BASF & Inditex Jointly Develop World’s First Circular Nylon 6 Textile

BASF and Inditex have achieved a breakthrough in textile recycling with the launch of Loopamid, which is a polyamide 6 (PA6) also known as nylon 6 made from 100 percent textile waste.

BASF is providing the first circular solution for nylon apparel made entirely from textile waste, while Zara has turned the material into a jacket made from 100 percent Loopamid.

“Following a ‘design for recycling’ approach, all parts, including fabrics, buttons, filling, hook and loop and zipper are made from Loopamid,” a joint press release of BASF and Inditex informed.

Due to its capability to tolerate all fabric mixtures like PA6 and elastane, the cutting-edge technology behind Loopamid allows textile-to-textile recycling of post-industrial and post-consumer textile waste.

The fibres and materials can be recycled over multiple cycles. At the same time, the material characteristics are identical to those of conventional virgin polyamide.

“Our Loopamid has the potential to revolutionise the PA6 market. We are in the process of scaling up to serve customers with commercial quantities,” Dr. Ramkumar Dhruva, President of BASF’s Monomers division said.

“The capsule jacket together with Inditex is the proof that circularity is possible, and we are eager to further drive the sustainable transformation of the textile industry, Dr. Dhruva added.

Inditex has partnered with companies to seamlessly integrate Loopamid into various garment components, including fabrics, zippers, buttons, fillings, hook and loop fasteners, and sewing threads.

ModaRe, a take-back program operated by the charity organisation Caritas, classified, sorted and provided discarded textiles as feedstock.

Italian company RadiciGroup worked on the process of transforming Loopamid polymer into various types of yarn with different characteristics.

While YKK, a Japanese fastening products company and Velcro have also played crucial roles to create components for zippers and snap buttons, and hook and loop fasteners.

Uniter from Spain, Tessitura Vignetta from Italy and Freudenberg and Gütermann from Germany have also participated in this project to develop inner labels, filling materials and sewing threads using Loopamid.