US' Patagonia partners circular textile company Infinited Fiber

The two companies have signed a multiyear sales agreement, they said in a joint press release.

Infinna is a unique, virgin-quality regenerated textile fibre with soft and natural look and feel of cotton. It is created from cotton-rich textile waste that is broken down at the molecular level and reborn as new fibres. Because it is made of cellulose – a building block of all plants – Infinna is biodegradable and contains no microplastics to clog our seas. Clothes made with it can be recycled again in the same process together with other textile waste.

“Circularity is a marathon, not a sprint. By partnering with companies like Infinited Fiber Company we are able to build a circularity partnership that not only recycles the products of the past but builds a circularity plan for the products of the future,” said Patagonia’s lead material developer Ciara Cates.

“Patagonia is an industry pioneer in sustainable clothing and practices. Their environmental standards and requirements for sustainability are top of the league. We are humbled by their stamp of approval for Infinna as the circular alternative to virgin cotton going forward, and we’re very proud of the long-term commitment they have now made to using Infinna in their future collections,” said Infinited Fiber Company key account director Kirsi Terho.

In April, Infinited Fiber Company had announced plans to build a flagship factory in Finland to meet the growing demand for Infinna from global fashion brands. It is currently supplying customers from its R&D and pilot facilities in Espoo and Valkeakoski, Finland.

The planned flagship factory will have an annual production capacity of 30,000 metric tons, which is enough fibre for roughly 100 million t-shirts made with 100 per cent Infinna. Infinited Fiber Company expects to have sold the new factory’s entire output for several years during 2021, the release said.

More than 92 million metric tons of textile waste is produced globally every year and most of this ends up in landfills or incinerators. At the same time, textile fibre demand is increasing, with Textile Exchange estimating the global textile fibre market to grow 30 per cent to 146 million metric tons by 2030 from 111 million metric tons in 2019.

Infinited Fiber Company’s fibre regeneration technology, which uses cellulose-rich waste streams as its raw material, offers a solution both to stop waste from being wasted and to reduce the burden of the textile industry on the planet’s limited natural resources.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)