Beaver Paper Group, a leading manufacturer of sublimation media, is proving their commitment to producing sustainable products with the launch of their new TexStyles NatureSeries family of graphic fabrics. NatureSeries is a revolutionary line of sublimation fabric made with cutting-edge sustainable CiCLO technology. In ideal conditions, fabrics made with CiClO will biodegrade at the end of their lifecycle within three to five years as opposed to 60 years for traditional synthetics in the same conditions, including recyclables.
Currently, over 44 million pounds of synthetic textiles end up in U. S. landfills each day! Since synthetic textiles are extremely popular, Beaver Paper’s fabric manager, Jeff Mills, spent almost two years researching and developing the NatureSeries Soft Knit fabric to help mitigate the negative effects of synthetic textiles and raise the bar on sustainability within the industry. Beaver Paper’s new Soft Knit with CiClO will help reduce textile accumulation in landfills.
Since it is the most widely used fabric for exhibits and retail signage, Mr. Mills focused on creating a truly sustainable soft knit fabric including attention to the products end-of-lifecycle. The new NatureSeries Soft Knit fabric will be a major rival to the many soft knit recyclable fabrics currently on the market.
“My goals in creating NatureSeries Soft Knit were to take the most popular fabric used in the industry and make it truly sustainable, and to challenge the industry to think about sustainable standards for end-of-life products that end up in our landfills,” said Jeff Mills, TexStyles Product Manager.
NatureSeries vs. Recyclable Fabric
Recycled fabric, while a step in the right direction, still ends up in a landfill at the end of its lifecycle and can remain there, in ideal conditions, for up to 60 years. On the other hand, as NatureSeries graphic fabrics hit the landfills, its CiCLO® additive technology goes to work, in ideal conditions, breaking down the fabric so that it is close to 95% degraded within 3-5 years.
“It’s exciting to be launching our NatureSeries line that highlights our commitment to producing high-level sustainable products,” said Tobias Sternbeck, CEO of Beaver Paper. “I believe our new NatureSeries fabric goes beyond anything in the industry today, in reducing synthetic textile pollution.”
How It Works
CiCLO is a sustainable textiles ingredient in the form of an additive that is combined with polyester during melt extrusion at the beginning of the fibre making process. CiCLO additive creates millions of biodegradable spots in the matrix of the plastic where microbes that naturally exist in certain environments, such as landfills, can break down synthetic materials like they do with natural fibres. Third party lab studies, using recognised ASTM Test Methods, show greatly accelerated rates of biodegradation compared to traditional synthetics in landfills, sea water, and wastewater plants.
NatureSeries Soft Knit, made with CiCLO fibres, looks and feels like traditional synthetics with the same high performance and durable characteristics but behaves more like natural fibres if they end up in the environment. The new Soft Knit fabric has been tested to ensure traits such as tenacity, pilling resistance and printability are unchanged. It is also proven to be safe for use in sustainable textile applications by a third-party OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT certification and meets industry requirements for safety and health.
NatureSeries graphic fabric is durable and produces the most vivid colour reproductions. NatureSeries possesses all the characteristics of high-quality polyester graphic fabrics with one exception, when it is discarded, it will not stay piled in the world’s landfills for up to 60 years.
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