Taiwanese company GS to produce plastic-free vegan leather

06 May '21

4 min read

Pic: Compo-SiL

Taiwanese silicone product manufacturer General Silicones (GS) has become one of the suppliers of eco-friendly, plastic-free vegan leather products. Global demand for vegan leather products has been increasing. Vegan leather from GS is made of silicone rubber. The raw material for silicone rubber is derived from natural silica, the constituent of sand.

Vegan leather means for GS to be part of the manufacturing evolution to change to processes that do not use resources in harmful ways, or hurt animals, or produce pollution. As a manufacturer, GS is now providing its partners and clients a means to create products that do not need to rely on animal cruelty and offer a greener alternative.

Traditional faux-leather materials are made of petroleum derivatives such as PVC. They carry all the problems plastics have. As a silicone producer with over five decades of experience, GS has the know-how and expertise to fulfil the demand for quality vegan leather raw material for companies developing vegan silicone leather-based products in various sectors.

Vegan leather from GS is made of silicone rubber. The raw material for silicone rubber is derived from natural silica, the constituent of sand. Various studies have shown silicone is non-toxic, durable, and harmless to the environment. Over their lifecycle, silicone products reduce more carbon dioxide emissions than created during the manufacturing process.

At GS, all colouring additives for the vegan leather production are created in masterbatches tested by SGS to pass FDA / RoHS / REACH requirements to be environmentally friendly.

GS manufactures its vegan leather products to the highest environmental standards. The entire manufacturing process of GS follows green manufacturing procedures and regulations. The company is ISO 14001 certified. No harmful chemicals or solvents are used or released during the creation and production process, giving silicone rubber-based vegan leather an environmentally friendly manufacturing footprint.

GS provides clients vegan leather with its patented Compo-SiL technology. The technology allows shipping vegan leather in rolls that are easy to ship and store. Manufacturers of textile products and other products using roll-to-roll manufacturing processes can easily integrate Compo-SiL vegan leather raw material into their production line using standard adhesives. No modification of the production line is needed to quickly incorporate vegan leather made by GS into existing mass production processes. Vegan leather from GS provides an easily scalable solution to support the fast-growing demand for sustainable vegan leather solutions.

Silicone-based vegan leather is manufactured to mimic the touch, feel, and look of natural leather products with silicone rubber's added benefits. Vegan leather made from silicone has unique advantages that other materials can't provide. Silicone rubber is resistant to cold and heat, chemicals, and solvents.

GS vegan leather is highly durable and wearable to several types of fabric. It replaces plastic products as an environmentally friendly alternative with properties that guarantee a much longer product lifetime. At the same time, it has the properties excellent product characteristics of maintenance-free, weather resistance, skin-friendly, waterproof, etc.

With over 50 years of manufacturing experience of silicone products, General Silicones can customise vegan leather to the customer's specifications. Embossment, colours, and thickness can be modified to match the planned use's requirements.

Compared with other vegan leathers, Compo-SiL is more sustainable and eco-friendly. Many vegan leather products still contain high percentages of plastic additives. With no appropriate collection and recycling set-up for those new products, they will end in landfills. The decomposition of the organic material added to the leather will create methane gas, a global warming agent by a multitude more potent than CO2. Then the plastic additives disintegrate into undesirable microplastic. In contrast, the silicone material of Compo-SiL vegan leather, even when disposed of in landfills, will not produce any harmful materials when degrading.

Many developed nations moved into incinerating their waste. Unlike products containing plastic material, silicone-based vegan leather decomposes under combustion into silica dust and CO2. The burning process occurs without the danger of interacting with other waste material to create toxic fumes and toxic remains.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)

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