The textile industry is today one of the largest industrial polluters and accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. Only 12% of all virgin textile fibers are recycled at present. In March 2022 the European Commission published its "Circular Economy Action Plan". Sympatex promises to reach circularity by 2030 and will produce functional textiles from recycled and recyclable mono-materials. Used textiles should be transformed into new, high-quality functional textiles. From 2025, used clothing and other textiles will be collected separately throughout Europe to facilitate reuse and recycling. Can you share any ideas yet on how this plan will be approached and implemented at Sympatex? Sympatex has closely followed the amendment of the Circular Economy Act and is working in various committees to advance the topic. As early as 2017, Sympatex set the agenda of aligning its portfolios with recyclable mono-materials in order to enable separate collection. For the areas of outdoor textiles and work-wear, we have converted to 95 %. The remaining 5 % will be developed through various approaches in research projects, such as developing polyester fibers that are as robust as polyamides, chemical recycling trials in which various fiber materials can be recycled in a high-quality and low-emission manner, or new production processes to enable grade purity in the first place. An example of this is our Utmospheric technology. Here, the shoe lining is deep-drawn instead of being cut to size in 2D and then made waterproof with non-recyclable tape.
展开▼
