Textile giant on complex path to make big brands’ environmental commitment messages persuasive Inditex and chemistry basf announced a successful development this Tuesday new textile material We are called to champion this fight for the sustainability of an industry that has been criticized for its high environmental footprint. The name of the new fabric has been announced Loopamid and this is the first nylon totally coming textile wasteAccording to both companies. technology used allows you to recycle polyamide 6 (or nylon 6) textiles and we transform them into new fibers and materials of the same quality as virgin raw materials. For the uninitiated, the fabric looks very similar to raincoats. Polyamide 6 production facilities are located in Europe, Asia and North America.
Inditex poster Zara’s This Tuesday, he released a jacket made exclusively from Loopamid fabric. As the first circular solution for nylon garments produced entirely from textile waste, this solution promises to be profitable for manufacturers who want to combine a pristine image with business profitability in terms of sustainability goals. All parts of this Zara jacket are made with Loopamid, including the fabric, buttons, padding, Velcro and zippers.
betting on circularity This is a far-reaching economic strategy that is fundamental to the future survival of companies. Basf plans to double its sales linked to circular economy solutions to 17 billion euros in 2030. Circular raw materials, new generation materials and new business models constitute the three main development axes for Basf in this field.
Inditex It aims to have 100% of textile products produced only from materials with a lower environmental footprint by 2030. As part of this commitment, the Galician group expects 25% of its textile fibers to be produced with cutting-edge materials not available on an industrial scale today, 40% from recycled materials and 25% from fibers from organic farming. .
Loopamid and Basf, Innovative solution to improve circularity in the fashion industry and in the recycling of polyamide 6 textile waste. Due to its ability to accept all fabric blends such as PA6 and elastane, the technology behind Loopamid enables the recycling of post-industrial and post-consumer waste from textile to textile. Fibers and materials can be recycled multiple times. At the same time, the properties of the resulting material are the same as those of virgin polyamide.
Processes
The use and application of Loopamid is not exclusive to Inditex. ModaRe, a clothing collection program run by Caritas, separates and sorts discarded textiles, transforming them into new raw materials. The Italian company RadiciGroup has worked on the process of converting the Loopamid polymer into various types of threads with different properties. Japanese fastening products multinational YKK and Velcro multinational companies have also played a key role in using Loopamid to create plastic components for zippers, snap buttons and velcro fasteners. Spanish Uniter, Tessitura Vignetta (from Italy) and Freudenberg and Gütermann (from Germany) also participated in this project, with the development of other components of the garment such as internal labels, padding materials and sewing threads using loopamid.
Inditex Sustainability Director Javier Losada thinks the development of Loopamid “is the first step in moving towards a circular solution, but the industry needs to promote new collection and recycling capacities to close the loop and scale post-consumer waste recycling”. Basf’s Monomers division president Ramkumar Dhruva feels that the jacket produced by Inditex “is proof that circularity is possible and we are keen to further the sustainable transformation of the textile industry.”