Asahi Kasei's Eco-friendly Fabric Is Buried Around The Soil To Degrade
May 09, 2019
The glamorous fashion is often hidden behind the huge environmental damage. From the production of fabrics to the disposal of final discarded garments, there is almost no pollution that can be ignored in every aspect. With the rise of environmental awareness, sustainable development of environmentally friendly fabrics has become the focus of current attention.
Recently, the Japanese chemical and materials science company Asahi Kasei exhibited a dress made of its pure fiber fiber (Bemberg) fabric at its 2019 spring and summer outerwear material exhibition. The design of the dress itself is not very interesting. The most shocking thing is its environmental characteristics: it can be degraded in the soil in just four weeks!
Bemberg is a copper ammonia yarn product developed by Asahi Kasei. The invention and application of copper ammonia wire can be traced back to 1897, and the next year it was industrialized in Germany. In 1928, Asahi Kasei founder Noguchi and the German JP Binba representative held a formal signing ceremony for the introduction of technical machinery in New York. Asahi Kasei began producing copper ammonia yarn in 1931. After more than 80 years of technological breakthroughs and innovations, Asahi Kasei is one of the largest producers of copper ammonia in the world. Since the production, the use of copper ammonia yarn has gradually expanded from lining to jackets, underwear, functional underwear, home textiles, knitting and many other categories.
The Bemberg brand of copper ammonia is a 100% recycled fiber made from cotton linter that was previously not used as a fiber – the fluff wrapped around cotton seeds. Asahi Kasei uses its own technology to refine and dissolve the fluff, making it a pure recycled fiber. Compared to ordinary natural fibers, Bemberg fibers are extremely fine and uniform. After chemical treatment and technical processing, the comfort is better than cotton.
In 2017, Bemberg was certified by GraceExchange's GRS (GlobalRecycledStandard). According to Bemberg's official website, this material will be decomposed after being buried in the soil. For example, in summer environmental conditions (temperature 35 degrees, humidity 80), the weight will be reduced by half after two months, and the food as a microbial return to the soil. . Since the raw materials are all natural materials, even if they are incinerated, no harmful substances will be produced.
Bemberg's production process is also very environmentally friendly, using Asahi Kasei's self-generating equipment, the proportion of renewable energy such as hydropower and biomass power generation in the plant is as high as 40%. In addition, Asahi Kasei reuses the fiber waste generated in the Bemberg production process as a fuel for power generation, and fully recycles the waste discharged from the factory. Including other wastes, it has basically achieved a zero emission rate of 100%. The zero emission rate in 2016 has reached 99.8%.
Asahi Kasei is actively taking measures to promote this fiber fabric. In 2017, the company sponsored the 11th FormePresentation event hosted by Japan FashionBizNavi, which allowed fashion students to make their work by feeling the beauty of fiber. The students who participated in the event first learned about the materials at the "Bemberg University" hosted by Asahi Kasei, and then went to the company's Institute of Commodity Science in Shoushan City, Shiga Prefecture to study and use this fabric to design their own works. Finally, the work was presented at the JFWJapanCreation, a fabric exhibition held at the Tokyo International Exchange Center.
