Sympatex to Present First Upcycling Product

Turning old into new – according to these lines, five component partners formed the European wear2wear industrial partnership. As a supplier of the 100% climate-neutral, recyclable, PTFE-free and PFC-free membrane within this association, Sympatex is going to present the first end product, which has been manufactured at highly modern production plants from used functional textiles, at the international safety, security and health at work trade fair A+A in Düsseldorf in October.

To close the resource cycle, these textiles can be completely recycled at the end of their life cycles. Thus, waste is prevented and new textiles are manufactured instead. Sympatex invites its customers as well as interested garment manufacturers and authorities to close the textile loop with the help of wear2wear. Individual solutions are jointly developed in the so-called “Sympathy Lab.”

Part of the strategy is to offer completely pollution-free, recycled and again recyclable functional textiles by 2020.

“We have launched an open platform with our wear2wear cooperation which is able to completely close the polyester cycle for textiles – from the collection to the new textile,” explains Dr. Rüdiger Fox, CEO of Sympatex Technologies GmbH. “It is available for all other partners who are committed to a closed materials cycle in the textile industry – and with each additional member, we are getting closer to soon realize a sustainable clothing industry.”

Another element of this sustainability strategy is to neutralize the overall ecological balance of the clothing cycle as far as possible. Sympatex already offers the first membrane worldwide which is manufactured in a completely climate-neutral way. The manufacture of a Sympatex copolymer already produces approx. 50 times less CO2 compared to a similar PTFE membrane. In order to eliminate any contribution to global warming, Sympatex has now also been compensating the remaining CO2 amount of its entire annual membrane production since this year by participating in certified international climate protection projects.

The CO2 emission of each individual running meter textile can be precisely identified as part of the ecological footprint by means of the Sympatex eco calculator. Sympatex customers can also completely compensate the inevitable CO2 emissions when taking part in climate protection projects. And Sympatex considers the entire process chain from raw materials production up to the supply to the customers (“cradle to customer gate”).