Lycra updates on sustainability goals and recycling progress
The Lycra Company has published its third annual Sustainability Update and its Global Sustainability Scorecard for fiscal year 2023 and spoken of progress of its recycling research.
Highlights of the report include advances on the commercialisation of bio-derived Lycra fibre made with Qira from industrial corn, the introduction of industrial compostable Lycra fibre for the personal care segment, the extension of technologies that add durability to the Lycra Adaptiv fibre portfolio, and a 26% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from the previous year.
Its sustainability framework, known as Planet Agenda, encompasses product sustainability, manufacturing excellence and corporate responsibility and its goals are aligned with five of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the recent Dorbirn Global Fiber Congress in Austria, senior applications development professional Alberto Ceria and senior R&D scientist David Godshall presented ‘Pre- and Post-Consumer Recycling of Lycra Fibre’. Their presentation described the development of recycling technologies that transform stretch fabrics at end-of-life into recycled elastane.
Mr Ceria told sportstextiles.com: “Regarding our recycling programmes, we are progressing with promising results for end-of-life garments: when Lycra fibre is separated without substantial chemical damages from other hard fibres, we have proved we can make new Lycra fibre with our proprietary recycling technology. We have also designed a new Lycra fibre product that in the future can further ease this process. Everything is in lab stage for now, but it's quite promising.
“Bio-derived and recycling are independent programmes but our long-term vision is to converge and integrate these technologies together.”
The company has committed to reduce Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2021 base year. In addition, the company aims to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 25% within the same timeframe.
