How textile and apparel companies are adopting greener materials
Uniqlo Co. and Toray Industries Inc. have announced their joint project to develop textile products using sustainable materials. The project will focus on two recycled materials: goose down collected at Uniqlo stores and Dry-EX which uses polyester fiber derived from plastic bottles.
The two companies aim to deliver environmentally friendly products by practicing efficient use of valuable materials.
The goose down is no longer wearable, ultra-light material, which is separated from clothing collected from consumers using Toray’s technology. After undergoing washing, it can be used as material to create new products.
The goose down collection at stores starts in September this year (※１), and will be used as recycled material in some of the fall/winter 2020 apparel.
（※１）Recycled material collection to take place in Japan stores only. This specific campaign is not part of refugee support project.
As for Dry-EX material, developers intend to use Toray’s high-value-added recycled polyester. The filtering technology used in the recycling process makes it possible to create material similar to fresh ingredients, which in turn allows creating fabric of particular cross-section and diverse fibers. The functionality of Toray’s recycling system also includes traceability of material.
The production of fast-dry technology based Dry-EX apparel made of recycled polyester is scheduled to start in the spring-summer 2020 season.