In the wide world of agricultural waste lie many long and strong fibres that can be spun into textile yarns for apparel and accessories. Driven by demand for fabrics that have a cotton-like hand feel and by the plastic-free movement, pineapple, banana and even straw-derived materials are weaving their way into today’s textiles.  

They come in many forms. Banana stem fibres can measure up to four metres, those of kapok seeds are considered too short to spin into yarn, the cellulose in wheat or rice straw is only a few millimetres long, but could, with adequate processing, become a viable raw material for a new class of biofibres. Some of these, abacá and jute, not to mention palm and hemp, have been used to make ropes, matting and roofing for centuries. The inherent strength of these fibres has made them a valuable resource for many indigenous communities. Their transformation into materials suitable for modern-day apparel and accessories could be a challenge but may also have the potential to offer a larger array of natural fibres for the fashion, denim and sportswear industries.

In 2018, Swiss eco-brand Qwstion introduced Bananatex, a material derived from banana stems, into its collection of bags and accessories. The result of diligent research by company founders Hannes Schönegger and Christian Kägi, it is made from a wild banana plant that grows in the Philippines, Musa textilis, and the fruit of which is inedible.  It is also known as abacá. “This genus produces a very strong fibre that can measure up to four metres in length, but it is fairly coarse and thick,” says CEO, Hannes Schönegger. To make a fabric from these rustic fibres, the company applies a paper-making technique, known in Japan as washi. The sheets of paper are cut into fine filaments that are twisted into a yarn and can then be woven or knitted into a textile. The individual fibrils are 2mm long, he adds, and this is what gives the fibre its resilience, high tear-strength and abrasion resistance, perfect for backpacks. It does, however, tend to wrinkle, he notes.

Qwstion saw great potential in this new, yet old, textile and decided to make it available to others. “We were quite naïve,” says Mr Schönegger. “We received hundreds, even thousands of requests, and this took too many resources away from Qwstion.” To address demand, which, he says, far exceeds capacity, Bananatex was spun off into a stand-alone company to develop new applications and markets.

Bananatex offers some 100 knitted or woven textiles for the fashion, furniture, accessories, footwear and automotive sectors. Accessories have been the most successful. British designer Stella McCartney has used the material for several bags and shoes, and H&M sold sneakers with Bananatex uppers. As the fabrics lack elasticity, Mr Schönegger does not see much potential in performance activewear. Denim could, however, be a good market for the fibre, he notes, and there are plans to present the first Bananatex denims this summer.

Production can be scaled, he says. Musa textilis plants grow in Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Philippines, where 80% of the rainforest has been destroyed. As part of biodiversity initiatives, it could provide smallholder farms with a new source of revenue. “These banana plants need the shade of trees and the presence of other plants to thrive,” he says. “Thousands of hectares of land could be rewilded in the Philippines to supply fibre.”

It is nonetheless a rather expensive fibre, owing to the manual labour involved in its production; it costs twice the price of organic cotton, says Mr Schönegger. “No economies of scale are possible, its transformation is either the result of human hands or diesel machines.” He does point out though that “the true cost of polyester, or even recycled polyester for that matter, is not reflected in its market price. Taking a macro perspective, Bananatex would not be more expensive than synthetics, as its real cost is not kicked down the road to future generations."

Banana bonanza 

Banana fibres can also be extracted from the stems of the edible variety of the popular fruit, as Pakistan-based vertical manufacturer Interloop does. The company operates a facility in the Sindh province, where the fibre is harvested from banana farming waste. “Banana fruit farms in Pakistan generate some 10 million tonnes of waste annually that are usually burnt or discarded,” says Noor Jehan Sadiq, Interloop’s head of marketing. The company has built a fully integrated supply chain, from fibre extraction and processing to spinning a yarn it calls Loomshake. Made from 80% cotton and 20% banana fibre, it is used to manufacture hosiery, jeans and knitwear.

“A natural cellulosic fibre, it possesses good moisture absorption properties and dyes well, in addition to conserving land and reducing water usage typically associated with cotton growing,” says Ms Sadiq. She adds that it not only offers a solution for the disposal of biomass waste but also creates a new source of income for farmers. She admits though that the banana fibre is inherently coarse, which does not make it ideal for activewear. Loomshake has been successfully marketed by Guess, in denims, and Dinner Service NY, in hosiery, as part of their sustainable synthetic-free ranges, she says.

Banana is not the only alternative natural fibre in Interloop’s product offering. It makes kapok-cotton yarns in various counts, with a maximum of 25% kapok fibre. Ms Sadiq says the company is also working on extracting jute fibre from post-consumer waste and exploring the potential of extracting fibres from corn and pineapple agro-industry waste.

Gencrest, a division of Indian conglomerate Samta Group, sees in banana crop waste the potential to make a man-made cellulosic fibre, which it has branded Vybrana. The company has developed a patented Fiberzyme technology to process the raw material and designed custom machinery for a manufacturing line that can produce up to 50 tonnes per month. Indian denim mills Arvind and Raymond UCO have integrated the banana-based viscose-type fibre into their collections.

Pineapples too 

Pineapple leaves are another form of crop waste that is being tapped as a source of a new alternative natural textile fibre. Ananas Anam, a certified B Corp company based in London with production facilities in Spain, the Philippines, Bangladesh and the Ivory Coast, first developed Piñatex, a non-woven material combined with polyurethane. The decision to create this type of textile was mostly due to the leather background of company founder, Dr Carmen Hijosa, says Riika Juva, head of communications and business development. Since its creation in 2013, Ananas Anam has built up a full supply chain and a method to make fibres suitable for spinning. “We always knew the fibre had the most potential and would be the best market application,” she says.

Pineapple leaves produce very long and strong fibres, drawn from the 20 or so leaves that grow around the fruit, and are usually left to rot, says Ms Juva. But the sheer volume of these leaves, an estimated 27 million tonnes annually, makes it impossible to leave them to rot in the field, which means that some 80% are burnt, she adds. Ananas Anam’s suppliers are both smallholder farms and global organisations, such as Dole and Compagnie Fruitière.

In the production process created by Ananas Anam, the pineapple leaves are now collected and decorticated on the field. The biomass residues from this operation can be used as fertiliser, or sold for fuel, creating a potential third revenue stream for farmers, says Ms Juva. The textile fibre itself is obtained via a proprietary and patented enzymatic process that removes impurities. All further processing is purely mechanical, the company says. The resulting fibre is then marketed as Anam PALF, for PineApple Leaf Fibre, or spun by Ananas Anam’s spinning facility in Spain into Piñayarn.

The fibre possesses high tensile strength and high moisture absorption due to its cellulose content. “It dries quickly,” says Ms Juva, “and is also a bit coarse.” It is most often blended with cotton or one of Lenzing’s manmade cellulose fibres, in proportions of 30% Piñayarn or Anam PALF. This keeps the price down and offsets the rusticity of the pineapple fibre. “As we have scaled, the price has come down, and can now be compared to linen, though this is still high for mass market applications,” she notes.

Both Piñayarn and Anam PALF are, again, good candidates for applications in denims. Spanish mill Textil Santanderina offers such fabrics. A number of Portuguese companies have adopted the fibre, including spinner Tearfil, fabric maker Riopele and knitted shoe upper specialist Cosmiknit.

The last straw

Earth Protex is a company that originated in the 1990s as a supplier of hemp, introducing the original alternative natural fibre to adidas, Levi’s, Nike, Patagonia and VF at the time. Before launching Earth Protex, its founders Yitzac and Samuel Goldstein, worked for Circular Systems. The father-and-son team is now expanding some of the technologies developed at the time on their own.

AgRefinery, one of several research projects at Earth Protex, seeks to make the most of various types of crop waste by extracting micro and nanocellulose to produce fibres, films or coatings. The technology developed is not a viscose process, Yitzac Goldstein tells WSA, but is rather similar to the method developed by Finnish company Spinnova. He explains: “We fractionate straw waste through various gentle processes to keep the fibres long and fully valorise the cellulose chains.” He believes it will be possible to extract a wide array of polymers, chemicals and fibres from wheat and rice straw as well as sugarcane bagasse through its non-wood pulping process. Mr Goldstein says it is a “tunable” technology for fibres, in that they can be treated to add hydrophobic, hydrophilic or antimicrobial functionality. “We have many ingredients in the kitchen,” he says. The research phase is ongoing, in collaboration with CITEVE in Portugal and the Bio Products Institute of the University of British Columbia in Canada. Mr Goldstein expects staple spinning fibre, textile coatings and biopolymer additives to be commercially available by 2026. “We see great opportunity for cotton-like natural fibres,” says Samuel Goldstein.

The cellulose content of these alternative fibres should make them comfortable to wear and easy to care for. They should also benefit from the growing plastic-free and synthetic-free movement. And though cotton is the leading natural fibre, with a market share of 25%, its production has been stable in recent years. This could leave a wide-open space for a new crop of natural fibres direct from the farm.

Derived from abacá banana plants, Bananatex was developed by Swiss bag brand and material innovators Qwstion, in collaboration with a yarn specialist and a weaving partner in Taiwan.
Credit: Lauschsicht

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