Avery Dennison Fastener Solutions has launched the Ecotach bio-PP tag fastener, which completely degrades within one year of exposure to soil microorganisms, for the apparel industry.

“Plastic fasteners, which attach price tags and other product information to garments, are on 90% of the approximately 80 billion garments manufactured each year,” explained Dan Riendeau, Senior Marketing Manager, Global Packaging and Retail, Avery Dennison Fastener Solutions. “That adds up to a whole lot of plastic — equivalent to the amount of plastic found in 761,581,156 single-serve, half-liter PET water bottles. Brand owners and retailers increasingly are seeking ways to reduce their environmental footprint, and this product innovation helps to do that.

“As a materials science innovator, we’re excited to grow this product line and offer our customers more options and a solution that is not dependent on consumer recycling behaviors,” Riendeau added.

The new bio-PP fastener is made out of a proprietary blend of polypropylene designed to biodegrade in less than a year once it is in soil, without leaving behind microplastics or other substances. A regular polypropylene fastener can take anywhere from 20 to 30 years to break down and, depending on environmental conditions, a typical plastic bag can take 10 to 20 years to decompose while also leaving behind microplastics.

The launch of the Ecotach bio-PP fastener follows the April launch of the Ecotach line of recycled fasteners from Avery Dennison. “With these new technologies, we’re able to help brands advance circularity initiatives to keep plastic products in use or offer them a sustainable solution that removes single-use plastic altogether,” said Riendeau.

The product and its environmental performance have been verified by Impact Solutions, an independent plastics expert with more than 100 years of combined experience in plastics, failure analysis, and product development.

Avery Dennison Fastener Solutions is a global provider of plastic fastening solutions and systems for the automotive, apparel, retail, consumer packaging, and other industries.