Sponsored by Taiwan Textile Federation
The textile & apparel industry makes up an important part of the global economy but it damages the environment excessively. For example, each year, the fashion industry consumes 93 billion cubic metres of water – enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people – according to figures from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Apparel production makes up 10% of carbon emissions; at this pace, the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions are expected to surge more than 50% by 2030.
But as the textile industry faces increasing global pressure to make changes, it is worth noting that Taiwan’s textile industry has strong knowledge and expertise on material innovations. These innovations help the design and creation of sustainable fabrics by using natural and recyclable materials with eco-friendly energy.
To cope with the impact of climate change, governments, society and enterprise around the world are moving towards the goal of global net-zero emissions. Both the global textile industry and Taiwan are facing the challenge of climate change and with the improvement of chip manufacturing technology, the consumption of water, electricity and resources is also increasing. Environmental and sustainable governance (ESG) and sustainable development have become key to the competitiveness of Taiwan's textile industry and its supply chain resilience in the next decade.
Over the years, Taiwan has become the top choice of many international leading brands in going green. To assist Taiwan’s textile industry further and support its efforts on expanding their green products to the global market, the Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) has showcased five cutting-edge green textile technologies.
Acelon Chemicals & Fiber Corp – DuraXtend Eco
Acelon is an industrial yarn manufacturer founded in 1988. The company offers recycled wear-resistant nylon yarn titled DuraXtend.
Technical materials are evenly mixed inside the yarns to enhance the resistance to rub. After rubs, yarns and filaments are broken down much slower, thus the textile weight loss is lower. It also has a 3D porous structure that enables elastic recovery, distortion withstanding and abrasion resistance.
According to Acelon, textiles made with DuraXtend Eco can enhance wear resistance, decrease weight loss of fabrics, improve the poor WR of materials like wool, extend the life cycle of textiles and improve carbon deduction – alongside catering to demand for sustainability via its recycled nature.
Creative Tech – Seawool and Smawarm
Creative Tech Textile, established in 2010 in Taiwan, is a Bluesign certified fabric manufacturer. The company offers functional fabrics for outdoor and city casual clothing; insulation for garments, gloves, shoes and bedding; in-house testing for UPF protection, pilling resistance, abrasion resistance and more; and a team that can help with customised development suggestions.
Recently, the company has targeted specific sustainability issues in Taiwan.
Firstly, in Taiwan, the 300-year-old oyster farming industry generates 160 million kg of waste shells per year. To solve this issue, Creative Tech has developed Seawool yarn – a way to utilise the shells to create textiles that was developed in collaboration with the Industrial Technology Research Institute.
The shells are collected, washed and crushed. Later, they are compounded with recycled PET bottles – according to Creative Tech, the nanolized shell powder makes polyester more valuable. This is because the final spun yarn that incorporates the shell, titled Seawool, has a surface embedded in tiny, microscopic nanolized oyster shell powder. These scales simulate woollen touch, making it unique compared to regular synthetic polyester.
The oyster shell surface is a mound-like porous structure that facilitates the absorption of odour caused by sweat. Meanwhile, the alkaline property inhibits the growth of bacteria, while its intrinsic minerals and trace metals increase electrical conductivity, which decreases the creation of static.
Overall, Sealwool yarn’s properties are low conductivity, woollen touch, quick drying, anti-odour, anti-bacterial and anti-static. It is said to be comforting and insulating for a variety of applications. Seawool is also offered as a fabric and powder for printing and coating purposes.
Creative Tech also offers Smawarm Insulation, a polyester fibre that consists of 60% recycled polyester and comes in the form of padding, down and ball. Its spiral microfibres form small spaces within the fibre sheet, allowing heat to be trapped while retaining soft handfeel.
Far Eastern New Century (Fenc) – TopGreen Bio3-PET
Far Eastern New Century (Fenc), established in 1945, is a company centred in the petrochemical, polyester, textile and resource development industries.
The company seeks to address waste and carbon footprint reduction: according to the company, 21 billion PET bottles are used per year and circle the earth 120.5 times – much of this goes unrecycled and goes to waste. For textiles, Fenc addresses this through the offering of TopGreen Bio3-PET, a recycled, waste gas-based polyester. The company captures waste carbon gas, converts it to ethanol using a proprietary microbe and utilises this to create TopGreen Bio3-PET. Fenc says the product is the “world’s first fabric made from waste gas” and is said to be carbon negative and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% compared to traditional PET products.
Its applications are in fibres, packaging, automotive sectors, geotextiles and more.
Honmyue – NüPalette
Honmyue is an advanced fabric supplier that was launched over fifty years ago. Its product lines include industrial fabric, soft equipment fabric, apparel fabric, home and contract textiles and medical textiles. Its current focus is on water consumption in industry.
The 400D Nylon Oxford – a popular fabric in outdoor equipment, backpacks and soft goods is problematic in the textile & apparel industry. It is estimated that, for its dyeing process, 50 litres of water are required to process one yard of 400D Nylon Oxford. This means the solution dyeing of the fabric is hugely challenging for businesses trying to reduce their negative environmental footprint.
HonMyue, however, offers NüPalette, which it describes as key to solving these problems. The company offers NüPalette in primary colours. The company claims that by switching to its 100% nylon tenacity yarn, dyed fabrics, brands can save up to 80% on water usage. Vivid colours are also offered in 2-tone, iridescent effects.
Kingwhale – CiCLO
Kingwhale, with its goal towards net zero, offers a vertically integrated service that caters to yarn, fabric and garment processes. Vertically integrated supply chains are becoming ever popular as a solution to unsustainability: by offering control of fabric production from yarn to knitting to dyeing and finishing, brands can ensure their processes are authentically sustainable and carbon footprint efficient.
Its textile products include BeBreeze for athleisurewear; BeWarm for outdoor and casual wear; BeShell for outdoor wear and BeFlex for athlesuire, active, yoga and sportswear.
The company also offers CiCLO, an OEKO-TEX certified product which it says is an easy-to-implement upstream solution to microfibre pollution and unrecycled synthetic textiles. CiCLO is an additive that is combined with polyester and nylon during melt extrusion at the beginning of the fibre making process. The additive creates millions of biodegradable spots in the matrix of the plastic, where microbes that naturally exist in certain environments can break down the materials like they do with natural fibres. The environmental benefits include the reduction of the persistence of plastic pollution caused by synthetic textiles. According to the company, long-term studies show that CiCLO fibres biodegrade at rates similar to wool in seawater, wastewater treatment plants and landfill conditions.
Textiles made with CiCLO fibres “look and feel like regular synthetics and can be engineered with high-performance characteristics and finishes,” the company adds.
For more information on the above companies, visit www.textiles.org.tw. Ad. by BOFT.
