News & Events | August 20, 2021
Hyosung Continues to Innovate with Eco-friendly Partnerships and Products
Regen-erating a sustainable reality
August 19, 2021: Seoul, South Korea – With increasing numbers of brands and consumers becoming more proactive in seeking out eco-friendly products, Hyosung continues to further is sustainable programs and product offerings.
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. Four such recent 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, 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 adopted by The North Face Korea earlier this year.
Due to regen Jeju’s success, Hyosung expanded its domestic PET collection and recycling initiative to include the city of Seoul in order to produce regen Seoul 100% recycled polyester.
Addressing marine ocean plastic waste, Hyosung expanded its regen recycling initiative to include the waters surrounding South Korea and the port cities of Yeosu where it collects discarded PET bottles from cruise ships to develop regen Ocean polyester.
Continuing along that path, Hyosung recently signed an MOU with the Busan metropolitan government and social venture Netspa to produce Mipan regen Ocean, a recycled nylon textile made from abandoned fishing 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.
“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,” said 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.”
Hyosung recently 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 1 kg.
“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,” said Simko.
