New sustainable workwear made from 100% organic cotton
Melchior Textil, a German company specialising in high-quality workwear fabrics, presented its first line of environmentally-friendly fabrics, which is a new “Organic Cotton” line in November 2009.
Workwear fabrics of Melchior Textil |
The trend towards eco-friendly workwear originated in Scandinavia, but recently the awareness of sustainability issues in the production of workwear has spread all over Europe. With its “Organic Cotton” range of fabrics, Melchior Textil has developed a line of products that comply with the rigid international Global Organic Textile Standard G.O.T.S. and are certified organic, the company explains.
Consisting of 100% certified organic cotton and processed by G.O.T.S-approved procedures, the “Organic Cotton” line was developed specifically for the manufacturing of trousers and jackets for workplace. The twill-weave fabrics weigh 195 grams per square metre and are available in different colors.
China has the most Oeko-Tex certificates
China leads the number of Oeko-Tex certificates per country this year, the Oeko-Tex Organization said.
Oeko-Tex testing institute’s managers met in Beijing in late 2009 |
According to Oeko-Tex general secretary Raimar Freitag, the number of Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificates continue to grow across the globe. Almost 10,000 certificates for textile products at all processing stages were issued in 2008 - the highest annual figure to date, and an increase of 11% as compared to the previous year. Strong increases were registered in Asian countries, whereby particularly Chinese companies are increasingly certifying their products in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100. While Asia already displaced Europe as the region with the most Oeko-Tex certificates in 2008, China currently also leads the number of certificates per country, ahead of Germany.
Moreover, the Oeko-Tex Association obliged to conduct the product inspections, operational audits and interlaboratory tests by Oeko-Tex member institutes in order to uniform the testing criteria and standards, to protect the label “Confidence in Textiles” as a registered trademark.
Meeting of Oeko-Tex testing institute’s managers was held in Beijing in October 2009. The choice of meeting location reflected the fact that strong growths in Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certificates for textile and clothing manufacturers were seen in China, as well as the entire Asian region.
Teijin introduces polyester recycling program to China
Teijin recycles polyester with Eco Circle |
The Teijin Group announced in September 2009 the first-ever closed-loop polyester-recycling program in China for collecting and recycling used garments, in collaboration with Li Ning Company Limited, a sports apparel company in China.
As part of the program, Li Ning has designed tennis and training wear using Teijin Fibers’ chemically recycled Eco Circle Fibers, which are woven into textiles and dyed by Nantong Teijin Co Limited, a Teijin group company in China. The inaugural 2009-10 winter lineup were sold at 11 stores managed by Li Ning beginning October 2009.
Apparel made of Eco Circle has penetrated into different market segments as consumers, private firms, schools and local governments participate with Teijin Eco Circle close-loop recycling program |
Under the program, the Li Ning stores accept these garments after they are worn out, from where they are sent via Nantong Teijin to Teijin Fibers’ Matsuyama plant in Japan. After chemical decomposition, they are converted into polyester raw material offering purity comparable to that derived from petroleum. The raw material is then turned into high-quality Eco Circle Fibers, which will be used to manufacture new recyclable products.
Li Ning aims to expand its lineup of clothing made with environmentally friendly Eco Circle Fibers, as well as increase its sales locations to more than 100 within three years.
Launched with the participation of uniform manufacturers in 1999, the Eco Circle program is participated by more than 120 companies. The annual sales of polyester fiber regenerated by chemical recycling for the financial year 2008 was 4,500 tons, an amount equivalent to about 11% of the Matsuyama (Japan) factory’s capacity of polyester fiber production, according to the Teijin Group.
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