US retailer to use Teijin’s recycled PET in suits

31 March 2009 19:49  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW YORK (ICIS news)--US retailer Sears will start selling washable business suits made from blended, recycled polyester and wool developed by Japanese chemical firm Teijin, a company official said on Tuesday.

Teijin’s fabric, called Eco-A-Wear, was launched today in New York City. The recycled polyester fibre is generated from used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles that are collected and processed in Japan using Teijin’s ECOPET recycling technology.

It took about 25 two-litre bottles blended with wool to produce a single men’s suit, said Moses Cohen, sales and marketing manager at NI Teijin Shoji (USA).

“The Sears suit will contain 54% recycled polyester, 42% wool and 4% stretched spandex,” Cohen said.

He added that the suit will cost about $175 (€133) for the jacket and $75 for the trousers.

“It has to be affordable as well as aesthetically appealing to make it acceptable for consumers. Not only are these fabrics soft to the touch and wrinkle resistant, it can also be machine washed and dried, which eliminate the need for dry cleaning,” Cohen said.

The company is currently in talks with other major retailers in the US, the UK and Japan.

Teijin also launched at the press conference its Eco Circle technology, which the company said is the world’s first closed-loop recycling system for used polyester products.

Cohen said the technology can recycle used garments to the molecular level, extract the polyester fibres and recreate it to new polyester raw materials with no qualitative deterioration.

Teijin currently has capacity in Japan to recycle used polyester products. The capacity can produce about 30m yards (27m metres) of new polyester fibres, Cohen said.

($1 = €0.76)

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By: Doris de Guzman
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