Industry Technologies
YKK Corporation, headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; with its President Hiroaki Otani has developed NATULON Plus® with Recycled PET Open Parts, as part of its efforts to promote garment recycling. This innovative product was showcased at the Functional Fabric Fair in Portland, Oregon.
In the fashion industry, there is an increasing demand for products that are designed to be easily recyclable at the end of their lifecycle.
YKK is pleased to announce the new NATULON Plus® with Recycled PET Open Parts, a zipper maximizing the use of PET materials, which was conceived as a more easily recyclable YKK® product. The chain and the open parts are made of recycled PET, and the PET materials for the injection molding of the open parts were developed by YKK in-house. The slider is made of metal for ease of sorting and durability. This product simplifies the garment processing stage of textile recycling by reducing the need to remove the zipper.
For product details, visit the YKK Digital Showroom. Terry Tsukumo, Vice President, Product Strategy Division, Global Sales Headquarters, YKK Corporation, said, “A large amount of apparel products is thrown away each year. We need to extend the service life of products while simultaneously designing them to be easily recyclable after use.
We believe that incorporating YKK’s NATULON Plus® with recycled PET open parts into garments will simplify the garment processing stage and enable more of them to be recycled along with the garments. YKK has previously developed products that help to enable a circular economy such as VISLON® NATULON® made with ECONYL® Regenerated Nylon, a recyclable product that is intended for nylon garments, as well as revived replacement elements for VISLON® zippers that can replace broken elements to keep garments functioning longer. YKK will continue enhancing its products designed for circularity such as those that are easily recyclable and repairable, while aggressively working to tackle environmental problems in the apparel industry across the entire supply chain.”
