• Linkdin

UK's Arco partners with Stuff4Life to support polyester workwear R&D

23 Mar '22
3 min read
Pic:Stuff4Life
Pic:Stuff4Life

UK's safety products and services company, Arco has committed seed funding to partner with Stuff4Life to support the research and development of a closed-loop, circular economy solution for polyester workwear. The funding will enable Stuff4Life to commission a chemical recycling demonstration plant in collaboration with Teesside University, bringing onboard its academic experts, world-leading research capabilities and state-of-the-art facilities.

The plant will recover the base compound terephthalic acid (TPA), used in the production of polyester fabric, from recycled workwear. The recovered TPA will then be reincorporated into various manufacturing processes, with the goal being to manufacture new polyester to deliver a ‘PPE for Life’ opportunity in the UK, Arco said in a media release.

As part of the trial phase, Arco and Stuff4Life will collect, shred, and transport up to six tonnes of end-of-line polyester and polyester mix garments. The garments will then be recycled using chemical processes. Several batches of garments with different levels of polyester content will be put through the process and the results analysed, including the TPA quality.

If the initiative is successful, Arco and Stuff4Life will be able to support a circular economy for workwear. This would see the TPA created through the chemical recycling activity sold back into the virgin polyester manufacturing process, with volumes externally audited and validated, the media release stated.

Successfully recycling polyester and establishing an onshore UK supply chain would reduce the industry's dependency on fossil fuels and find value in waste. It will also significantly reduce pollution from the manufacturing process as recycled polyester uses 59 per cent less energy compared to virgin polyester. If successful, this will significantly help tackle the world's climate crisis, Arco added in the press release.

"As a fifth-generation family business, Arco has always put corporate and social responsibility at the heart of the organisation. Our involvement with Stuff4Life and Teesside University is an opportunity to make a real difference to the environmental and social impacts of workwear and to use our scale and product development capabilities to drive an effective circular economy, supporting local regeneration and ensuring we protect more people and the planet," David Evison, managing director at Arco, said.

"The humble hi-vis is an essential item for everyone working in hazardous environments, from mending roads and collecting bins to saving people at sea or up mountains. The impact of polyester as a linear make-use-dispose garment is significant, but by recycling it those impacts can be substantially reduced whilst keeping all the performance benefits from using synthetic fibres. We're excited to be working on such an important project with the country's leading safety company," John Twitchen, director of Stuff4Life, commented.

"Polymers no doubt have a hugely important role in the future of energy, resources, food, health and infrastructure. However, we need to decouple from a use and dispose economy to a circular, sustainable one. This project builds on Teesside's 20 years of experience in research into environmental and sustainable engineering technologies. We are hugely proud to be working with Stuff4life and Arco to make a real difference to the future of polymer sustainability," Dr. David Hughes, associate professor in Teesside University's School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, stated.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SF)

Leave your Comments

Esteemed Clients

TÜYAP IHTISAS FUARLARI A.S.
Tradewind International Servicing
Thermore (Far East) Ltd.
The LYCRA Company Singapore  Pte. Ltd
Thai Trade Center
Thai Acrylic Fibre Company Limited
TEXVALLEY MARKET LIMITED
TESTEX AG, Swiss Textile Testing Institute
Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)
Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)
SUZHOU TUE HI-TECH NONWOVEN MACHINERY CO.,LTD
Stahl Holdings B.V.,
Advanced Search