Paradise Textiles, the textile arm of apparel manufacturer Alpine Creations, has launched Biofuze, a biodegradable, man-made fibre that will allow the company to manufacture an almost zero carbon footprint garment.
Developed by Paradise Textiles’ in-house research and development facility, the fabric is manufactured using recycled, raw material and waterless dyeing techniques alongside a unique patent-pending process during yarn extrusion. The development has allowed fabrics with a range of sustainable properties to be manufactured from it.
The product is Oeko-Tex certified, GRS-compliant and will be available in multiple variants including Biofuze Plus, a biodegradable fabric made from recycled PETs and polyester waste, and Biofuze Ultra, a similar fabric which utilises ‘solution dyeing techniques to yield a truly sustainable product’.
Tests for the development of the fabric were conducted at Eden Research Laboratory in the US, where the substrate was placed under observation to analyse its biodegradation process.
“A sample of Biofuze fabric that was treated to exhibit antimicrobial properties and was washed 25 times to simulate the average garment’s life cycle biodegraded over 72.2% in simulated landfill conditions in just under 234 days,” Paradise Textiles says.
Even more impressively, the company says, were the by-products left behind including energy-rich methane and biomass, as well as CO2, water and two clean energy fuels.
Despite its many sustainable properties, Biofuze-based garments are identical to ‘regular garments’ throughout their life cycle, can be recycled similarly to polyester garments and can be made traceable to ensure 100% transparency, according to the company.
Additionally, the garment will not exhibit biodegradation during use – only when exposed to naturally-occurring microbes found in environments such as landfills and large bodies of water. It is upon exposure to these environments that Biofuze will begin its accelerated biodegradation.
Ashok Mahtani, co-founder of Paradise Textiles, says the company developed Biofuze because its responsibility to the environment “does not simply end once our products have been purchased, but instead continues until the same products reach their inevitable end of life”.
“We believe environmental sustainability is everyone’s responsibility,” says Mahtani. “With the increasing demand for fast fashion, leading brands recognise that they must act immediately to reduce their footprint on the environment.”
The development of Biofuze works to ‘revolutionise the textile industry’ which is currently the second largest polluting industry in the world.
The product was showcased at Intertextile Shanghai Spring 2019, where it ‘created quite a buzz’ among delegates, according to Paradise Textiles.
For more information, contact Salil Shahane salil@paradisetex.com
