When we meet Uwe Schmidt for a digital interview, you can tell his enthusiasm for the topic immediately. Schmidt is Managing Director at Asahi Kasei Spandex Europe, one of the most important addresses for elastic stretch fibers and everything that has to do with polymers. For us, the exchange is so good and important because our products cannot always do without elastane, but at the same time we want to offer even more alternative options. Our new honeycomb fabrics contain recycled elastane from ROICA™ EF by Asahi Kasei, a material that is not entirely new, but surprisingly little heard or read about.
Uwe Schmidt tells us that the idea of producing recycled elastane is first and foremost an affair of the heart: »We started recycling over 10 years ago in order to pursue a zero-waste strategy and also based on the belief that raw materials are single-origin to be able to keep them as raw materials.« ROICA™ EF, the name of the recycled elastane that we now also use, is the result of real pioneering work. Unlike polyester, for example, elastane cannot be melted, but has to be polymerized before it can be spun again.
The raw material sources for this are in-house leftovers, but also imports of leftovers and returns from sister plants inside ROICA™. In the past, these leftovers were burned, now they are given a second life – they turn from waste to raw material. It is currently manufactured in Germany and has been certified according to the Global Recycled Standard and the Ökotex Standard 100 for five years. For Uwe Schmidt, despite the company's internationality, it is important to serve customers as regionally as possible and to keep delivery routes as short as possible hold where they are considering for the expansion of ROICA™ EF in Asia as well.
He is convinced that you always have to think in bigger contexts and concepts and for him it's always a matter of weighing up and choosing the most suitable option for the end product – which Schmidt calls »Concept Garment«, a quite catchy term. The Global Recycled Standard, covers very different recycling shares. In the case of the elastane that we use for our honeycomb, it is at least 50%. By using recycled raw material, the global warming potential, i.e. the contribution to the greenhouse effect, sinks to 65%.
The Global Recycled Standard 4, which is relevant to us, also ensures that the ILO criteria are observed and monitored – including, for example, freedom of assembly, the ban on child labor and fair wages. In addition, as few petroleum-based raw materials as possible are used. At the end of our conversation, we leave with the good feeling that we have found a partner here who does his job with a lot of expertise and passion – and who will not tire of breaking new ground in the near future.
