Nonwovens Made of Circular Polypropylene a First for Hygiene Applications

Chemicals giant Sabic is collaborating with Fibertex Personal Care, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of spun-bond nonwovens for the hygiene industry, to create nonwovens using high-purity recycled plastics from Sabic’s TruCircle portfolio. This will be the world’s first nonwovens range based on recycled plastics in the hygiene industry, said Sabic.

The new nonwovens will be made from Sabic’s circular polypropylene, using feedstock derived from previously used plastics, certified under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus system. The material is part of the Sabic PureCares portfolio of polypropylene for personal hygiene applications that was introduced at the beginning of this year. The certified circular PP material is created from post-consumer mixed plastics that have been broken down into their molecular building blocks and then re-polymerized to create virgin plastics. The new material can be used as a drop-in solution while meeting brand owner requirements for purity and consumer safety for hygiene applications.

Fibertex Personal Care will provide certified circular nonwovens to its customers through its Comfort, Elite, Dual, and Loft product range. These certified nonwovens can be adopted in downstream processes without compromising convertibility, product properties, or performance of the final product, said the company.

“This is an important step forward in supporting our sustainable strategy and an important step in development and expansion of a supply chain for bio-based and circular polymers,” said Mikael Staal Axelsen, Group CEO, Fibertex Personal Care.

Sergi Monros, Vice President of Performance Polymers & Industry Solutions for Petrochemicals at Sabic, said, “With Fibertex Personal Care’s expertise in nonwovens, brand owners can take full advantage of our innovative TruCircle solutions and PureCares product portfolio and integrate them into their hygiene applications. We are working together to find further solutions to drive forward circularity in the hygiene industry.”