Last April, at Performance Days in Munich, Tuscan woolmill Pontetorto presented a new collection of activewear and fashion fabrics entirely made with Fulgar’s Q-Cycle yarn, obtained from end-of-life tyres.
Q-Cycle yarn is produced by a pyrolysis process as part of BASF’s ChemCycling recycling system, in combination with Fulgar’s spinning technology. The process is said to be self-sufficient since the waste portion which cannot be transformed into raw material is pyrolysed into gas and used to generate the energy required for the process. The recycled content is allocated to the final product by using a third-party controlled mass balance approach.
Q-Cycle is said to retain all of the functional and aesthetic benefits of virgin polyamide including lightness, strength and resistance to produce high quality and eco-sustainable fabrics.
[su_quote cite=”Alan Garosi, Head of Marketing at Fulgar”]We are particularly proud to be collaborating with such a prestigious group as Pontetorto and to be able to contribute to the creation of a new-generation textile supply chain. Thanks to our work with BASF, Q-Cycleallows us to build value for our brand and to assert the excellence of Made in Italy. It is a solution with remarkable potential as it will allow us in the not too distant future to recycle even post-production waste from the textile sector.[/su_quote]
Tyres are considered to be among the most difficult items to dispose of and also highly polluting globally. Every year in Europe, 1.37 million tons of tyres – 40% of total production – are mostly incinerated, with high CO2 emissions.