TEXTILES.ORG
In 2017, five European companies that committed to manufacturing textiles from 100 percent recycled materials teamed up to create wear2wear™, a partnership that works to close the textile loop. Today, wear2wear includes nine core members and three technology partners.
Two of those partners, Sympatex and Schoeller Textil AG, collaborated to introduce the rEvolution Hybrid, an upcycled functional jacket made from 30 percent used textiles and 70 percent recycled PET bottles.
The process begins by mechanically reducing used 100 percent polyester (PES) textiles into fibers and converting them into granulate using a polymer melting process. The granulate is melted again before it is spun into new PES filament yarn that is processed into polyester fabric by Schoeller Textil AG.
Next, the fabric is laminated with a 100 percent recyclable polyether-ester-based Sympatex membrane, creating a waterproof textile that can be recycled again. The chemical upcycling process enables other substances such as PU adhesives to be dissolved into a spinnable concentration so that they gradually vanish from the recycled textiles.
The concept behind rEvolution Hybrid, known as Design2Recycle, involves creating a waste-free synthetic clothing industry by developing textiles that can continue to be recycled. It’s achieved by using materials that are as pure grade as possible in combination with unmixed ingredients and environmentally compatible equipment and dyes that do not affect the recycling process.
The wear2wear collaboration included partner TEXAID, which can determine if a jacket belongs to the upcycled concept by reading an RFID chip integrated into the textile. Partners such as CWS ensure the collection of used clothing from the rental business and the protective work clothing segment. For more information, visit www.sympatex.com.