Polartec innovates with eco-engineering

The material eco-engineer, Polartec, an American company, has been a leading developer of cutting-edge and environmentally friendly textile solutions and is creating performance fabrics for the past 40 years, but just recently stepped up its sustainability efforts.

Polartec makes fabric from recycled materials, including yarn made from recycled bottles. They have recycled over 2 billion bottles so far. Since then, Polartec has been progressively growing its eco-engineering breakthroughs.

Ramesh Kesh, Ph.D., SVP & Business Manager, Milliken & Company, Polartec’s parent company, said, “We led the industry by transitioning 100 percent of our products with durable water resistance (DWR) out of fluorochemicals a few years back.” Today, reducing the carbon impacts of the inputs of Polartec is what the company has set its sights on. This will also support the company’s Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) approved net-zero targets.

Kesh said, “By focusing on reducing our carbon footprint in every feedstock, we will enable greater circularity. We know that we need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel-based inputs. We are proud to have already introduced our first bio-based product in weather protection for the outdoor market with expedition grade performance, and you can expect more innovation from Polartec in the outdoor market in the coming months and years.”

The eco-engineering objective of Polartec touches every stage of the lifecycle of a garment, from manufacturing to disposal. This philosophy focuses on creating durable fabrics that do not need to be replaced frequently, and reducing waste during production and consumer use. It also emphasizes responsible sourcing and developing recycled yarn and content. The environment and human health are at risk due to fragment shedding and microfibers. Although there are some misconceptions about these issues, Polartec is working to clear them out.

“We just can’t put a Band-Aid solution on microfiber pollution by switching to all-natural fibers and calling it a day,” said Kesh. “We must fix the sources of shedding, be that in the laundry, or during wear and use. At Polartec, we are not just focusing on what happens when we wash our fabric, instead we are taking a scientific approach to addressing the multiple root causes.”

Two similar products have been produced as a result of this scientific approach. A patented construction-based approach launched in 2017 called PowerAir is developed which reduces microfiber shedding by more than 80%. ShedLess is a new textile innovation that reduces shedding of textile fiber fragments by 85% in fleece-like materials.

“When tested in rigorous laundry cycles using detergent (this is key because we don’t wash textiles without detergent in our homes, do we?) ShedLess technology lost an average of 0.0073 percent of its original weight. Miniscule. But then again, we are talking about microparticles,” said Kesh. “ShedLess is a progression of how our teams are driven by curiosity to unlock solutions of reducing microfiber fragment shedding to near zero on all our performance fabrics.

The DWR in Power Shield’s weatherproof fabric is not based on fluorochemicals and employs non-GMO and non-human food consumption feedstocks as inputs. Additionally, consumers don’t need to renew the DWR finish because Polartec doesn’t totally rely on chemistry to block water from penetrating, nor does it rely on other oleo phobic coatings, resulting in a “substantially lower” carbon footprint than market alternatives