From the Sector

Carbios published its first Sustainability Report using 2021 as the baseline year. The report outlines Carbios’ commitment to developing environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives that go beyond the industrial development of its innovative plastics biorecycling technologies. Although not subject to the regulatory requirement of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), Carbios has nonetheless structured its report in accordance with the requirements of the European directive on Extra-Financial Performance Statements.

Carbios’ sustainability strategy is based on three pillars (governance and ethics, the environment, social and societal issues) divided into 22 priority material challenges. Carbios’ Sustainability Report reflects the company’s dedication to transparency in action and highlights its efforts in areas such as environmental sustainability; employee relations, diversity and inclusion; and corporate governance.

Within its 2021 Sustainability Report, Carbios has formalized several targets including:

ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES

• Use the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method to maximize circularity and aim for the lowest carbon impact
• Commit to depolymerizing 60 tons of PET in 2023 at the Demonstration Plant in Clermont-Ferrand: the equivalent of about 3.2 million plastic bottles or 4 million food trays

SOCIAL OBJECTIVES

• Contribute to local economic development in France: the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET recycling plant in Longlaville will create 150 direct and indirect jobs
• In a context of strong growth, promote employee well-being and safety by developing training, and ensuring the management and prevention of psycho-social risks
• Strengthen commitment to supporting international research through academic partnerships and scientific publications

GOVERNANCE OBJECTIVES

• Achieve 40% female members of the Board of Directors by end 2023, and 40% on Executive Committee by end 2024
• Achieve 60% independent members of the Board of Directors by end 2024
• Structure CSR governance with the creation of a CSR committee and integrate sustainability objectives into Executive’s compensation starting fiscal year 2023

The European textiles and clothing sector is set for a major transformation which will affect both industry and workers. The EU’s strategy for sustainable and circular textiles aims to ensure that by 2030, textile products placed on the EU market are long-lived and recyclable with the industry moving from a linear to a circular business model. This strategy is accompanied with the EU’s transition pathway for a more resilient, sustainable, and digital textiles ecosystem linking the green transition with the digital transition while stressing the need for the sector to remain competitive.

IndustriAll European Trade Union (industriAll Europe) and Euratex, representing the workers and employers in the textiles and clothing sectors respectfully, jointly highlight both the challenges and opportunities of the giant forthcoming transformation of the sector and call for action to ensure that European industrial policy is fit for purpose and enables the sector to transform without negatively impacting workers or European industry.

Specifically, the European social partners jointly call for:

1. EU action to guarantee that the European textiles ecosystem remains competitive, including ensuring a level global playing field.
2. Measures to increase the demand of sustainable products including awareness raising campaigns, incentives such as lower VAT rates, and sustainability criteria in public procurement.
3. Measures to ensure access to green and affordable energy.
4. Policy gaps to be addressed, such as promoting a harmonised Extended Producer Responsibility approach across the EU and ensuring that SMEs can use Product Environmental Footprints.
5. Action to ensure that the Sustainable Products Regulation and the forthcoming Digital Product Passport will offer a transparent, predictable and SME-friendly framework.
6. Investment in attracting, training and reskilling workers including via concrete support for the EU Pact for Skills.
7. Appropriate funding, sound metrics and legal incentives at regional, national, and European level to support the green and digital transitions of the textile and clothing sectors.
8. Regional and national authorities to coordinate with sectoral social partners to ensure that the green and digital transitions are fair and just and do not leave the industry, regions or workers behind.

INDA’s 17th annual World of Wipes® (WOW) International Conference is accepting abstracts through December 2, 2022, on innovative, inspiring, and informative wipe products, markets and technologies to be presented in Atlanta, GA, July 17-20, 2023.

Experts in the areas of dry and wet wipes, sustainability, end-use markets, substrate formation, raw materials and fibers, liquid ingredients, packaging, machinery, and market trends and data are encouraged to submit a brief abstract of one or two paragraphs detailing the relationship of their presentation to wipes or wipe manufacturing. Along with a brief abstract summary, professionals should also submit a speaker’s photo, and biography. Information may be submitted online via the WOW website before December 2nd.

Over 450 wipes business leaders are expected to convene at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel July 17-20, 2023 to hear premium content in market research, product innovations, sustainability issues, new materials and substrates for all wiping products and their components.

The last WOW event held in Chicago connected more than 450 participants from 18 countries representing the entire wipes supply chain to explore issues and advancements in the growing multibillion-dollar wipes sector. WOW is targeted exclusively for wipes brand owners, converters, manufacturers, and their entire supply chain.

The WOW Committee is developing content for a timely and relevant program that targets such areas as energy consumption, digitalization, global supply chain challenges, the plastics issue, ingredient transparencies, market intelligence, substrate developments, converting systems, material science, packaging, and circularity advances in personal and industrial wipes.

Training at the WOW 2023 Conference
The WIPES Academy, the industry’s first and only comprehensive wipes training for the entire supply chain, will occur prior to the conference start, July 17-18. Participants will gain a strong foundation of fundamental wipes knowledge, covering the basics of wipes design, manufacturing and applications, market trends, and opportunities in new product areas. At least two years of basic nonwoven fabrics knowledge or completion of the INDA Elementary Nonwovens Course are the recommended prerequisites.

Piattaforma Sistema Formativo Moda Ente del Terzo Settore renews its commitment in the field of responsible, eco-friendly fashion with a new ad hoc initiative for Fashion Graduate Italia: FASHION SCHOOLS FOR DESIGN - DRIVEN SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION. The project has been set up in a partnership and with the support of C.L.A.S.S. (Creativity, Lifestyle And Sustainable Synergy).

The project “Fashion Schools for Design - Driven Sustainable Innovation” is presented at the eighth edition of the event organised by Piattaforma Sistema Formativo Moda, staged from 3 to 5 November at BASE Milano.

Embracing the theme of this edition of Fashion Graduate Italia, “Sustainable Innovation”, Piattaforma Moda has invited students from fashion schools, academies and associated institutes to participate in a training course regarding the planning and creation of an outfit in compliance with a responsible fashion approach: starting with the design, including the choice of sustainable materials supplied by some of the hub’s partner companies, and also involving a look at the communication strategy for the project.
To create their looks, the selected students followed two training courses organised by C.L.A.S.S.: “Introduction to next-generation Fashion” and “Introduction to smart ingredients”. These courses covered the values of next-generation fashion (integrating sustainability with design and innovation) and the characteristics of innovative and sustainable materials to produce the outfits.
 
The development process of the 11 final looks was followed in person by creative director Olivia Spinelli - Coordination and Creative Direction at IED Moda Milano and member of the Artistic Committee of FGI 2022 - and by tutor Camilla Carrara - founder and zero-waste designer of ZEROBARRACENTO -, the project coordinator of C.L.A.S.S.

The partners of C.L.A.S.S. that contributed by supplying their materials are: Berto, Brunello, Iluna Group, Re.VerSo™ by A. Stelloni Collection by Mapel and Tessitura Grisotto;  IED - European Institute of Design and ZEROBARRACENTO also gave support in the implementation of the initiative.

• Lenzing has been awarded the highest CSR rating from EcoVadis for the second consecutive time
• Global rating standard evaluates 90,000 companies: Lenzing among top 1 percent of its industry
• enzing joins the UN Global Compact sustainability initiative

Lenzing Group has been awarded platinum status in the CSR rating from EcoVadis. This comprehensive assessment covers the four key practices of corporate social responsibility: the environment, fair working conditions and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

This is the second time that EcoVadis, a leading international provider of sustainability ratings for businesses, has awarded platinum status to Lenzing for its sustainability performance. As a result, Lenzing ranks among the world’s top 1 percent of companies in its sector that are rated by EcoVadis.

In line with its “Naturally positive” sustainability strategy, the Lenzing Group has set ambitious targets in each of its core strategic areas, aimed at bolstering its capacity to move from a linear to a circular model. Lenzing reports the corresponding implementation measures and the progress it has made in its annual sustainability report. This high level of accountability and transparency was particularly praised in the assessment by EcoVadis. The rating provider also highlighted Lenzing’s comprehensive measures to reduce air pollution, wastewater and greenhouse gases, in addition to its provision of skills development training and health care programs for staff members.

Partnerships for systemic change
Lenzing forges strategic partnerships with various stakeholders to meet its ambitious climate and sustainability targets and drive forward systemic change in the textile and nonwoven industries. This is why Lenzing, as one of 15,000 companies worldwide, joined the United Nations Global Compact. As a member, Lenzing is committed to upholding human rights, respecting the rights of employees and their representatives, protecting the environment, enabling fair competition and combating corruption.

A new fabric inspection technique for accurately detecting the most subtle of defects on patterned fabrics during high speed production has been developed by BTMA member Shelton Vision, of Leicester, UK.

The patent-pending system has been integrated into the company’s WebSpector platform and validated through factory trials on a purpose-built full scale in-house demonstration system with sophisticated fabric transport capabilities. As a result, a first system has already been ordered by a manufacturer of both plain and patterned fabrics, including camouflage, in Colombia. This follows the successful conclusion of a 21-month Innovate UK project in which techniques for the resolution of complex pattern deformations were developed by machine vision and computer scientists in the company, backed up by the machine vision and robotics department at Loughborough University.

Restrictions
Traditional methods for defect detection rely on human inspection which is ineffective, with detection rates under 65%, while the Shelton WebSpector machine vision system offers a sophisticated platform for automated defect detection of over 97%, but until now has been restricted to plain textiles.

While pattern matching and neural network approaches have previously been tried for patterned textiles, they have failed to provide a practical solution due to the extreme complexity associated with pattern matching on deformable substrates like textiles, as well as the time required to train a neural network for each pattern type.

Challenges
The challenge is that fabrics are not rigid and can be creased or stretched and are also subject to local distortion,” says Shelton Vision Managing Director and CEO Mark Shelton. “As a result, inspection without the technique we have developed, would lead to thousands of false positives. Our sophisticated pattern inspection software techniques ensure a clean image, allowing the detection of faults on fabrics running at speeds of up to a hundred metres a minute.”

The full system consists of:

• A camera and lighting system for optimum image capture at high speed and associated image processing hardware.
• Self-training software utilising statistical analysis to automate the system configuration for new textile products.
• An advanced suite of defect detection algorithms for the detection of all textile defect types.
• An AI-driven defect classification system which learns and automates defect naming in real time, as well as a real time defect grading capability based on client decision rules.
• A system for recording and retrieving complete roll map images for subsequent review and quality control.

The generation of textile roll maps with complete defect data allows for an optimised textile cut plan, improved downstream processing and quality assurance.

adidas unveils the first of two drops with South African luxury designer, Thebe Magugu. The debut collection for women features the celebratory and joyful artwork of a woman dancing, designed in collaboration with artist Phathu Nembilwi, and influenced by Thebe’s mother, aunt and grandmother, and the theme of femininity, interwoven with leading adidas material technology . Each garment features an abstract selection of bright and punchy colors including, impact orange and yellow, accents of shock pink, backgrounded by pulse lilac. The collection spans across sports including running , swimming , training , tennis , football , and cycling alongside a set of casual lifestyle garments.  

United by a shared passion for inclusivity and kinship, the collection includes a three-piece modesty swimwear set made in part with recycled materials and chlorine resistant fabric that is lightweight and chlorine-resistant; swimwear in inclusive sizing (XS-4XL); and gender-neutral pieces with UNITEFIT – a fit system that is created with a spectrum of sizes, genders, and forms in mind.

The high-performance tennis pieces will be premiered during one of the most prominent hardcourt tournaments by adidas’ inspirational athletes Dana Mathewson, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger Aliassime and Daria Kasatkina who are passionate about showing support for what matters and encouraging diversity and inclusivity on and off the court. The tennis collection features the Purple NY UNITEFIT Tennis Dress, delivering style and functionality, made in part with recycled materials.

Alongside the performance pieces, the statement Originals looks include the Originals Crop T-shirt, in white and semi pulse lilac, delivering classic streetwear style, and the Originals 7/8 Leggings, a go-to choice for every occasion. The collaboration also includes remixes of iconic adidas footwear silhouettes including the Stan Smith, Nizza Platform, Astir and Forum footwear, which feature design accents from Thebe Magugu's signature prints. Reflecting adidas's commitment to consciously crafting performance materials, hero styles and pieces have also been made in part with recycled materials, just one of the innovations that represent adidas' commitment to help end plastic waste. 

ROICA™, Asahi Kasei's premium stretch fiber manufacturer, strengthens its presence in the high fashion segment thanks to its established network of partners, who will present their latest innovations - activated by ROICA™ - at the upcoming edition of Milano Unica, taking place at Rho Fiera Milano from 12th to 14th July 2022.

Going more in depth in the offers of ROICA™ partners for this season of Milano Unica, they are:

• Cifra, which presents its innovative garments for men and women, combining fashion and function. Base layers, tops, leggings and jumpsuits are made with natural yarns, or recycled pre- and post-consumer yarns in combination with ROICA™ EF, the sustainable recycled stretch yarn able to complete proposals that offer design, performance and responsibility. The design of the garments, created in Cifra's design office, offers a perfect shape with body mapping technology that creates dedicated ventilation zones, for a feeling of comfort and freshness as well as an innovative aesthetic impact.
• Iluna Group, whose journey into the new dimension of responsibility continues with developments in GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled yarns aimed at unprecedented effects in looks, performance and hands. Brand new for this edition of Première Vision is the inclusion of GOTS-certified organic cotton in GRS-certified galloons and allover lace containing ROICA™ EF, so as to meet market demands for natural comfort in the underwear sphere.
• Maglificio Ripa, which presents the Splash collection for summer 2024, developed in two major themes, united by the same focus on sustainability that results in the use of recycled pre- and post-consumer polyamide and polyester yarns including ROICA™ EF for the sustainable recycled stretch fiber. The first theme encompasses printed, 3D jacquard fabrics, ennobled by innovative processes that move the bottoms for an organic and sometimes irreverent final look. The second theme embodies a cocoon spirit, enveloping like a caress, soft as a hug.
• Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, whose highlights of the new collection are on one side fabrics developed with the use of Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550, characterized by restraining lace effect, soft touch and breathable, in combination with tulle as a sustainable basic, and on the other side charmeuses with soft hand, raw cut in combination with a band fabric from the dreamshape family with reinforced gripping edge, made again in Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550
• Piave Maitex, whose orientation is, as always, to present new products with the right  balance between technological innovation and aesthetic look, between fashion and comfort, proposals that include sustainable fabrics made in recycled polyester,  polyamide and the sustainable recycled stretch fiber ROICA™ EF, three-dimensional and optical, perforated, plush effects, made by prioritizing technical functionalities such as waterproofness, breathability, transfer and moisture management, opacity and anti-UV as well as anti-abrasion.
• Sitip, which is one of the premium partners, together with ROICA™, for the creation of the first Scott Racing Team’s responsible biking uniform. This year, the evolution of research and development has also led to the creation of new responsible shorts, made with NATIVE-THUNDERBIKE POWER fabric by Sitip in recycled polyamide and ROICA™ EF yarn by Asahi Kasei. A fabric designed for high-performance sports, particularly suitable for making cycling pants for its maximum coverage and UV protection - thanks to ECLIPSE Sun Protection technology - breathability, comfort and fit. Also the shirt has been produced with Sitip recycled fabrics - NATIVE-BICIMANIA and NATIVE-PIRATA - made with Asahi Kasei's ROICA™ EF sustainable, stretch and certified recycled yarns.

ROICA™ strengthens its presence in the apparel segment thanks to its established network of partners, who will present their latest innovations at the upcoming Première Vision.

ROICA™ partners are the “artists” and “heartists” of premium stretch in fabrics: because they have at heart all the values for which ROICA™ stands for. These partners presenting at Première Vision are:

• Iluna Group, whose journey into the new dimension of responsibility continues with developments in GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled yarns aimed at unprecedented effects in looks, performance and hands. Brand new for this edition of Première Vision is the inclusion of GOTS-certified organic cotton in GRS-certified galloons and allover lace containing ROICA™ EF, so as to meet market demands for natural comfort in the underwear sphere.
• Innova Fabrics, which recently enhanced its smart offering by launching the RF (Residual Free) line, with the goal of reducing the impact of microplastics derived from the fashion industry. This is made possible by mixing two responsible ingredients, SENSIL® BioCare by Nilit and ROICA™ V550 by Asahi Kasei, which give birth to both sporty and casual fabrics.
• Inplet, which enriched its production of smart elastic and rigid knitted fabrics with three new products: a powernet fabric in 77% polyamide RECO and 23% ROICA™ EF with good recovery; a net fabric in 55% polyamide RECO and 45% ROICA™ EF characterized by a soft hand and good elasticity; and a 79% polyamide and 21% ROICA™ V550 good power, good recovery and a soft touch.
• Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, whose highlights of the new collection are on one side fabrics developed with the use of Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550, characterized by restraining lace effect, soft touch and breathable, in combination with tulle as a sustainable basic, and on the other side charmeuses with soft hand, raw cut in combination with a band fabric from the dreamshape family with reinforced gripping edge, made again in Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550
• Tessitura Colombo Antonio, which in its new A/W 23-24 collection expands its proposal of regenerated lace from the ECO-LACE line: new designs inspired by fashion trends using ROICA™ EF. Also, in its BIODEGRADABLE line it uses ROICA™ V550 for the realization of new designs. The new MICROMODAL line uses ROICA™ V550; the effect of this lace range is softness, elegance and relief effect.

The Reifenhäuser Group will be represented with four booths at the world's leading trade fair for plastics processing, K 2022, from October 19 to 26. Under this year's Reifenhäuser motto "The Time is Now", the extrusion specialists will show producers of films and nonwovens solutions for the three major topics of the industry: sustainability, digitalization and productivity.

The main booth showcases the Reifenhäuser Blown Film, Cast Sheet Coating and Reicofil business units. With the help of machine exhibits, visual presentations and concrete solutions for end products, visitors will learn, among other things, how they can manufacture fully recyclable products economically, process recyclates safely, increase their output and network the entire production without becoming dependent on systems, specialists or manufacturers. To ensure smooth production even after purchase, Reifenhäuser Service shows how customers can get the best out of their Reifenhäuser products and increase their productivity with rework solutions, modifications, training programs and digital services.

The component specialists of the Reifenhäuser Extrusion Systems business unit will additionally present their portfolio at two other exhibition booths. Here, everything revolves around screws, barrels and extruders - and why, especially for processing recycled material, high-performance wear protection is essential for reliability and high economic efficiency. Reifenhäuser Extrusion Systems will also showcase its innovations for flat dies and coextrusion blocks and their coordinated interaction for maximum productivity.

In addition to its own booths, Reifenhäuser will also be present as a partner of the R-Cycle initiative as part of a joint pavilion on the open-air site in the so-called Circular Economy Forum. R-Cycle is a cooperation project of various technology companies and organizations along the entire life cycle of plastic packaging.

Aanother highlight for visitors to the Reifenhäuser trade fair booths is the opportunity to additionally participate in the in-house exhibition on October 20, 21 and 24 at the Reifenhäuser Technology Center.