Bisphenol A (BPA) was used as a raw material for the manufacture of some legacy polycarbonate (PC) and epoxy resin, such as : plastic container, thermal paper, resin lenses or inner layer coatings of cans, etc.
What are some health concerns of BPA?
BPA can be absorbed and ingested through the skin or mouth, disrupting hormones. It may affect the human reproductive system and cranial nerves, and induce obesity, heart disease or cardiovascular disease.
Why is BPA found in some recycled textile fibers?
Most recycled polyester textiles on the market are made from recycled plastic bottles. When recycled materials are mixed with BPA materials, the final textiles may contain excessive amounts of BPA.
Is there a standard for a safe, low-BPA compliant product ?
California CPAI-65, AFIRM, and latest bluesign RSL recommends a BPA level of under 1 ppm. Nan Ya’s BPA-Clear protocol complies to this accordingly.
How does Nan Ya ensure a safe BPA content in its BPA-Clear line?
Nan Ya delivers the BPA-Clear line by strictly controlling the income stream of our recycled plastics as well as with a proprietary system.
Is BPA-Clear currently available on all of Nan Ya’s recycled fiber products?
BPA-Clear polyester fiber and related products are currently available made-to order. Please contact your fabric or fiber sales representative for more details regarding BPA concerns in your goods.
南亞 SAYA BPA-Clear 聚酯回收絲 – 低雙酚A(BPA)安心方案
雙酚A的用途? 雙酚A (Bisphenol A, BPA)作為製造聚碳酸酯-PC和環氧樹脂的原料，用於: 大型桶裝水、熱感應紙、樹脂鏡片或罐頭內層環氧樹脂塗料等。
We talk a lot about recycling old plastic bottles into new recycled polyester fabric. But how about textile recycling? How are old or scrap fabrics recycled into new products?
The truth is, waste fabric can be just as harmful to our environment as discarded PET. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, the average American throws away about 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles every year. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that textile trash makes up almost 6 percent of all municipal solid waste.
Used clothing ready to be resold or recycled.
Yet, we believe textiles and used clothing are not trash. Manufacturers can recycle it into new fiber, keeping it out of landfills and helping to build a more circular economy. But how exactly do textiles get recycled?
Repurposed Fabric
Almost every type of fabric is reusable. Companies can shred it to use in insulation or puffy jackets or cut it into rags or new garments. Some brands, for example, take old denim and use it to make new denim jeans and jackets. Other outdoor and travel brands use recycled polyester in outerwear, such as winter jackets and sleeping bags.
Builders now use recycled denim insulation in place of fiberglass. This results in higher efficiency, lower energy bills, and better indoor air quality.
In addition, some home builders use recycled denim insulation in place of fiberglass. This results in higher efficiency, lower energy bills, and better indoor air quality. However, the process is expensive, as companies must break down the recycled fabric and treat it with anti-mold and anti-flammable products to meet building codes.
Recycled Fabric
Much like other recyclables including paper and plastic, consumers and brands can donate fabric to recycling centers. There, machines or workers will sort it by material and color. Once sorted, the textiles are melted and pulled into fibers or shredded. Depending on the end use of the yarn, companies may incorporate other fibers to create a textile blend. Then, machines clean the yarn and respin it into fibers or threads that can become a variety of new fabrics.
Some large cities support donations of old garments. Ask around or contact your local recycling center for more information. In addition, you may find non-profit organizations as well as many global brands, such as Nike and Patagonia that accept old textiles for recycling.
Why Recycle?
As an industry, we’ve convinced most consumers that it’s beneficial to recycle their plastic water bottles and containers. But textile recycling remains a significant challenge. An estimated 100 billion garments are produced annually, worldwide, and their recycling rate is below 15 percent. That means, millions of tons of clothing waste ends up in landfills. If we want to move closer to becoming a zero landfill society, we need to educate the public on the benefits of recycling fabric.
Scrap polyester fabric ready to be recycled
At SAYA, we’ve found that collecting industrial fabric waste is an important way to help keep fabric out of landfills. Fast fashion trends over the past several years have resulted in more overstock, scraps, and dead stock than ever before. That’s a lot of material that can be recaptured and recycled, creating a more circular industry.
To learn more about our fabric recycling program, contact change@sayarenew.com
Textile recycling companies aim to reduce, reuse and recycle
Reduce, reuse, recycle. This mantra has also driven myriad sustainability efforts, including in textile recycling companies. Recycling textiles is important because the industry produces billions of pounds of unused materials each year, relies on fossil fuels to make virgin plastics, and has a mandate to recycle polyester and other materials to keep them from polluting the environment. Given the diverse imperatives, it makes sense that there are many ways to recycle textiles. As a leader in the textile recycling space, SAYA has programs that reduce, reuse, and recycle. More, we believe in highlighting other successful efforts undertaken by industry partners.
Rolls of overstock fabric available for recycling
Reduce
Reducing may present some of the biggest challenges to sustainability efforts as manufacturers work to identify processes that reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in fiber and material production.
Another option for reduction in the manufacturing process: water. The textile industry uses billions of liters of water throughout all steps, from dyeing to chemical finishes. By developing ecologically friendly dyes and creating water-free finishing, textile recycling companies have established new approaches that benefit both the environment and environmentally-aware consumers.
SAYA RSCUW Raw is material made from recycled fabric cutting scrap and PET bottles that does not bleach or re-dye the material. The resulting knit has a unique heathered effect in shades of grey to nearly black. The process also significantly improves energy efficiency and reduces the carbon footprint of recycled polyester fabric.
Reuse
Reusing clothing and cutting scraps from factory floors has grown popular within the textile industry. Zero Waste Daniel turns clothing scraps into fashion. Patagonia and The North Face have programs to recruit and refurbish used clothing and gear for resale. Eileen Fisher asks consumers to return clothing they would otherwise throw out; clothing that can be resold will be, and clothing that cannot is turned into “something entirely new” through the company’s circular by design program. Cotopaxi sews gear out of left over fabric yardage. And SAYA collects cutting room scrap and leftover yardage for our innovative recycling program.
Recycle
Recyclingplastic, polyester, PET, and other man-made materials is a complex process. Recycling technical textiles relies on the use of chemicals and heat. For example, to transform plastic bottles into fabric, bottles are collected, separated into clear and colored bottles, and shredded. Next, the shredded plastic is heated and forced through tiny holes in an extruder to create long, continuous fibers. These fibers are then torn into shorter pieces. The fibers are balled (resembling wool). Next they are carded and spun into yarn.
Plastic recycling center
By reducing, reusing, and recycling, the textile industry and SAYA can lower its carbon footprint, help safeguard the environment, and meet consumer demand.
To share your thoughts on how the textile industry can become more sustainable or to learn more about SAYA fiber, please contact us at change@sayarenew.com
As the technology of mechanical and advanced recycling improves, recycled polyester and plastics stand to eventually replace virgin materials in manufacturing.
Demand for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or recycled polyester, has increased significantly in recent years. There are many advantages to recycled polyester, including reduced energy consumption in the manufacturing process as compared to producing virgin polyester; reduced CO2 emissions, and reduced extraction of crude oil and natural gas to make virgin plastic. There are two techniques for producing recycled polyester: mechanical recycling and chemical recycling also known as advanced recycling.
As the technology improves, recycled polyester and plastics stand to eventually replace virgin materials in manufacturing.
Mechanical versus Chemical Recycling
Mechanical recycling involves shredding recycled PET bottles and pressing the flakes into consistently shaped pellets that are melted and extruded into recycled polyester fiber. Mechanical recycling requires no chemicals, save for detergents to clean the original recycled material, but the process can weaken the fiber which then must be mixed with virgin fiber to result in acceptable strength. To date, mechanical recycling is the most affordable and widely used process to produce recycled polyester.
Shredding recycled PET bottles is an initial steps in the mechanical recycling process recycling plastic.
Chemical recycling uses a chemical process to break down PET products into their molecular parts so that they can be reformed into a yarn of equal strength. Unlike mechanical recycling, the quality of the chemically recycled polyester remains consistent and does not degrade its performance. However, chemical recycling is currently more expensive than the alternative and must be scaled up to achieve more widespread adoption.
Advanced Recycling Technologies
In addition to chemical recycling, or depolymerization, industry experts are constantly investigating new and innovative methods for recycling plastics. The industry refers to these technologies as “Advanced Recycling Technologies,” a term established by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). According to the ACC, the term advanced recycling accomplishes two things: it identifies technologies that go deeper into the polymer than the mechanical recycling process and it also confirms that these processes are, indeed, a form of recycling, even though they differ from traditional recycling. There are three main methods of advanced recycling:
Purification, which use a solvent or chemical to precipitate the polymer out of a solution, leaving behind colorants, additives, and other contaminants. Some of the most common types of purification include solvent extraction and chromatography. Pros: Purification results in a clean and clear polymer and removes contaminants, colorants, and additives. This results in a recycled product that has many of the characteristics of virgin polymers. Cons: Purification does not restore the polymer to its virgin molecular level, which means that it retains the heat history of melting and remelting and can alter the molecular weight and viscosity of the plastic. Purification is also more energy intensive than mechanical recycling, but less than chemical recycling.
Depolymerization, which breaks the chemical bonds in the complex chains that make up polymers. In this process, additives and colorants are separated from chemicals and monomers, the latter of which can be put back into reactors to make a recycled polymer identical to its virgin counterpart. Pros: The recycled polymer is identical to its virgin counterpart. Cons: Thetechnology is not currently operating at scale, and when it does, there will be a need for massive quantities of materials to be recycled than are currently available. Also, the technology currently has a higher environmental footprint than mechanical recycling.
Conversion reprocesses plastic products into other sellable, tradable commodities. Pros: Once proven and scaled, conversion technology could prevent massive amounts of plastics from ending up in landfills or the world’s oceans. Cons: Not every repurposed product can be considered recycled. To meet the standard of being recycled, the new product must be reprocessed into materials instead of fuels or energy.
Recycling plastic through mechanical or chemical processes can keep polymers out of our natural environment
Even though these technologies are still emerging and innovating, recycling plastic is preferable to using virgin components. The most common way to recycle plastic is through mechanical recycling, but that process degrades the product’s quality over time. Chemical recycling preserves the quality of the original material but is expensive and has a larger environmental footprint. Nevertheless, manufacturers are demanding more recycled materials, which is driving innovation and allowing producers to scale up current technologies. Eventually, recycling plastics will allow us to keep polymers out of trash streams and will allow us to continue to produce necessary and valuable products without using virgin materials.
To share your thoughts on recycled polyester or to learn more about SAYA fiber, please contact us at change@sayarenew.com
SAYA employee gathering fabric scrap for recycling in an effort to reduce the business carbon footprint
Recycled Fabric Made of Cutting Scrap
For decades, most recycled fabric was made from plastic bottles. Now, SAYA has a new source for producing recycled fabric: garment cutting scraps. Through its innovative Rscuw Project, SAYA turned to the garment industry where around 30% of fabric is wasted during the manufacturing process. Historically, recycling these scraps was not possible. But SAYA’s commitment to fostering a more sustainable textile industry has resulted in an exciting recycled PET fabric solution to the garment industry’s overstock and scrap cutting problem.
Multi-step Saya Rscuw Project fabric recycling process
9 Steps to Turn Cutting Scraps into Recycled PET Fabric
Transforming cutting scraps into recycled polyester using our proprietary technology is a complex process with multiple steps. These include:
1. Collect 100% polyester scraps and fabric overruns from garment industry partners. Currently we can only use scraps without coatings or finishings, but are working diligently to develop the ability to also recycle polyester with WR or DWR finishes.
SAYA employee gathering fabric scrap for recycling in an effort to reduce the business carbon footprint
2. Shred the fiber into tiny scraps.
3. Decolorize the shredded fabric to remove color and impurities, including bacteria. Decolorization requires heating the shredded fabric at temperatures near 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Create chips, or pellets, that are uniform in color and size from the melted scraps.
5. Blend Rscuw chips with chips from recycled PET bottles to ensure high-quality end product. Currently, blends average 15% Rscuw chips and 85% recycled plastic bottle chips. As the technology improves, we anticipate increasing the amount of Rscuw chips.
6. Ship SAYA chips to yarn facilities for extrusion, the process of forcing the liquid melted chips through the tiny holes of a spinneret to form continuous filaments of semi-solid polymer.
7. The material is spun and stretched into high quality yarns that can range from micro denier (50D) to 300D referred to as partially oriented yarn ready for texturing.
8. The partially oriented yarn is then drawn and texturized with performance enhancements including stretch or antimicrobial treatments as desired by brand customers.
9. Bleaching and dyeing process. Customers of Rscuw Raw choose to skip this step, which reduces the production’s carbon footprint by approximately 30%. Rscuw Raw retains the hue of the original scrap fabric and has a heathered look.
Benefits
Historically, most recycled polyester has been made from recycled plastic bottles, but the reliability of that source could diminish due to low recycling rates in the United States and the challenges of collecting discarded bottles for recycling. SAYA’s Rscuw technology provided an alternative source, which will help decrease reliability on recycled plastic bottles.
More, this technology keeps garment scraps out of landfills. This helps move the textile industry closer to circularity, or the process of having zero waste during the textile manufacturing process.
What’s Next
Look for SAYA Garma later this year. SAYA Garma is a complex recycling process that builds on our Rscuw technology. Additionally, in the second quarter of 2021 we expect to be able to recycle fabric scraps that are 100% polyester and have a DWR finishing. In 2022, we anticipate expanding that to include cotton scraps, along with 100% polyester and DWR finishing.
To share your thoughts on recycled fabric or to learn more about SAYA fiber, please contact us at change@sayarenew.com
