Materials company The Lycra Company makes further steps to release elastane (also often called Spandex or Lycra) from fossil fuels. The company announces that this year it is the bio-derived Lycra Ecomade fiber will introduce.
The Lycra Company has collaborated with the Qore company for this. During a PaneltTalk on the Global Fashion Summit program in Copenhagen, it turned out that the collaboration had certainly been in the making since 2018. Thanks to the cooperation between the two parties, 70 percent of the fiber material, which was previously produced on the basis of fossil fuels, is replaced by fructose from corn. This replacement leads to a reduction in the carbon footprint of the fiber by 44 percent.
The corn is produced in the United States on special facilities of Qore in the state of Iowa. The corn that is harvested is used for various industries. For example, the protein from the corn is used for animal food and the starch for food, but now also for clothing fibers. Qore ensures that as much of the corn grain as possible is used.
CEO Gary Smith from The Lycra Company admits that the other 30 percent of the fiber does not yet consist of bio-derived Materials, but he emphasizes on stage in Copenhagen that this is his wish. “The cooperation with Qore has enabled us to scale up innovation that is renewable and ready to meet the requirements of global fashion brands that strive to achieve their sustainability objectives.” This makes Lycra less dependent on fossil fuels for their fibers.
