It’s not every day that a genuinely disruptive new product enters the marketplace. But an innovative new collection of textiles from Duvaltex promises to not only transform the future of sustainable textile specification, but also substantially reduce the impact of polyester textiles on the biosphere with a whole new model for end-of-life recycling or disposal.
To be introduced at NeoCon in June, the company’s new Clean Impact Textiles were created with a simple mission: To be the first biodegradable recycled polyester textiles for commercial interiors.
A key to the game-changing new line of textiles is a biocatalyst additive, which is blended with polyester chips during the extrusion process in the manufacture of the yarn.
The biocatalyst facilitates the biodegradation of the textiles by interacting with the moisture and microbes inherent in landfill and anaerobic wastewater treatment conditions and thereby activating a metabolizing process that increases the degradation rate of the new polyester to 91 percent versus 6 percent for standard polyester.
This means that the new Clean Impact Textiles will safely biodegrade at the essentially same rate as natural fibers—roughly over three and a half years versus 100 years or more for virgin polyester.
The achievement is significant because, despite the design industry’s best intentions to recycle, 99 percent of polyester textiles eventually wind up in the landfill, according to a report called the Advancing Sustainable Materials Management Fact Sheet from the EPA.
“Based on the alarming statistics regarding the amount of textile waste that ends up in landfills, this collection of fabrics represents eco-efficiency by design at its best and a crucial step forward in reducing the negative impact of a linear economy,” said Alain Duval, CEO of Duvaltex, who added that since the innovative new commercial textiles can either be safely disposed a landfill or recycled for further use, they offer both biological and technical solutions at the end of their useful life.
Duval also hopes the new Clean Impact Textiles collection will inspire others to follow Duvaltex’s lead in offering not just eco-friendly biodegradable textiles, but sustainable solutions like the bi-circular economy model inherent in the new fabrics.
More good news: The Clean Impact Textiles were manufactured to conform to the strict performance requirements of the commercial interiors market, and all meet or exceed the ACT performance standards for heavy-duty upholstery without compromising on color, pattern or hand in order to achieve their biodegradable benefit.
The fabrics in this collection have also been assessed and certified for the NSF/ANSI 336 standard for commercial interiors textiles and carry the Facts Gold certification mark owned by ACT.
And the biocatalyst technology used in the development of the biodegradable recycled polyester yarn used for the collection was tested under ASTM D5511 and has also achieved ECO PASSPORT certification by OEKO-TEX.
A leader in sustainable initiatives for more than 20 years, Duvaltex’s innovative Clean Impact Textiles collection includes five lines—Balance, Catalyst, Environs, Renew and Terra—that offer small-, medium- and large-scale “softened” geometric patterns and solids in multiple colorways and coordinating neutrals.
The collection will be commercially available through office furniture OEM’s and textile marketers this fall. Though slightly higher in price than standard polyester fabrics in similar constructions, the company’s goal is to ultimately achieve price neutrality for the new textiles and a new line will be introduced in early 2020.
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This article was published onwww.interiordesign.net and written by Jean Nayar