#Recycling / Circular Economy

2024-04-04

NILIT goes circular with SENSIL® Flow

NILIT, the global market leader, and a producer of high quality Nylon 6.6 for apparel and owner of the SENSIL® brand, introduces SENSIL® Flow, a new approach to Nylon 6.6 circularity that enables yarn, fabric, and, ultimately, apparel recycling to eliminate waste and further reduce apparel’s environmental impact. SENSIL® Flow is more than just a sustainable performance product. It is an innovative approach that engages the entire supply chain to truly attain circularity through product design and partnership.

NILITs new SENSIL Flow approach engages the entire textile supply chain to reduce waste throughout, increase the use of recycled content, and ultimately enable apparel recycling with long-lasting garments thoughtfully designed using new mono-component premium SENSIL Flow Nylon 6.6. (Graphic: Business Wire)

“Our mission to create a more sustainable textile industry requires a shift in mindset throughout the value chain,” says Ilan Melamed, NILIT General Manager. “SENSIL® Flow represents an out-of-the-box approach that directly enables yarn and fabric recycling and lays the groundwork for apparel recycling and is part of a broader circularity mission for NILIT. Such a significant industry transformation can only be attained through deep partnerships that create innovative products and processes, visionary designs, and a collaborative reconfiguration of the value chain itself.”

“According to industry experts, more than 90 million tons of apparel end up in landfills each year,” says Michelle Lea, NILIT’s Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer. “Only about a fifth of discarded clothing is reused or recycled. The SENSIL® Flow approach eliminates waste throughout the production chain and enables brands to design apparel that lasts longer and, at the end of an extensive life, can be more easily recycled.”

Today, apparel recycling is constrained by the complexity of sorting and separating materials before they can be recycled back to their original components, Garments made with blended fibers and fabrics are especially difficult to recycle.

The SENSIL® Flow approach addresses these obstacles on multiple fronts. First, SENSIL® Flow is a yarn that delivers a mono-component fabric with comfort stretch that can be considered as an alternative to elastane in certain end uses. Engineered to provide inherent elasticity and recovery properties, SENSIL® Flow creates comfortable, stretchable performance fabrics for the casual and lifestyle segments. These beautiful fabrics have excellent color absorption and exquisite 3D effects while at the same time making post-consumer recycling possible. Pure premium Nylon 6.6 yarns, fabrics, and garments are easily recycled using a process that requires no additional chemicals and generates minimal CO2 emissions.

Additionally, NILIT partners with recycling experts to facilitate the efficient recovery and recycling of fabric waste and post-consumer fabrics and clothing that would otherwise end up in a landfill or incinerator. These partners are expected to create high quality recycled Nylon chips that can be reintroduced into NILIT’s Nylon fiber spinning process, resulting in high quality outputs, as well as other engineering plastics. Certificates will validate circularity and provide transparency and accountability for partners committed to building a circular textile economy.

Celebrating 50 years of excellence, NILIT offers a comprehensive collection of premium Nylons designed to empower the apparel industry’s shift to a more sustainable position. NILIT launched industry-first SENSIL® ByNature made using bio-gas from reclaimed landfill waste. SENSIL® BioCare is enhanced with a special technology proven to help lessen the persistence of textile waste in sea water and in landfills. SENSIL® EcoCare, crafted with recycled Nylon, improves circularity and LCA. SENSIL® WaterCare with embedded color saves up to 100% of the water used in the traditional wet dyeing process. Plus, the complete SENSIL® portfolio of products is manufactured according to NILIT’s Total Product Sustainability criteria. These responsible yarns give designers the beautiful, environmentally considerate performance fabrics they need to create apparel collections that respond to consumer demands.

NILIT announces strategic expansions, including a joint venture with Shenma in China

NILIT, the global leader in high-performance Nylon 6.6 fibers for the apparel industry and leader in sustainability, that owns the broadest line of sustainable Nylon 6.6 products, is announcing a new joint venture with Shenma Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shenma), a subsidiary of China Pingmei Shenma Group, a global leader in the industrial Nylon 6.6 market and a leading supplier to the automotive industry around the world.

HKRITA signs MoU with Jeanologia and Looptworks to establish the Green Machine Circular Textile Ecosystem

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) yesterday officially signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with two key global partners, Jeanologia and Looptworks, to establish the Green Machine Circular Textile Ecosystem – a first-of-its-kind collaboration to accelerate the large-scale recycling of blended textiles.

Object Carpet tests production of rPET BCF yarn on Neumag BCF line

In a joint project with Object Carpet GmbH, Denkendorf; the Institute for Textile Technology (ITA), Augsburg; and Next Generation Recyclingmaschinen GmbH (NGR), Feldkirchen, Austria, Barmag investigated the processing of recycled polyester for BCF yarn. The goal was to evaluate the fundamental suitability of 100% recycled carpet material for reuse in carpet yarn production to create a closed-loop system in carpet manufacturing. To date, commercial rPET BCF processes have been based solely on rPET from bottle pellets.

Albany International reports progress with Cyclezyme on industrial textile recycling project

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) reports continued progress in the ongoing project with Cyclezyme AB, a leader in advanced enzyme-based plastic recycling, based in Sweden. The project exemplifies leading edge innovation in materials science, focusing on the development of enzyme-based recycling of industrial textiles primarily consisting of polyester and polyamide, where there is currently a significant lack of effective solutions for circular material flows. The objective of the project is to establish enzymatic processes for depolymerization and recycling of technical textiles and high-performance industrial materials.

The textile industry in transition

Recycling, traceability, eco-design and digitalisation are among the key future challenges facing the European textile industry. The Erasmus+ project Skills4Circularity, involving 21 partners from twelve countries, is investigating the skills required to address these challenges. As the German industry partner, the Industry Association for Finishing – Yarns – Fabrics – Technical Textiles (IVGT) is bringing the industry’s perspective to the project.

2026 general meeting of the Friends and Supporters of RWTH Aachen at ITA

The Friends and Supporters of RWTH Aachen e. V. (proRWTH) looked back on a successful year of support at their 2026 general meeting. The meeting took place at Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen and was combined with a joint session of the Executive Board and the Administrative Board. Before the general meeting began, participants were given a guided tour of ITA, providing them with fascinating insights into current research and development topics in textile engineering.

Cotton ConneXions Insight to Impact brings supply chain leaders together around cotton innovation

Cotton Incorporated’s Cotton ConneXions Insight to Impact brought together more than 300 industry leaders from 140 companies across 10 countries, including more than 45 top global brands and sourcing organizations, underscoring strong global interest in cotton-rich product development, sourcing and supply chain collaboration.

Footwear innovation enabled by warp knitting technology– insights from New Balance

The future of the athletic shoe is increasingly being shaped on warp knitting machines. For KARL MAYER, the footwear industry is one of the most important growth markets – and one of the sectors where innovative textiles can realize their full potential. In his keynote address at the opening of KARL MAYER’s TEXTILE INNOVATION CENTER in Obertshausen in April, Vishnu Prakash Muthusamy, Senior Textile and Materials Engineer at New Balance, explained the opportunities that warp knitting technology opens up for performance, sustainability, and faster development processes, and why textile manufacturers are transitioning from suppliers to development partners.