Chemical recycling of nylon 6 for 2008 S/S collection

24 Dec '07

3 min read

Toray Industries Inc announced its decision to jointly implement chemical recycling of nylon 6 in garments with Patagonia International Inc, in the first such move in the world.

The companies intend to start recycling with the 2008 spring-summer collection of surf pants and extend those efforts to cover the fall-winter collection of hard-shell jackets for alpine climbing. These products will be sold through 2,000 retail stores in 12 countries around the world.

Under Patagonia's Common Threads Garment Recycling Program, customers can return products they no longer need to a Patagonia store in exchange for a sticker. The products thus collected will be restored to its raw material form, caprolactam, at Toray's facilities and then reused in the manufacturing process of nylon 6, which would then be utilized in various applications.

Reuse of nylon 6 using chemical recycling enables a 70% reduction in energy consumed for production as well as in CO2 emission compared with the regular petroleum-based nylon 6. This endeavor therefore is expected to give a significant impact in terms of energy-savings.

Under its vision to “make a global contribution in conserving resources and protecting the environment to develop a sustainable, recycling-based society” and with its concept of “Clean” and “Less Energy,” Toray Group has been pursuing the development of environmental products as well as recycled products and technologies with a reduced environmentalload.

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