Patagonia International Inc., an American outdoor gear and apparel company with a branch in Japan, announced on December 12, 2007, that it has succeeded in developing waterproof, moisture-permeable jackets that can be completely recycled. The jackets are made using recycled polyester developed by Teijin Fibers Ltd. or nylon-6 by Toray Industries Inc. (both are Japanese manufacturers), and their chemical recycling technologies have been adapted to the recycling process.

For its 2008 fall-winter collection, Patagonia plans to sell skiing and snowboarding jackets using this recycled polyester, as well as alpine climbing jackets using nylon-6. These jackets will be available at about 2,000 retail stores in 12 countries around the world, or through the company's mail or website order services.

Patagonia has set itself a goal of using recyclable or recycled raw materials for all of its products by 2010. In the course of achieving this goal, it had difficulty in fully recycling waterproof, moisture-permeable hard shell jackets; however, using the two Japanese manufacturers' chemical recycling systems, the company has now made their commercialization a reality.

When Teijin's recycled polyester is used in these recycling systems, both energy consumption and the emissions of carbon dioxide (the principal greenhouse gas) can be reduced by about 80 percent, as compared to producing new polyester materials from petroleum. Likewise, when Toray's nylon-6 is used in the systems, both can be reduced by about 70 percent as compared to producing new nylon-6 materials from petroleum.

http://www.teijin.co.jp/english/news/2007/ebd071212.html
http://www.toray.com/news/fiber/nr071212b.html
- Patagonia, Teijin Launch Complete Recycling of Polyester Garments (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1199-e
- Initiative to Make Good Use of Fabric Irregulars (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1668-e

Posted: 2008/04/17 11:15:33 AM

TAG Eco-product/Business , Manufacturing industry , Material reduction