Marine research confirms Lenzing fibres’ biodegradability
The University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in San Diego has confirmed that wood-based cellulosic fibers biodegrade in the ocean within a short period of time at the end of their life cycle.
The research was the result of an independent project trying to understand the “end-of-life” scenarios for textiles and nonwovens discarded in the environment.
In this study, SIO compared the degradation processes of nonwovens made from fossil-based synthetic materials such as polyester with those of cellulosic materials such as Lenzing’s wood-based lyocell, modal and viscose fibres in specific scenarios – under various real oceanic conditions and controlled aquaria conditions.
While wood-based cellulosic fibres fully biodegraded within 30 days, the fossil-based fibres tested were practically unchanged after more than 200 days.
Robert van de Kerkhof, board member at Austria’s Lenzing Group, said: “Our business model is one of a circular economy. We take wood from sustainable forestry and use a highly efficient system of processing all raw materials to produce fibres that are able to return to the ecosystem at the end of their life cycle.
“Our goal is to raise widespread awareness of major challenges such as plastic pollution and persuade the industry to make the transition to wood-based fibres.”
