Fashion for Good to test bio-based and recycled elastane
Amsterdam-based sustainability hub Fashion for Good has launched a project to validate bio-based and recycled elastane through pilot-scale testing and demonstrator garments with the aim of increasing its adoption.
The stretch fibre is typically added in blends of 1–5% by weight in cotton or wool garments and up to 20% in polyester or polyamide garments but can act as a “contaminant” in textile-to-textile recycling feedstocks.
Stretching Circularity will focus on two workstreams. One workstream focuses on testing elastane materials made from alternative inputs, including bio-based materials and other feedstocks. This phase includes the creation of garments, specifically a t-shirt with 10% elastane one with 2% elastane. The other focuses on testing regenerated elastane made through emerging recycling innovations.
The consortium includes Levi Strauss & Co (Beyond Yoga), On, Paradise Textiles, Positive Materials and Reformation, with Ralph Lauren Corporation as an advisor.
Katrin Ley, Fashion for Good managing director, said: “Lower-impact elastane solutions exist, but they lack the pilot-scale validation brands need to scale them confidently. This initiative seeks to provide that missing data, turning a well-known recycling “contaminant” into a functional component of a circular supply chain.”
Carrie Freiman Parry, senior director of sustainability at Reformation, added: “Elastane is one of the most overlooked blockers to true circularity in fashion: it’s everywhere and yet there is a significant challenge to recovering it at scale. Stretching Circularity is about tackling that problem at the root and proving that lower-impact stretch materials and new recycling pathways can meet real performance and design standards.”
Lycra’s partially biobased elastane, made using industrial corn from Iowa as a feedstock, is nearing commercial volumes. Hyosung is also working on a partially bio-based elastane.
Sportstextiles will cover this topic in the next magazine.
