Ternua makes PFC-free breakthrough
29/10/2018
Ternua said on making the announcement that, as a brand that designs clothes for mountain sports but has always tried to make its garments “with respect for the environment” it started looking for alternatives to PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) for its water-repellent finishes in 2009. However, it took Ternua until 2015 to eliminate PFOA and PFOS from its products. A year later, 80% of its garments were already PFC-free and now 100% of its collection for winter 2018 is treated with fluorocarbon-free water-repellency treatments.
Edu Uribesalgo, Ternua’s director of innovation and sustainability, commented: “We are a small brand and every change takes a lot of effort. We have had to search, research and contact many suppliers to continue offering the same technology but in an environmentally friendly way. We also wanted to continue working with top fabric brands but, owing to their larger size, they were slower than us in this regard.”
He went on to say that Ternua has begun incorporating “new fabrics, perhaps not as well-known as others”, but with what the brand regards as the technical level it needs, allowing it to become PFC-free.
Next steps for Ternua will be to combine PFC-free water-repellency technology with recycled fabrics, which it will start doing with backpacks and accessories in its spring-summer 2019 collection.
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