What is ECO-friendly polyester fabric？
ECO-friendly polyester is also called recycled polyester fabric(RPET), is woven by recycled polyester yarn, which comes from separated-sliced-spun plastic water bottles.
The fabric is recyclable and can save energy, oil consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Each pound of recycled RPET fabric can save 61,000 BTU of power, equivalent to 21 pounds of carbon dioxide. After Eco-friendly dyeing, coating, and calendaring, the material can also pass MTL, SGS, ITS, and other international standards testing, including phthalate (6P), formaldehyde, lead (PB), Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, nonylphenol, and other environmental indicators are up to the latest European environmental standards and the latest United States environmental standards.
Q & A
Q: Source of raw materials for recycled fabrics
A: Not only coke bottles and mineral water bottles but also pre-consumption and post-consumption sources: The pre-consumption part refers to waste material, waste block, waste yarn, waste cloth, and waste scraps from printing and dyeing clothing waste products. The post-consumption part refers to bottles, used textile garments, and textile products, such as clothing, cloth, carpets, decorations, etc.
Q: What is the health and safety of the recycled materials
A: Except for the difference between raw yarn and recycled yarn, the production process of recycled yarn is purified/melted/filtered to be used safely.
Q: The extraction process of recycled materials
A: Divided into the physical method and chemical method Physical method refers to collecting, cleaning, crushing, purifying recycled waste, and then melting and spinning them to produce fibers. The chemical method utilizes the reversibility of polycondensation by depolymerizing the recovered materials into monomers or polymeric intermediates after separation and purification. It can be condensed into high quality recycled yarn.
Recycled polyester fabric as polyester fabric, whether with the characteristics of standard polyester fabric. Let us see what characteristics of standard polyester fabric. Polyester was invented in 1941. it is an essential variety of synthetic fibers made from petroleum. The polyester chemical name is Polyethylene terephthalate.
Polyester fabrics characteristics:
- High intensity. The short fiber strength is 2.65.7 CN/dtex, and the high tenacity fiber is 5.68.0 CN/dtex.
- Hygroscopicity is low, very easy to dry after washing.
- Crease resistance is higher than other fibers. That is, the fabric does not wrinkle and has good dimensional stability
- Good flexibility. Elastic close to wool, stretching 5% to 6%, can be almost completely restored.
- Impact resistance is 4 times higher than nylon and 20 times higher than Viscose.
- Good wear resistance. Wear resistance is second only to nylon, which is the best wear resistance and better than other natural and synthetic fibers
- Good thermoplastic, poor fusibility.
- Good lightfastness. Light resistance is second only to acrylic fiber.
- Preservatives. It is resistant to bleaches, oxidants, hydrocarbons, ketones, petroleum products, and inorganic acids. It’s resistant to dilute lye and mildew, but the hot lye breaks it down. It also has a strong acid and alkali resistance, UV resistance.
What is the difference in performance between recycled polyester fabric and standard polyester fabric
As a kind of polyester fabric, recycled polyester fabric has the general characteristics of polyester fabric. While the recycled polyester fabric is made of waste. The individual source of raw material is very different. Therefore, the features of recycled polyester fabric are slightly other than ordinary polyester.
The color difference of recycled polyester fabric is larger than that of standard polyester fabric
The quality of regenerated polyester fiber is difficult to control because of its long production process and various raw materials. The fabrics of different batches of regenerated polyester fiber dyed by the same dyeing prescription and the same dyeing process have specific color difference. Even if the same manufacturer, the same model, different products’ batches will also have more significant differences, especially in the strength and color light more obvious.
Therefore, each bobbin yarn’s power should be tested before weaving, and only those yarns that pass the test can continue to be used. Besides, even if the color has been done before, different fabric batches before dyeing are still re-L/D to avoid the final color light difference.
Different dyeing conditions
>>Different staining temperatures
The standard polyester fabric can be set at 135 °C, while that of recycled polyester fabric can be selected at 125 °C. Using disperse dye RUBIES-2GFL (126) under the same conditions, the relative dye-uptake of recycled polyester fiber and standard polyester fabric can be seen that the relative dye-uptake of regenerated polyester fiber is close to 100% at 100 °C, and that of standard polyester fiber at 120 °C, the relative dye-up rate is only comparable to 100%. So the recycled polyester can be dyed at a lower temperature.
>>Different holding times
Because the arrangement of regenerated polyester fiber crystal is not tight, the color of recycled polyester fabric is darker after dyeing at the same time. Therefore, the dyeing time of recycled polyester fabric can be reduced appropriately. It is found that the dyeing time of standard polyester fabric is 30 min and that of recycled polyester fabric is 20 min.
Alkali resistance is worse than standard polyester
Polyester fabric alkali resistance is low, renewable polyester raw materials from waste polyester, Polaroid bottles, etc., its alkali resistance is worse. Therefore, polyester regeneration in the reduction cleaning to pay special attention to the alkaline cleaning solution. When the pH value is higher than 11.0, the strength loss of regenerated polyester fiber is severe. Therefore in the reduction cleaning, to control the pH value does not exceed 11.0.
The color fastness of regenerated polyester fabric is the same as that of common polyester fabric.
With the same specifications of regenerated polyester and standard polyester, the standard polyester fabric was dyed at 135 °C and 30 min. The regenerated polyester knitted fabric was dyed at 125 °C and 20 min. Test the colorfastness to washing, acid perspiration, and light.
From the test results of the color fastness, we can see that the fastness of the regenerated polyester is similar to that of the common polyester.
Summary:
The recycled polyester has better hygroscopicity and permeability and can be widely used in sportswear, suit, coat, jacket, pants, etc. However, the high oil content, rigidity, strength, and heat resistance of the recycled polyester fiber are not as good as that of the standard polyester fiber. The color difference of recycled fabric is more extensive than standard poly fabrics.
Key points for buyers of recycled fabrics
1. The supplier must have the relevant certificate.
Such as GRS, Gots, RWS, RDS. GRS(General Recycled standard) is very popular in the textile. Only products with at least 50% recycled material content meet the product-specific GRS label. GRS certificates can be issued by multiple certification bodies, with Cu, ITS, and USB receiving the most reviews.
2. Require supplier to provide TC proof of transaction
When the supplier has the certification of GRS, Gots, RWS, and RDS, each shipment should apply for TC Trading Certificate from the Certification Body, TC = Transaction Certificate is used to confirm that the production and trading products conform to the corresponding rules
3. With recycled tags
Qualified recyclable fabric will provide product tags to prove that the material is a recyclable product.
