Dow expands Sustainable Footwear Materials Portfolio
13.12.2024
Dow has introduced a suite of low-carbon material solutions designed to assist the footwear industry in producing more sustainable products without compromising performance. This expanded portfolio includes bio-circular materials, reversible cross-linking resins, post-consumer recycled resins, and polyolefin elastomers suitable for artificial leather applications.
Advancing Running Shoe Sustainability with Biopolymers
25.11.2024
Mount to Coast, a leader in ultrarunning footwear, has partnered with BASF to introduce CircleCELL™, an innovative running shoe midsole. The midsole, made from BASF’s ecoflex® BMB, blends sustainability with high performance, offering enhanced durability and energy return. This collaboration marks a significant step toward eco-friendly advancements in sports footwear.
New Leather Alternative Made From Apple Waste: Sustainability in the Fashion and Automotive Industry
25.10.2024
The leather alternative LEAP® uses waste from apple processing and the sustainable INSQIN® technology to create durable and flexible products for a wide range of industries.
Rubik's Cube turns 50: A plastic cube that keeps the world spinning
11.09.2024
Rubik's Cube is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Today it is made of plastic (some of it even recycled) and is as popular as it was on the first day.
Making Blister Packaging More Sustainable
21.08.2024
During the last allergy season, they may have ended up in your garbage once again: Blister packs. And you may have noticed how few tablets there are in a comparatively large pack. Not particularly sustainable, is it? That's what Olivia Falconnier Williams thought, too, and she set about researching how the packaging could be made more resource-efficient.
Jogging shoes and co.: plastics in sportswear
31.07.2024
The right outfit for every sport. Even for a short jog after work, sports enthusiasts can access sophisticated equipment. From breathable sports shirts and cooling running tights to running shoes. The choice is diverse. However, there is one unifying factor that most models have in common - plastics are used in their manufacture.
Sustainable Pleasure: Wine Bottle Made From rPET
17.07.2024
PET water bottles, PET beer bottles – so why not PET wine bottles? The combination may seem unconventional at first, but it offers significant advantages over glass bottles: PET bottles have a lower CO2 footprint, are more cost-effective, lighter, and safer due to their unbreakable nature. ALPLA's solution also stands out by using rPET.
Stadium seats for the Olympic Games made from plastic waste
17.07.2024
For Marius Hamelot, the 2024 Summer Olympics in France will provide a glimpse into his vision of turning trash into treasure. An architect and entrepreneur, the 29-year-old Hamelot has been working for several years to transform waste plastic collected in local Parisian neighborhoods into high-quality, durable products.
Sustainable PET Film Recycling Solutions
04.07.2024
Leonhard Kurz will be presenting new sustainable recycling solutions for PET film at drupa 2024. In a video interview, Markus Hoffmann, Member of the Board at Leonhard Kurz, explains how the company takes back and reuses used PET film to promote the Circular Economy. The DM Maxliner 3D machine, which impresses with its efficiency and versatility, is also presented.
Digital reusable cup from Vytal and PepsiCo
19.06.2024
Vytal and PepsiCo are taking reusable tableware to a new level in their cooperation. With individual IDs for each cup, which can be read using a QR code or RFID tag, efficiency at large events is increased enormously. The technology not only optimises the return of the cups, but also the entire recycling process, thus making an important contribution to the Circular Economy.
Artistic duo brings Lucite and epoxy to life
05.06.2024
The Como, Italy-based design studio of Draga & Aurel is using transparent acrylic sheets, epoxy resin, light and color to create visually striking collections of high-end furniture. They just unveiled two such collections, called Flare and Glaze, done exclusively for specific galleries.
Pioneering sustainable solutions in the cosmetic industry
17.05.2024
TotalEnergies Corbion and Sulapac have joined forces to advance sustainable practices in the cosmetics sector, emphasizing the integration of recycled and biodegradable materials into product packaging, fostering a more eco-responsible industry.
Customized, 3D-printed bike helmets offer comfort and safety
13.05.2024
The Californian company KAV offers customized headwear in collaboration with Jabil.
Biopolymer coating for textiles – protective bacteria
03.05.2024
It defies wind and weather and protects us from a wide range of environmental influences: Functional clothing. Special coatings are responsible for this. Polyacrylates or polyurethanes, which are based on crude oil and therefore a finite resource, are often used for this purpose. The DITF are therefore researching alternatives from renewable sources – including polymers from bacteria.
The rediscovery of plastics in the textile industry
27.03.2024
The textile industry is in the midst of a green transformation, with sustainability and recycling taking centre stage. This change is being driven by a growing awareness of the environmental impact of textile production and consumption. Plastics, particularly synthetic fibres such as polyester and nylon, are ubiquitous in the industry due to their versatility and cost-effectiveness.
Fluoroplastics in focus
23.02.2024
The debate about fluoroplastics and their environmental impact is reaching new heights. While environmentalists are calling for a ban on PFAS (perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds), industry associations are warning of the far-reaching consequences for numerous areas of application. A look at the arguments and challenges.
BASF and Inditex promote sustainable fashion with loopamid®
12.02.2024
The textile industry is facing major changes in sustainability, led by BASF and Inditex through the launch of loopamid®, a new technology for textile-to-textile recycling. This initiative represents a significant step towards a Circular Economy by offering a sustainable solution for the reuse of polyamide 6 (PA6), also known as nylon 6, from textile waste.
Acrylic glass under the magnifying glass: investigating the causes after the Aquadom burst
16.12.2023
Why? This question was asked by the public, media and experts a year ago. On 16 December 2022 in the early hours of the morning, the Aquadom, the world's largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium, which had previously been located in the Radisson Hotel in Berlin, burst. Prof Dr Christian Bonten, Head of the Institute of Plastics Technology (IKT), was called in as an expert to determine the cause.
Play-Tec® PCR awarded with "Blue Angel"
20.11.2023
The company Röchling SE & Co. KG offers its Play-Tec® PCR recycled plastic, a construction material for the sustainable design of long-lasting playgrounds. This has now been awarded the Blue Angel eco-label in the category "Environmentally friendly recycled plastics" (DE-ZU 30a).
Design4Recycling: flat plastic bottle for sustainable wine enjoyment
11.07.2023
If wine bottles were designed for the first time today, they would look different – the British start-up Packamama is sure of that. Especially in view of the climate crisis, packaging needs to be rethought. This is how Packamama's flat plastic bottle came into being, which is not only highly sustainable but also makes quite a visual impact.
A loyal companion: LVR Museum shows development of plastics over time
10.01.2023
Plastics are part of our lives - yesterday, today and tomorrow. The LVR Museum in Oberhausen, Germany, has dedicated an entire exhibition to plastics: "Class and Mass" comprises over 20,000 objects from the collection of the German Plastics Museum, which have been on permanent loan in Oberhausen since 2017 - it is the largest collection on the subject of plastics in Germany.
Borealis and REHAU accelerate circularity for furniture products with Bornewables™ premium circular polyolefins
22.11.2022
REHAU chooses Borealis' Bornewables™ over conventional polypropylene (PP) for production of their RAUKANTEX evo sustainable edgebands. The robust and durable Bornewables™ feature color-stable chemistry and flexibility and are suitable for processing straight and contoured edges.
Smart textiles sense how their users are moving
22.08.2022
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology develop a comfortable, form-fitting fabric that recognizes its wearer's activities, like walking, running, and jumping. Through the process of thermoforming, the researchers were able to significantly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multilayer knitted textiles, which they call 3DKnITS.
A German plastic success story: the Bobby-Car turns 50
09.02.2022
Bright red bodywork, a white steering wheel and a lot of noise when driving: That's what the Bobby-Car is all about. Almost everyone knows it and almost everyone has owned one. Or still does.
Dishwasher components made from recycled plastic
01.02.2022
Recyclable furniture from the creative workshop
24.01.2022
Plastic is a versatile material that can be used for a wide variety of projects. What's more, it is reusable and can be given new forms – so it can be given a second life in the sense of the circular economy. In the plastikfabrik in Saarbrücken (Germany), Daniela and Pascal Becher breathe such a second life into plastic.
Sustainable Polyurethanes in your shoebox
18.03.2021
People around the world want embrace sustainability – a new mindset that also affects the fashion industry. But how can you make shoes that have been made with lots of plastic in recent decades more sustainable? Covestro is a world-leading supplier of high-quality polyurethane and teamed up with the Brazilian shoe manufacturer Calçados Beira Rio to put its best foot forward and create a solution.
Protective polymers
21.12.2020
Restrictions have been imposed to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Wearing a mouth and nose mask is part of this, as is avoiding and reducing social contact and maintaining safe distances up to more far-reaching quarantine measures. Where it is difficult to keep a distance, plastics fulfil a key barrier and protective function.
Plastics make the mannequins’ world go round!
22.05.2020
Display mannequin manufacturers have not only been creative in terms of design. Resource-saving operations have also ranked very high on their agendas for years. There has been in-depth research in developing materials and processes and plastics continue to play a leading role.
"The goal is to create an exciting vision that our consumers want to participate in with us."
30.06.2019
Alexis Olans Haass is Director Sustainability at adidas PURPOSE. She heads adidas brand's sustainability program from global headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Her responsibilities include directing adidas brand's sustainability strategy, and developing new sustainable innovations and business models.