Sustainability takes centre-stage as ITMA countdown begins

The sustainability wave that has started rolling a few years ago, is gathering force, as the countdown for ITMA begins. Come November, the talks in Milan will revolve around sustainability and for the textile industry, which is one of the worst polluters in our planet, there is no looking back.

It is now or never, and the nations that ignore the signals will be left out of the business in textiles. That is for sure! Said Charles Beauduin, President, CEMATEX, even as early as the beginning of 2015, when the ITMA preparations were at feverish speed: ¨As we move deeper into the ITMA year we see everywhere the intensive R&D activity that is always a feature of the run-up to this landmark show. Most of this effort is focused on ´efficiency´ and ´productivity´ – broad terms that often signal the goal of reducing water, energy and material usage and are therefore at the heart of sustainability in the particular conditions of the textile manufacturing industry.¨

¨Sustainability as applied to the sourcing and application of materials is a topic we have been hearing a great deal about in recent years. In the markets for both natural and man-made fibres the origins of fibre have come under scrutiny, leading to the expansion of the organic movement, the establishment of a variety of ´eco´ labels and the increasing application of synthetic fibres made from recycled polymers. In this developing process, textile technologists are also being encouraged to consider what will happen to their products at the end of their lifetime, and recycling of textile materials is one of the topics that will feature in the newly added Hall 8 at ITMA 2015 in November.¨