Growing Tex2Tex adoption in denim

10/07/2024

Earth Protex, a materials science company and developer of a thermomechanical (TMR) recycling technology for polyester textile waste, is expanding its presence in the world of denim, thanks in part to its distributor, Pakistan-based iTextiles. The company has just announced a new collaboration with Pakistan denim mill Indigo Textile, which follows up on an earlier announcement that Rajby Textiles had also adopted the textile-to-textile recycled polyester fibre Tex2Tex. “We have been working with a number of denim mills, including AGI Denim, US Denim, Soorty and SM Denim,” Samuel Goldstein, Earth Protex COO, told Inside Denim, last week at Premiere Vision. “Our fibre is used mainly in the weft and in proportions of 20 to 30%,” he added.

The recycling process developed by the company, which is based in the US, Portugal and China, converts pre-consumer polyester textile waste using a “cost-effective and low energy thermomechanical process that preserves the polymer chain,” said Mr Goldstein. The Tex2Tex process is in operation in a plant in China that treats some 60,000 tonnes yearly. Waste textiles are sorted by light and dark colours, but do not need to be decolourised, he said. The recycled polyester staple fibres are available in a light shade and the darker shades are dope-dyed black. A second recycling plant with a 30,000-tonne capacity and located in Southeast Asia is in the works and could recycle post-consumer waste.

iTextiles, a textile solutions company, represents a number of companies including The Lycra Company, Eastman Naia, Marmara Hemp, and Nature Coatings. Earth Protex’s thermomechanically recycled fibres are also used by Spanish recycling specialists Recover and Belda.

Photo: Earth Protex Instagram image

Growing Tex2Tex adoption in denim - insidedenim: Glo

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Growing Tex2Tex adoption in denim

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