Material World: Circ’s Partners Program, AMSilk’s Biofibers Beat Silk
Material World is a weekly roundup of innovations and ideas within the materials sector, covering news from emerging biomaterials and alternative leathers to sustainable substitutes and future-proof fibers.
AMSilk
AMSilk, the world’s first industrial supplier of vegan silk biopolymers, announced that an independent cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) has validated that its Ultrafine Fiber has a lower environmental footprint than silk.
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The study, executed by environmental sustainability consultancy Quantis, compared the environmental footprint of AMSilk’s synthetic silk with mulberry silk across five environmental indicators: climate change, land and water use, acidification and freshwater eutrophication. These indicators are the most relevant to the textile industry, the biomaterials company said, and represent the top five of all 16 Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) indicators evaluated after having normalized and weighed the results.
The ISO-compliant and “objectively reviewed” study found that the relative impact of 1 kg (roughly 2.2 lbs.) of AMSilk Ultrafine versus mulberry silk was “significant.” AMSilk Ultrafine has 81 percent lower climate change impact, 92 percent lower land use, 97 percent lower water use, 90 percent lower acidification and 73 percent lower eutrophication of freshwater.
A separate analysis by the Fresenius Institute found that AMSilk’s fibers were shown to be readily biodegradable, according to OECD 301B, with more than 60 percent degradation in eight days—ahead of the benchmark of 10 days—and 84 percent degradation within 28 days.
Overall, the company said the reduction in environmental impacts associated with AMSilk fibers can be attributed to its biofabricated nature, which circumvents the resource-intensive process of silkworm rearing and cocoon harvesting inherent to silk production.
“These strong figures reinforce the environmental performance characteristics of our material in addition to their various high-performance properties,” said Ulrich Scherbel, AMSilk’s CEO. “Our biofabricated fibers and yarns remove the limitations of existing materials and offer brands unimagined opportunities to reinvent themselves while reducing their carbon footprint.”
Circ
Textile-to-textile recycler Circ has launched the Circ-Ready community: an exclusive group of global supply chain partners who have demonstrated their ability to utilize Circ materials.
Consisting of processors, manufacturers and other industry players across tiers 1-4, each Circ-Ready partner underwent a testing process to replace virgin inputs with Circ’s products, showcasing the ability to utilize Circ within their existing operations and produce premium materials as a result.
The inaugural Circ-Ready partners include AGI Denim, Foshan Chicley Textile Co., MAS Holdings, Giotex, Marubeni Corporation, Pyratex, Selenis, Soorty, Tainan Spinning Co., Shinjintex and the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI).
“We are thrilled to lead the charge with Circ-Ready. Circ represents the next generation of solutions addressing fashion’s biggest challenges, including microplastic pollution and circularity,” said Henry Wong, vice president of product development and marketing at AGI Denim. “By championing technologies like Circ, AGI Denim aims to connect raw materials to final products, maximizing the potential for scalable innovation.”
Being a member of the Circ-Ready community provides partners with the opportunity to work with pilot-stage Circ products, receive ongoing support from Circ’s technical experts and be among the first recommended by Circ when brands and partners seek to utilize Circ material.
“Being able to announce Circ-Ready with such a robust and well-rounded group of partners is transformational for our next stage of growth. It also speaks to the positive shift taking place within the fashion industry,” said Peter Majeranowski, CEO and president of Circ. “As consumers demand better sustainable fashion options—and brands and retailers make public commitments to source more recycled and next-gen materials—manufacturers who proactively choose to operationalize the use of Circ’s recycled material have an advantage. Having experience producing top quality products from Circ materials and access to recycled products creates a competitive edge over others who are slow to adopt recycled materials.”
The Circ-Ready partners will work alongside the Circ team to adequately test and utilize Circ fibers—primarily Circ Lyocell and Circ Polyester. To promote transparency and ensure the integrity of its products, each Circ-Ready partner provides a commitment to relevant best-in-class certifications for recycled products.
“The fashion industry is desperate for change, and it seems like Circ is the answer to its cry for help,” said Asad Soorty, director of the vertically integrated denim manufacturer. “Circ has cracked the toughest part of the circular case puzzling innovators worldwide: separating poly cotton blends. It’s almost as if Circ has unlocked a cheat code. We’re Circ-Ready and eagerly awaiting to take this technology to scale.”
Billabong
Billabong has released its most sustainable wetsuit range to date. After years in the making, the surf and lifestyle brand’s “Upcycler” project pools multiple technologies and rolls them into one wetsuit, now available across the brand’s entire performance range.
The initiative combines discarded post-consumer textiles for jerseys and wetsuit liners and repurposes post-consumer discarded wetsuits into raw ingredients for the internal rubber. Billabong has made the “crucial shift” by transitioning all synthetic rubber to an all-natural and FSC-certified rubber formulation sourced from the Hevea brasiliensis tree.
“At Billabong, we design, build and repair all of our products to be as durable and long-lasting as possible,” said Scott Boot, global director of wetsuits at Liberated Brands, Billabong’s core operating partner across North America. “Unfortunately, products eventually do reach a point where they can no longer fulfill their duty, but innovative solutions like upcycling old clothing and wetsuits eliminates the need for new/virgin petroleum fossil fuel-derived materials and prevents them from entering landfills.”
Wetsuits are traditionally made of neoprene, a synthetic rubber derived from the polymerization of chloroprene, and about 25 percent carbon black, a petroleum by-product. But through Billabong’s partnership with Bolder Industries, old neoprene is processed, extracting a type of recycled carbon black known as Bolder Black.
Sway
Ahead of the Summer Olympics, Florence Marine X—the modern outdoor brand inspired by Olympian and world champion surfer John John Florence—is partnering with Sway, a California-based material innovation startup, to trial Sway’s seaweed-based packaging through a limited-edition board short collaboration.
Sway was the first-place 2023 winner of the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize, powered by Lonely Whale. Through the subsequent accelerator program, Sway connected with Florence Marine X, one of the first brands to use Sway’s seaweed-based packaging.
The Sway x Florence packaging collaboration celebrates the release of a custom board short. This marks the first time the two have worked together and showcases Florence’s commitment to innovative materials that help reduce plastic waste and support healthy oceans. The board shorts are exclusive to Florence members and retail for $120.
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