Hyosung continues to innovate with its portfolio of eco-friendly products
With increasing numbers of brands and consumers becoming more proactive in seeking out eco-friendly products, Hyosung is proud to be an established global leader in sustainable textile development. The Seoul, South Korea-based company currently has sales and marketing offices in 40 countries and has the ability to work with almost any mill in the world. At present, Hyosung operates 13 production facilities: nine spandex production plants, two polyester plants and two nylon plants—meaning that the company’s assets, employees and resources are available in all of the producing regions of the world. Moreover, Hyosung expanded its plants in Brazil and Turkey at the end of 2020 to better accommodate supply shifts and increased consumption in those regions. Bringing such sustainability solutions to where they’re needed most is cost-effective, efficient, and better for the environment.
“In the U.S. and Europe in particular, there’s been a big push for recycled products. The whole conversation about sustainability began with brands wanting something sustainable, and back then the easiest thing to do was to implement recycled product into their lines,” explains Mike Simko, Hyosung Global Marketing Director-Textiles. “Now, our conversations around sustainability are maturing. People are being more thoughtful because their companies are setting ambitious sustainability objectives and publishing them for all to see."
The centerpiece of Hyosung’s ongoing sustainable textile effort is the regen portfolio of 100 percent recycled polyester, nylon and spandex. These fibers received the GRS (Global Recycle Standard) Certification from Control Union, a global certification body for eco-friendly products.
“While most polyesters are made from 100 percent post-consumer content, most nylon and spandex are not, so this alone sets our solutions apart, where they are all made with 100% re-claimed waste” says Simko. Additionally, we’ve added functionality into our recycled fibers. For instance, in looking at our recycled polyester and nylon, when you want sustainability but also need something that’s functional—such as cooling, soft to the touch or high-tenacity—that’s where we shine."
On the spandex side, Simko points out that while some competing brands offer 20 or even 50 percent recycled spandex, Hyosung’s creora® regen spandex is 100 percent recycled. “Of the primary synthetics in the world—nylon, polyester and spandex—recycled nylon and polyester have been available for over a decade. Now, recycled spandex completes the picture,” he says. “A fabric with 80 percent polyester and 20 percent regular spandex is an environmental improvement if you go to recycled polyester. But now, if you also layer in the 100 percent recycled spandex, you’ve completed the picture and you’ve got best-in-class sustainability."
Meet the regen Family
For more than a decade, Hyosung has been committed to developing eco-friendly, 100 percent sustainable yarns, and this is evident in the continuing expansion of the regen family. The regen brand name comes from the word regeneration: creating a continuous cycle that brings waste back to high-quality resources. As consumer demand for eco-friendly products climbs, regen brand partners are upping their requests for customized solutions. Toward this end, Hyosung has added multi-function characteristics to its regen fibers such as enhanced temperature regulation, anti-bacterial properties, UV protection and much more. All of this extends from Hyosung’s three core regen innovations.
Mipan® regen nylon: This recycled high-quality nylon yarn was the first of its kind in the world when it launched in 2007. It is made by extracting top-quality nylon yarns from the raw materials from reclaimed waste, saving valuable resources from being extracted from the earth.
regen polyester: Created from post-consumer PET bottles, this recycled polyester yarn received the world’s first certification in the sector of recycled polyester fiber. Fifty bottles can produce 1 kg. of yarn. Since regen is produced from recycled materials, it is effective in reducing landfill volume and CO2 emissions. It is widely used as an alternative to virgin polyester as there is no difference in function or quality from existing polyester yarns.
creora® regen spandex: Introduced in 2019, this 100 percent recycled spandex is the first made from reclaimed waste, and it performs as well as Hyosung’s virgin creora spandex. In June 2021, Hyosung released the results of a new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comparing the environmental performance of its creora regen spandex to its virgin creora spandex. The study concluded that creora® regen spandex reduces carbon dioxide production by approximately 67 percent (or by about two-thirds) compared to its creora® spandex in the production of 1kg.
“We are the largest spandex producer globally, and we sell roughly one-third of all spandex in the world,” says Simko. “As a major supplier, we need to be able to provide multiple solutions. We’ve got recycled and bio-based options. We’re also looking at separation technologies to close the loop. Most consumers like spandex because of the way it helps their garments perform, however some have concerns because the fiber makes it difficult to repurpose garments and fabrics at the end of life. But now there are evolving technologies emerging that will be able to separate fabrics to allow for new streams of recycled content that can be made into fiber.”
The top three markets for regen are outdoor, activewear and yoga. “Typically, consumers in the outdoor market are the most astute when it comes to protecting the environment, and they’ve led the charge,” remarks Simko. “Denim is also a key market for regen, but I think that’s being driven more by the industry than by consumers.” He points out that certain large retailers have taken major positions in creora® regen spandex, both in the U.S. and Europe.
Better Together Meet the regen Family
When it comes to developing sustainable technologies and programs, partnerships can provide many benefits for the companies and brands involved, as well as for the local communities being served. Three such examples are Hyosung’s regen Jeju, regen Seoul, regen Ocean and Mipan regen Ocean, all of which are based in South Korea.
To establish a new resource circulation system, Hyosung partnered with the Ministry of Environment (MOE), Jeju Provincial Government, and startup Korean-based fashion brand, Pleatsmama, in April 2020 to produce and launch a recycled polyester made from discarded PET bottles from South Korea’s Jeju Island. The result was regen Jeju, which was also adopted by The North Face Korea earlier this year.
Following the successful regen Jeju project, Hyosung expanded its domestic PET collection and recycling initiative to include the city of Seoul in order to produce regen Seoul 100 percent recycled polyester. Hyosung signed an MOU with the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) and the district offices of Geumcheon, Yeongdeungpo and Gangnam to promote the regen Seoul project, whereby Hyosung will produce eco-friendly fibers from recycled transparent PET bottles collected by the local governments.
“There are literally billions of PET bottles available for recycling, and we wanted to do something special,” says Simko. “Instead of going to a recycled chip supplier, we ran an experiment in Jeju. We collected the bottles there, and then we processed them, made fiber and then made apparel and sold it there. This localized and personalized the whole recycling experience. We’ve since expanded that to regen Seoul."
Continuing along that path, Hyosung, signed an MOU this spring with the Busan metropolitan government and social venture Netspa to produce Mipan regen Ocean, a recycled nylon textile made from abandoned fishing nets. As part of the agreement, the city government is establishing a system for separate disposal of fishing nets, while Netspa will oversee the washing and processing of the collected nets. In addition to producing Mipan regen Ocean, Hyosung is expanding investment in a depolymerization facility that will improve the purity of ingredients by removing the impurities in fishing nets. Hyosung’s goal is to produce more than 150 tons of Mipan regen Ocean per month by Q2 of 2022.
Beyond its partnerships in supplying recycled materials, Hyosung is employing the principles of a circular economy to assist the denim industry with garment end-of-life solutions. Jeans made with cotton and other cellulosics can be recycled, but not if there is more than 2 percent synthetics in the fabric. Hyosung has developed creora® 3D Max spandex that allows high-stretch denim that can meet the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Jeans Redesign Guidelines. This means that jeans will be used longer, will be made of safe and renewable materials, will be easier to recycle, and will avoid harmful chemicals and production processes. More than 70 leading brands, manufacturers and fabric mills are now using the Jeans Redesign Guidelines.
On a broader scope, Hyosung is developing textile solutions with considerations for the Accelerating Circularity Project, working with apparel brands on designing garments with end-of-life in mind. The objective is to reduce the millions of tons of textile waste going into landfills annually, thereby supporting the reduction of the industry’s green house gas emissions.
A Sustainable Future
At one time, consumers were reluctant to pay extra for sustainable goods, but this is gradually changing, especially as more brands are removing choice from the decision-making process by offering only eco-friendly options.
“Yes, regen products are all more expensive for reasons of investment and efficiency,” admits Simko. “When you make a new yarn, it literally takes years to develop the most efficient process. But over time, the prices all start dropping. For example, recycled polyester has a modest premium over virgin polyester. Recycled nylon, because it’s still in short supply and is relatively new in building a supply base, has a higher premium. And recycled spandex also carries a higher premium."
At this point, Simko is finding that consumers are willing to pay a little more for recycled products, as are a growing number of brand partners that can afford it. “The upper-end, less price-sensitive brands are willing to spend the extra money,” he says.
As availability of sustainable material climbs and prices drop, there is a question of what will happen to supply. For instance, Simko believes that there will be a competition for PET bottles because of evolving legislation mandating that PET bottle producers begin using some kind of recycled content. “But even if it’s not legislated, there’s still going to be pressure, and now other industries will be competing for that raw material,” he says. “Maybe that’s a good thing if the objective is to clean up the waste. But if we run out of waste, we’ll move into other products like bio-based materials, which will continue to improve the environment.” In fact, Hyosung is quickly moving ahead in developing bio-based materials (plant-based products) such as creora bio-based spandex, which replaces 30 percent of the chemicals with ones that are derived from dent corn, so that when the corn is growing it is consuming carbon dioxide and reducing greenhouse gasses.
There is no doubt that Hyosung intends to remain on the leading edge in the development of sophisticated sustainability solutions. The company also foresees that the entire recycling process will go through a massive evolution with the collecting and sorting of end-of-life garments and textile waste, separations technologies and purification processes. Simko concludes, “Sustainability is a journey. The most significant advances today are that the industry has a deeper understanding of the impact that the textile industry has on the environment, and more importantly, there is a desire to make improvements."
