News concerning sustainability and fashion often focus on the production of fabrics or on famous houses and brands announcing they will not be using furs.
Rarely we hear about making ecofriendly key elements - such as fasteners - that are also a vital part of many different garments. Yet there are companies working to make things better also in this field.
Zipper manufacturer YKK (U.S.A.) Inc. developed for example the NATULON® product lines. Made from certified recycled materials (such as PET bottles), this collection of sustainable trims includes environmentally friendly zipper tapes, hook and loop fasteners and buckles.
This material is the result of a double-layered development system using both chemical and material recycling. In the first case the zippers are made from PET bottles, post-consumer polyester products (old fiber and other polyester remnants) and yarn waste. These materials are processed, granulated, purified, treated with dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and used to make a yarn that is then transformed into zippers.
The material recycling process employs post-consumer polyester products that go through the phases of pulverization and pelletization (no DMT stage in this case), before being transformed into a recycled yarn employed to make the zippers.
Ten thousands NATULON® zippers of 60 cm length recycle approximately 3,600 plastic bottles (29 g/bottle) and YKK (U.S.A.) Inc. has set production of NATULON® in Macon, Georgia, to further reduce the environmental impact from sourcing the products overseas.
In September YKK announced a new development - the GreenRise™ Zippers made with a plant-based material.
The plant-derived polyester used for zippers is in this case made from molasses, the by-product generated in the sugar production process (petroleum-based ethylene glycol, which accounts for about 30% of the components constituting the PET, is replaced with plant-based ethylene glycol). In this way fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in the product cycle are reduced and byproducts are put to effective use.
Unlike other companies, YKK has definitely not jumped on the sustainable bandwagon only now, but it has been working for years on trying to improve things: in 2015, YKK (U.S.A.) Inc. installed 1,968 solar modules on the roof of its Anaheim, CA, facility and the company is now working towards eliminating hazardous chemicals from the manufacturing process. By 2020, YKK aims to eliminate various substances, among the others surfactants, phtalates and heavy metals (you can read the entire list here).
Besides, YKK developed fasteners made out of organically grown cotton to reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture and created the ECO-DYE® technology that allows the reduction of the amount of water used in the zipper dyeing process to almost zero.
These products are the result of long researches and clever investments, but there is also a philosophy behind them: YKK follows indeed a principle that the company defines "Cycle of Goodness™" and that revolves around the motto "No one prospers without rendering benefit to others."
Behind it there is the concept that "contributions to society can best be achieved by the continual creation of value through innovative ideas and inventions." Sounds like the huge fashion industry may learn a thing or two from the smallest parts made for its products.
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