Leading man-made cellulosic fiber (MMCF) manufacturer Tangshan Sanyou, textile-to-textile recycling company Renewcell and environmental non-profit Canopy announced at the Shanghai Yarn Expo their joint commitment to increase production of circular, eco-friendly MMCF from recycled textiles in China. Sanyou has committed to increasing the production of low-carbon circular fiber up to 200,000 tons per year, adjusted to market demand, which would be nearly five times the current Next-Gen production. This is to meet brands’ growing demand for eco-friendly textiles while contributing to China’s ambitious climate goals and the preservation of climate-critical ancient and endangered forests around the world.
“Tangshan Sanyou is committed to collaborating on Canopy’s goal to save forests, and China’s goals for climate neutrality, while continuing to provide high-quality products to our clients,” commented Dongbin Zhang, Deputy General Manager of Tangshan Sanyou Xingda Chemical Fibre Co., Ltd.
“Canopy’s work to boost the production of low carbon, forest-friendly textiles at the pace and scale needed to address climate change and preserve biodiversity is made possible only through partnerships with forward-thinking companies like Tangshan Sanyou and Renewcell,” said Nicole Rycroft, Executive Director of Canopy. “Sanyou’s leadership in building a supply of lower-impact, Next Gen textiles comes at a time when brands both globally and domestically are embracing new climate regulations whilst looking to fill the shrinking fiber basket with more sustainable, Next Gen options.”
More than 300 million trees are cut down each year for fashion fabrics like rayon/viscose, many of them in the most climatically and biodiversity-critical forests on earth. Instead of cutting down trees to make T-shirts, dresses and yoga pants, Next Gen solutions use low-carbon alternative materials that would otherwise end up in the trash – from discarded textiles to wheat straw to food scraps. Compared to traditional wood fiber, Next Gen Solutions have about five times less impact on biodiversity, 95 to 130 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, 88 to 100 percent less land use and four tons less CO2 per ton of product.
“Commitments like the one made by Tangshan Sanyou today are what will help the MMCF industry scale up the use of innovative fibers like Circulose®, and help solve two problems at once: sourcing pressure on forests and textile waste,” said Patrik Lundstrom, CEO of Renewcell. “We are excited to work with our colleagues at Tangshan Sanyou to meet their clients’ need for innovative, circular MMCF textiles.”
According to Canopy, Tangshan Sanyou’s commitment and efforts in recycling and reusing textile waste will help align China’s textile sector with carbon-doubling goals and achieve China’s visionary plan to recycle a quarter of its textile waste by 2025, turning it into two million tons of recycled fiber annually.
Photo by Arnaud Mesureur on Unsplash
