New fiber routes to performance fabrics
From basalt to recycled carbon to sustainable nylons, today’s advanced fabrics are exhibiting environmentally sound components that are sustainable and innovative. An emphasis at the Techtextil show in Frankfurt, Germany from June 21-24, 2022 – as was also the case at the recent JEC World composites show in Paris from May 3-5 – was on …
A net zero vision
A hail of silver bullets required – getting plastics to net zero What if all plastics, including synthetic fibers and nonwovens, could become net zero in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 2050? This tantalizing possibility is raised in a new report, Reshaping Plastics by Munich-based Systemiq. The report was, in turn, cited as an example …
Shooting for the moon with new nylons in 2022
There can be no more potent a symbol of the golden age of synthetic fibers than the planting of the U.S. flag on the moon by Buzz Aldrin on July 21st, 1969. The flag was famously purchased by a NASA secretary from Sears for $5.50, and despite nylon’s unbeatable durability, cannot possibly have endured what …
Shifting the needle to Europe’s PET polyester waste
CuRe Technology (Emmen, The Netherlands) Garbo Srl (Cerano, Italy), gr3n (Chiasso, Switzerland), and PerPETual (Remscheid, Germany), are companies all involved in developing new processes for chemically recycling PET polyester for fabric and garment production. Their processes all involve various depolymerization techniques to break down the polymers of waste PET into useful chemicals. With the aim …
Eastman’s big response to the big, big problem of plastic waste
For most of the 20th Century, Eastman Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film – back in 1976 it had an 89% market share of all U.S. photographic film sales. The company began to struggle financially in the late 1990s as a result of the decline in sales of film and also its slowness …