v32pbn0\"><b>NOT A LIST OF PROHIBITIONS<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3eg0t0\">A list of restricted substances is instinctively seen as a \u2018no entry\u2019 sign, and therefore as a cost, a complication, a problem. But the situation should be viewed quite differently: the publication of the MRSL will not be an end in itself, but a starting point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3eg100\">The logic follows that of progressive reduction plans, which accompany the use of a substance right through to its phase-out. And the list will be reviewed periodically, as technology within the supply chain advances. This is based on a criterion that rarely features in sustainability documents: alongside environmental protection and health and safety, the industrial and economic sustainability of the measures being proposed is also taken into account. In other words: no reduction that a real supply chain is unable to sustain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3eg110\">Not a static list of obligations, therefore, but a programme that moves in step with research and, in some respects, drives it forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text body\" doc-editable=\"text\" data-component-id=\"doc-1k0v3eg120\">For years, the metal fittings sector has been asked to prove its environmental credentials using someone else\u2019s yardstick. Now it is developing its own assessment system. A major step forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ZDHC framework covers textiles, leather and plastics, but not metal: for years, the accessories supply chain has been responding to written requests intended for other processes. Led by the Physis Consortium, the first list of restricted substances for electroplating was drawn up at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company-news-arsutoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsutoriastudio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}