In yesterday's post we looked at a comparison between yarn colours and printed circuit boards, but the connection between fibres and technology goes beyond a mere palette.
Italian Alpes Manifattura Filati, one of the largest European groups in the combed yarn sector, producing both classical and technical yarns and a funding partner of AIA (Asociacion Internacional de la Alpaca), promoting the sustainable development of the alpaca industry, included in its A/W 23-24 collection blends made with Primaloft BIO®, the first polyester in the world of 100% recycled origin and completely biodegradable, and with Polylana®. The latter is an innovative "eco-efficient" polyester fiber with reduced impact on the environment.
Produced by Dutch clean-tech start-up The Movement, Polylana® is made from a mix of innovative polyester chips and with a low environmental impact production process that optimizes energy, water consumption and CO2 emissions. The fibre can also be dyed at low temperature, but the most important thing about it is that it is 100% traceable by the Aware™ integrity system consisting of tracer and blockchain technology.
The process works in this way: the patented Aware™ micro tracer particles are added to the raw recycled material. These particles ensure the final textiles made from the material, will be traceable and fraud-free.
A virtual representation of the yarn/fibre is then created as a digital token and stored on a decentralised and open-source blockchain. The yarns and fabrics are then produced freely within any supply chain of choice. Yet, unlike other fabric, the final product can be scanned at the end of production to confirm it is made from the original certified recycled materials.
The fingerprint and relevant certifications contained within the Aware™ fabric is indeed held securely in a special digital "passport" (token) registered in the decentralized blockchain.
When fabrics made with that fibre are scanned with a hand held scanner, they reveal their identity: as the unique fingerprint of the fibres is detected, the scanned matches it to the data related to the original sustainable feedstock stored within the token in the blockchain and the authentication is confirmed. Tokens can be checked and original data looked up in the Aware™ user interface forever.
The key innovation here is that, rather than using your average QR code to try and trace the origin of the material, the tracer is embedded in the fibres and the token is stored in the blockchain.
In this way third party certifications are no longer needed, greenwashing is avoided and consumers can get true clean data about the item they purchased. Aware™ is developing the system further and currently working on providing NFTs for physical real sustainable textile products.
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