From the Sector

• Major Monforts denim customers continue to pioneer new initiatives that are pushing the boundaries of sustainable production.

Recycling their cotton waste has become one way these companies can do more with less, and at the recent Kingpins24 Flash online event, Sedef Uncu Aki, director of Orta, headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, announced a new partnership with leading recycling operation Gama Recycle.

Traceable
“Through this local partnership we will supply the waste from our spinning mills and return around 3,000 tons of premium quality cotton back to them,” she said. “We have established a truly controlled and traceable system and partnering with a domestic recycling centre is important because a lot the carbon emissions associated with recycling usually come from transportation.”

Orta’s ZeroMax range meanwhile uses no cotton at all, being based on Lenzing’s Tencel cellulosic fibre, while the company’s involvement in denim production for a recent launch by Levi Strauss, of jeans made with organic cotton and Circulose – a breakthrough material developed by re:newcell of Sweden and partners – was hailed as a further step forward.

To make Circulose, re:newcell repurposes discarded cotton textiles, such as worn-out denim jeans, through a process akin to recycling paper. The incoming waste fabrics are broken down using water. The colour is then stripped from these materials using an eco-friendly bleach and after any synthetic fibres are removed from the mix, the slurry-like mixture is dried and the excess water is extracted, leaving behind a sheet of Circulose. This sheet is then made into viscose fibre which is combined with cotton and woven into new fabrics.

Circular Park
Omer Ahmed, CEO of Artistic Milliners also announced plans for his company’s new 70,000 square-foot Circular Park in Karachi, Pakistan, at Kingpins24 Flash.

Once complete, this will add three million square metres of additional denim capacity a month to the company’s production and take its total recycled output to a monthly five million metres.
Ahmed observed that there is currently a lack of sustainable fibres that are readily available to use for denim production at scale.

“Organic cotton is too expensive, and in my opinion always will be,” he said. “Cottonised hemp is also not cheap and it’s hard to mix with cotton, while the new regenerated cellulose fibres that are now emerging are promising, but currently in short supply. Recycled polyester is meanwhile still based on petroleum resources which we want to move away from. As a consequence, there are only a few other options for us as a manufacturer and this new project will help us minimise our own waste while significantly lowering our carbon footprint.”

Other Monforts denim customers to introduce cotton fibre recycling operations at their plants recently include AGI Denim, Bossa and Soorty.

Vertical savings
Refresh is the name of the latest collection from AGI Denim – reflecting the company’s significant reduction in water consumption.

The company has just opened new fibre spinning and denim mills at its complex in Karachi, Pakistan.

“Over the years we’ve gone through a series of backward integration steps to become fully vertical,” said AGI Denim executive director Ahmed Javed, at Kingpins24 Flash. “In our latest expansion, we revisited every step of the production processes in order to make resource savings.”

Innovations have included the installation of proprietary robotics for garment finishing, but the most attention has been paid to water savings.

“Pakistan is one of the largest cotton-producing companies in the world and we’re fortunate that the type of cotton that is grown here is well suited to denim production and also helps us lower our carbon footprint, with everything done in close proximity,” Javed said. “In the lifecycle of a pair of denim jeans, however, cotton fibre production contributes 68% of water consumption. While we cannot control how much water cotton needs for it to grow, we can rethink the way we use it in our factory.”

Refresh-branded denims are washed from 100% recycled water as a result of the company’s new wastewater treatment plant, which puts production wastewater through a series of steps beginning with equalisation, followed by aeration and concluding with sedimentation. The water travels through filtration and ultrafiltration systems before being subjected to an activated carbon system and finally a reverse osmosis system to reduce any dissolved salts.

AGI now recycles 4.4 million gallons of water each month – enough to wash a million pairs of jeans.

Sustainable
Monforts has a leading position in the field of denim finishing with its well proven Thermex continuous dyeing systems, Montex stenter dryers and other lines for resource-efficient and economical processing.

“Our denim partners are constantly setting themselves new goals in respect of sustainable production – and more importantly, achieving them,” says Hans Wroblowski, Monforts Head of Denim. “We work closely with them with the aim of constantly optimising processing parameters and achieving further savings in energy, water and raw materials throughout the dyeing and finishing stages of production.”

The latest Monforts innovation for denim is the CYD yarn dyeing system. This technology is based on the effective and established dyeing process for denim fabrics that is now being applied for yarn dyeing. The CYD system integrates new functions and processes into the weaving preparation processes to increase quality, flexibility, economic viability and productivity. A full CYD line is now available for trials at the company’s Advanced Technology Centre in Mönchengladbach, Germany.”

From the drinking water and food industries through water management and mining to the automotive and aviation sectors, mechanical filtration processes are used in almost every industry. As different as the methods, dimensions and special requirements of the filtration process are in each case – technical textiles and often tubular filters are almost always used. This means that tubular filters and narrow textiles by vombaur contribute to the safe and reliable separation or treatment of substances in the widest variety of filtration processes.

Individual solutions
The requirements placed on the textile, the material, the flow rate and the loading capacity of the filters depend on the respective use: a tubular for dewatering soil needs to withstand different forces than a tubular filter for the beverages industry. On the other hand, the latter needs to meet the highest hygiene standards. Because the requirements are so individual, vombaur develops customised filtration textiles for its customers all over the world.

Seamless tubular filters
At vombaur, filter media are round woven seamlessly on unique looms. As a result, they have identical surface properties all around and over the entire length, such as flow rate, loading capacity, shrinkage behaviour or material thickness

Narrow textiles for fabricating filter media
"We manufacture our narrow textiles from a wide variety of high-tech yarns. Sometimes monofilament yarn is used, sometimes multifilament, sometimes spun yarn. Like the type of weave, we select the raw materials depending on the function they need to fulfil," emphasises Gert Laarakker, Sales Manager at vombaur. "So that our filtration textiles reliably perform the job they are supposed to perform. Clean. Safe. Sturdy."

Hologenix, creators of Celliant®, infrared responsive technology, and Kelheim Fibres, a world-leading manufacturer of viscose specialty fibers, have partnered to launch Celliant Viscose at ISPO Munich 2021. Celliant Viscose is a finalist in Best Products by ISPO and will be showcased in the Fibers & Insulations Category for ISPO Textrends, where realistic views and 3-D simulations will be available for each material.

The introduction of nature-based Celliant Viscose will be the first in-fiber infrared sustainable solution on the market and meets a consumer demand for more environmentally friendly textiles. An alternative to synthetic fibers and extremely versatile, Celliant Viscose blends beautifully with cotton, micromodal, lyocell, wool varieties including cashmere. It also has many applications across industries as it is ideal for performance wear, luxury loungewear, casual wear and bedding.

Celliant Viscose features natural, ethically sourced minerals embedded into plant-based fibers to create infrared products that capture and convert body heat into infrared, increasing local circulation and improved cellular oxygenation. This results in stronger performance, faster recovery and better sleep.

Celliant Viscose provides all the benefits of being a viscose fiber — lightweight, soft, highly breathable, excellent moisture management — as well as fiber enhancements from Celliant infrared technology. Celliant’s proprietary blend of natural minerals allows textiles to capture and convert body heat into full-spectrum infrared energy, resulting in stronger performance, faster recovery and better sleep. In addition, Celliant is durable and will not wash out, lasting the useful life of the product it powers.

An Affordable, Long-lasting Solution with Diverse Applications
As opposed to other IR viscose products which are coatings based, Celliant Viscose’s in-fiber solution increases wearability and longevity with a soft feel, durability from washing and longer life. The combination of Kelheim’s distinctive technology and the Celliant additives creates this unique fiber that provides full functionality without the need for any additional processing step — a new standard in the field of sustainable IR viscose fibers. This single processing also makes Celliant Viscose more cost-effective and time-efficient than coatings.

In addition, Kelheim’s flexible technology allows targeted interventions in the viscose fiber process. By modifying the fiber’s dimensions or cross sections or by incorporating additives into the fiber matrix, Kelheim can precisely define the fiber’s properties according to the specific needs of the end product.

Highly Sustainable
Celliant Viscose is a plant and mineral-based solution for brands seeking an alternative to synthetic fibers. It contains natural raw materials that are from the earth and can return safely to the earth.

Nature-based Celliant Viscose is certified by FSC® or PEFC™, which guarantees the origin in sustainably managed plantations, and is part of the CanopyStyle initiative to protect ancient and endangered forests. The production of Celliant Viscose takes place exclusively at the Kelheim facilities in Germany, complying with the country’s strict environmental laws and guaranteeing an overall eco-friendly product.

Backed by Science
Celliant is rigorously tested by a Science Advisory Board composed of experts in the fields of physics, biology, chemistry and medicine. The Science Advisory Board has overseen 10 clinical, technical and physical trials, and seven published studies that demonstrate Celliant’s effectiveness and the benefits of infrared energy.

For more information, visit www.celliant.com/celliant-viscose/

• World Congress on Textile Coating, to take place on 11-12 & 18-19 February 2021.

The conference organisers have developed a well-structured programme of five sessions over four days with live discussion forums following each session for maximum attendee participation.

“The programme aims to be inspiring and informative, and will showcase the best innovations and collaborative actions in the industry. Functionality can be added to textiles and nonwovens at the beginning or the end of the supply chain, with an increasing range of raw materials, offering many options when designing and realizing a high-performance fabric. At the other end, there are many ways, such as applying a coating, to add functionality to an otherwise finished product. For example, the current pandemic has prompted new commercial anti-viral processes and four such presentations will outline the impact on industry and its response to the global pandemic,” says Dr Nick Butler, head of the conference organising committee.

World Congress on Textile Coating will feature time dedicated to networking, encouraging attendees to interact with conference speakers and industry peers throughout the online programme, offering the opportunity to expand professional networks. All the presentations and discussion forums will be recorded for post-event viewing. Event sponsors imogo AB, Lamberti SpA, JX Nippon ANCI and Weitmann & Konrad GmbH & Co. KG will give individual presentations and host Q&A during the four days of the event.

For the full programme, speakers and abstracts please visit https://www.technical-textiles.online/WCTC.

• "Dibella up" records its first big success

Aalten, "Dibella up" is bearing its first fruits. Since the launch of the recycling concept initiated in August 2020, six tons of sorted laundry items have already been returned to Dibella and converted into new ones by the company in farsighted reuse projects. The customer who has been involved in the project from the very beginning is Lamme Textielbeheer from Nederhorst den Berg. The Dutch textile service provider sees the initiative as an important measure for more appreciation of resources.

Dibella has taken the closed-loop approach of the textile service as a model and has taken a step towards a completely closed cycle with the "Dibella up" project. The system includes unlimited reuse and recycling of the fibre raw materials bound in the textiles. To this end, the company's own textile qualities, which are selected from laundries, are taken back and passed on to selected upcycling projects. Polyester-cotton blended fabrics are processed there into high-quality bags. Pure natural fibre textiles as well as blended fabrics with at least 50 percent cotton are chemically converted into an important raw material for cellulose fibre production, while the remaining polyester is still being thermally recycled for technical reasons.

Six tons of laundry from the Netherlands

Lamme Textielbeheer was immediately enthusiastic about the "Dibella up" initiative. The committed company has been involved in various Dibella sustainability projects for many years and recognises the future-oriented character of the new project. "Our will to cooperate was immediately clear after Dibella's managing director Ralf Hellmann presented the upcycling project, because we see it as an important measure for the prudent use of resources," reports Jan Lamme, managing director of the company of the same name. "Within a very short period of time, we therefore jointly started to take back our discarded, no longer usable old textiles. In this way, we have already been able to return six tonnes of laundry for a new product cycle. This corresponds exactly to our idea of upcycling!". "Dibella provides stable, reusable cartons for shipping," says a delighted Frank David, Lamme's Assistant Operations Manager. "This makes collection much easier for us and we don't have to take any means of transport out of our laundry".

Prepared for the mega-trend of recycling management

Dibella would like to build on the initial joint success and further expand the initiative for a closed textile cycle in the industry. "The awareness of sustainability is high in the textile rental service. But the next mega-trend is already emerging. The future lies in closed-loop recycling. With "Dibella up", we are offering our customers the opportunity to get involved now and make resources usable in the long term. We are happy about every new cooperation partner who appreciates the value of textiles as much as we do".

• Miles Johnson and ISKO’s Creative Room present the new responsible collection.

The second edition of this partnership tells the story of a unique combination of creativity and expertise brought to the table by ISKO’s style and design center, Creative Room Italy, and the innovative designer Miles Johnson, resulting in a collection featuring responsible R-TWO™ fabrics and a selection of sustainable accessories and details.

An act of care for the planet and its people, Light on the Land 2.0 is the new capsule designed by Miles Johnson and ISKO. Former Design Director at Levi Strauss & Co. and Senior Creative Director of Product Design and Development at Patagonia, Inc., Miles joined forces with Creative Room and Iskoteca, ISKO’s Italian style and washing research hubs, to develop a collection that brings responsibility in the fashion industry to the next level.

The project includes 32 unique pieces, each of them realized with seasonless designs and sustainably-minded details. All the fabrics used in the collection were carefully selected from ISKO’s R-TWO™ platform. Using a mixture of reused cotton and recycled fibers, the technique embeds material circularity into the production processes, designing waste out of the system and minimizing impact at scale. Certified to Textile Exchange environmental credentials according to the percentage of materials contained, R-TWO™ ensures better use of raw materials and resource efficiency. ISKO’s Environmental Product Declarations (EPD®s), available for all its +25,000 products, offer a unique opportunity to measure the impact of R-TWO™’s savings in the Lifecycle Assessments (LCAs) framework, where resource savings can be seen in carbon impact, water-use reductions and many other impact KPIs.

Light on the Land 2.0 incorporates responsible design principles such as Cadica’s new and innovative trims, made of vegan apple “leather”, and has been developed using ecoconscious finishing techniques. The collection also features many additional sustainable facets such as efficient low-waste pattern cutting and design, efficient sewing methods, removeable rivets for end-of-life and biodegradable thread which can be removed at high heats.

“When we first started working on this project, we knew it was going to be amazing,” explained Massimo Munari, Manager and Art director Creative Room, ISKO. “To design a collection like this, you need to begin with the right mindset and of course, the right materials. R-TWO was the perfect ingredient, thanks to the re-used and re-cycled content. We then aimed to minimize impact at all stages: incorporating sustainable design ideas, washing processes and trims. We are proud to have created such an inspiring, and sustainable collection, and to bring our collective vision to light.”

Due to the unprecedented challenges of this time, the collection was entirely developed through remote working and creative solutions to ensure the safety and health of all parties involved. To this end, everyone was kept safe thanks to ISKO Vital™+ reusable and eco-friendly face covers, created with organic cotton to cater for comfort and sustainability.

• Monforts customer Kipaş has been selected as the sole denim manufacturing partner in the €6.7 million European Union-funded New Cotton Project, involving the brands adidas and H&M, working in a consortium with suppliers, innovators and research institutes.

Kipaş, based in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, is currently installing its third Monforts Montex stenter along with a third Monfortex compressive shrinkage system in a combined configuration dedicated to denim production.

This follows the successful installation and commissioning of the second Montex and Monfortex lines at the Kahramanmaraş plant in 2018, which Kipaş Vice Chairman of the Board Ahmet Öksüz said had immediately exceeded expectations.

“We performed a very thorough technical investigation based on the latest Industry 4.0 analysis before the purchase, to determine what we needed, and the Monforts technology met all our requirements,” he said, in an interview with Textilegence magazine. “The Monfortex is equipped with a variety of features not found on classical shrinkage machines and the production can be monitored from beginning to end. It also exceeded our expectations in energy cost savings.”

Kipaş subsequently received a special certificate from Monforts in recognition of its exceptional utilisation of the technology to its full potential.

The latest Montex stenter now being installed at Kipaş is a 12-chamber unit with a working width of 2 metres featuring all of the latest automation features. The Monfortex unit, also with a working width of 2 metres, is in a ‘double rubber’ configuration, comprising two compressive shrinkage units and two felt calenders in line. This allows the heat setting of elastane fibres and the residual shrinkage of the denim to be carried out simultaneously, for a significant increase in production speeds.

“Around 90-95% of denim fabric production now contains elastane fibres and the Monforts system has allowed us to simultaneously increase our production and quality in this respect,” Mr Öksüz said.

Regenerated cotton
For the next three years within the New Cotton Project, Kipaş will manufacture denim fabrics based on the cellulose-based fibres of Infinited Fiber Company of Finland, made from post-consumer textile waste that has been collected, sorted and regenerated.

The patented technology of Infinited, which is leading the consortium of 12 companies, turns cellulose-rich textile waste into fibres that look and feel like cotton.

“We are very excited and proud to lead this project which is breaking new ground when it comes to making circularity in the textile industry a reality,” said Infinited co-founder and CEO Petri Alava. “The enthusiasm and commitment with which the entire consortium has come together to work towards a cleaner, more sustainable future for fashion is truly inspiring.”

Take-back programmes
Adidas and H&M will establish take-back programmes to collect the clothing that is produced, to determine the next phase in their lifecycle. Clothing that can no longer be worn will be returned to Infinited, for regeneration into new fibres, further contributing to a circular economy in which textiles never go to waste, but instead are reused, recycled or turned into new garments.

The aim is to prove that circular, sustainable fashion can be achieved today, and to act as an inspiration and stepping stone to further, even bigger circular initiatives by the industry going forward.

The EU has identified the high potential for circularity within the textile industry, while simultaneously highlighting the urgent need for the development of technologies to produce and design sustainable and circular bio-based materials. Making sustainable products commonplace, reducing waste and leading global efforts on circularity are outlined in the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan.

Fashion brands produce nearly twice as many clothes today as they did 20 years ago and demand is expected to continue growing. At the same time, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second. Most of the textile industry’s environmental problems relate to the raw materials used by the industry – cotton, fossil-based fibres such as polyester, and viscose as the most common man-made cellulosic fibre, are all associated with serious environmental concerns.

The Lenzing Group scored a total of 30.5 points (4 points more compared to last year) and received for the first time a leading dark green shirt, the highest Hot Button ranking category. Lenzing once again convinced the non-profit organization Canopy with its innovative vision with regard to circular economy and REFIBRA™ technology, its high level of transparency in wood and pulp sourcing, as well as its active contribution towards protecting forests and preserving biodiversity.

In this widely recognized ranking, Canopy grades the world’s 31 largest producers of wood-based fibers with respect to their sustainable wood and pulp sourcing, their efforts with regard to using alternative non-wood feedstock and their achievements for lasting conservation in critical forests round the globe.

Leading in sustainable sourcing with a decade-long clean record
Wood and pulp are the most important raw materials for Lenzing’s sustainable production of cellulosic fibers. The Lenzing Group is particularly proud of its decade-long clean record of sustainable wood sourcing, evidenced by its long-standing credible commitment to wood certification, which Lenzing pioneered already in the 1990s. Lenzing’s commercial wood sources are  100 percent either certified by FSC® or PEFC™, or controlled in line with FSC® standards.

Social impact and afforestation project in Albania
At the backdrop of Lenzing’s long history of clean sourcing, the company is even more aware that the global forests are seriously threatened by illegal logging and deforestation but also by the consequences of climate change. This is why Lenzing – in addition to supporting a number of Canopy’s conservation projects – has set up a social impact and afforestation project in Albania (Southern Europe).*

Special focus on sustainable plantations in Brazil
For its latest investment in a pulp mill in Brazil, Lenzing actively collaborates with Canopy to ensure that the wood sourcing is in line with sustainable practices. The plant will be among the highest productive and energy-efficient facilities in the world and will feed the 40 percent excess bioelectricity generated on site as “green energy” into the public grid.*

REFIBRA™ technology: Commercially available since 2017
As a long-standing player in the industry, Lenzing has undertaken extensive research into many different alternative non-wood cellulose sources such as annual plants, like hemp, straw, and bamboo. Until now, textile waste has turned out to be the most promising alternative feedstock for scaled commercial use.
Lenzing’s lyocell fiber produced with the breakthrough REFIBRA™ technology (Eco Cycle technology for nonwoven applications) uses textile waste as part of the feedstock and is an important step towards a circular economy.*

50 percent recycled content by 2024
It is Lenzing’s vision to make textile waste recycling a common standard process like paper recycling and to offer fibers produced with REFIBRA™ technology with up to 50 percent recycled content from post-consumer waste by 2024.

*Please read attached document for more information

• Conservation and Biodiversity Information Now Available

Asia Pacific Rayon’s (APR) Follow Our Fibre is a blockchain-based tool that allows users access to information in real-time on the source of the raw materials in their garments and the origination of the fibre.

Launched in May 2019, the platform is now refreshed to include information of its suppliers’ conservation and biodiversity efforts, taking information transparency and richness to a new level. The refresh comes at a time when the fashion industry, through the Fashion Pact, is beginning to embrace biodiversity as a core focus on its agenda.

Follow Our Fibre now maps APR’s supply chain right down to locations of forest plantation concessions and conservation areas. The textile fibre producer’s suppliers are collectively responsible for the conservation of more than 3.12 million hectares of forests around the world, including boreal and peat swamp forests. These protected forests have rich biodiversity like the elusive Sumatran Tiger and Canadian Boreal Caribou, and provide ecosystem services, including 22 rivers and tributaries totalling over 900km.

“It is vital that we work with our supply partners to protect and strengthen forest landscape conservation areas rich in flora and fauna, and home to threatened and endangered species for today and future generations. These efforts are part of APR’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) 13 on Climate Action, and 15 on Life on Land,” said Cherie Tan, Vice President of Sustainability and Communications.

By providing a snapshot of the forest landscapes and biodiversity, APR hopes to quantify its ecological footprint and, as a next step, seek opportunities to partner its stakeholders to further strengthen forest conservation and enhance biodiversity in areas it sources from. Follow Our Fibre reflects the company’s long-term objectives for sustainable pulp sourcing and responsible manufacturing, and is a tool for its customers and stakeholders to trace finished products back to forest plantation origins, as well as monitor the environmental performance of APR’s supply chain.

• World Cotton Day on 7 October Highlights the Importance of Cotton for Development Policy

Bremen - Stemming from a 2019 initiative of the African Cotton-4 countries Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, World Cotton Day will take place this year on 7 October. The event is organised by the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO) and is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Cotton Secretariat (ICAC). The Bremen Cotton Exchange is also involved.

“Cotton is often underestimated because it is so natural. Behind it are millions of people, for example many farmers, field workers, employees in ginning factories, logistics providers and traders. We want to honour their achievements,” said the President of the Bremen Cotton Exchange, Stephanie Silber.

According to the WTO, the aim of World Cotton Day is to highlight the global economic importance of cotton and to raise awareness of the raw material by recognising the work of everyone involved in its cultivation, processing and trade. At the same time, within the framework of international cooperation, it is hoped that supporters and investors can be found to aid with technological and economic progress within the cotton value chain.

This time, the entire world cotton community will be involved in World Cotton Day on Wednesday, 7 October 2020. A wide variety of campaigns and events are taking place everywhere to draw attention to the importance of cotton and its possible uses.

Cotton is one of the most relevant agricultural raw materials in the world. Around 26 million tonnes of it are harvested annually. Approximately 150 million people in almost 80 countries around the world live from the cultivation of the natural fibre. A large number of these live in developing countries, where cotton cultivation is of particular importance as a cash crop.

Cotton is known as an agricultural product that is turned into a textile. The raw material is indispensable in fashion and clothing – and has been for thousands of years. But the use of cotton now goes far beyond textiles. For example, cosmetic products such as hand creams and hair shampoo are made from the oil of cotton seeds. The raw material is also used in the manufacture of banknotes, furniture and technical textiles, as well as in medical technology.

Against the background of the current discussion on sustainability and sustainable consumption, the role of natural fibres is becoming even more important. Cotton is biodegradable and a renewable resource. It can be grown again and again in agriculture through cultivation in crop rotation. This secures incomes and enables efficient value creation within the global production and processing chain.

The Bremen Cotton Exchange will actively support World Cotton Day with cross-media coverage. In addition, in time for World Cotton Day, three thematically different, emotionally appealing short films about cotton will be launched. They are aimed at consumers as customers of the textile and clothing trade and provide information about the benefits and properties of cotton and answer questions about its sustainability. In keeping with the times, they will be published via virtual media.