• The technology behind loopamid enables recycling of polyamide 6 discarded textiles into new, virgin-quality synthetic fibers and materials
• Zara launches today a jacket made only from loopamid®, based on 100% textile waste from garments, after collaborating with leading manufacturing companies to incorporate loopamid into all the different elements of the product

BASF has developed loopamid, a 100% textile-to-textile recycled polyamide 6. Inditex has turned the material into a capsule jacket.

Ludwigshafen, Germany / Arteixo, Spain – 23 January, 2023 – Today, BASF and Inditex jointly announce a breakthrough in their efforts for boosting recyclability in the textile industry. With the launch of loopamid ®, a polyamide 6 (PA6, also known as nylon 6) made from 100 percent textile waste, BASF is providing the first circular solution for nylon apparel made entirely from textile waste. Zara has turned the material into a jacket made from 100 percent loopamid, available worldwide as of today. Following a “design for recycling” approach, all parts, including fabrics, buttons, filling, hook and loop and zipper are made from loopamid. With loopamid, BASF has developed an innovative solution to improve circularity in the fashion industry and recycle polyamide 6 textile waste. Due to its capability to tolerate all fabric mixtures like PA6 and elastane, the cutting-edge technology behind loopamid allows textile-to-textile recycling of post-industrial and post-consumer textile waste. The fibers and materials can be recycled over multiple cycles. At the same time, the material characteristics are identical to those of conventional virgin polyamide. “BASF has reached an important milestone towards circularity in the fashion industry and pioneered an approach to close the loop for nylon textiles,” said Dr. Ramkumar Dhruva, President of BASF’s Monomers division. “Our loopamid has the potential to revolutionize the PA6 market for the better. We are in the process of scaling up our technology to serve our customers with commercial quantities. The capsule jacket together with Inditex is the proof that circularity is possible, and we are eager to further drive the sustainable transformation of the textile industry.”

Inditex has partnered with other leading groups in the clothing manufacturing industry to seamlessly integrate loopamid into various garment components, including fabrics, zippers, buttons, fillings, hook and loop fasteners, and sewing threads. ModaRe, a take-back program operated by the charity organization Caritas, classified, sorted and provided discarded textiles as feedstock. The Italian company RadiciGroup has been working in the process of transforming loopamid polymer into various types of yarn with different characteristics. The multinational Japanese fastening products company YKK and multinational Velcro companies have also played crucial roles in utilizing loopamid polymer to create plastic components for zippers and snap buttons, and hook and loop fasteners. Uniter from Spain, Tessitura Vignetta from Italy and Freudenberg and Gütermann from Germany have also participated in this project to develop other garment components such as inner labels, filling materials and sewing threads using loopamid.

Javier Losada, Inditex’s Chief Sustainability Officer, added, “Driving innovation is key to advancing towards a more responsible industry. This collaboration is a great example of how, by collaborating all together, we can use the new technology to transform textile waste into a new resource. This project is also a first step to move towards a circular solution, as the industry still needs to boost new collecting and recycling capacities in order to close the loop and scale recycling for post-consumer waste.”

The collaboration of BASF and Inditex is based on a joint journey – both companies are following ambitious sustainability goals. By the year 2030, BASF aims to double its sales generated with solutions for the circular economy to €17 billion. To achieve this, the company is concentrating on three action areas: circular feedstocks, new material cycles and new business models.

Inditex aims to have 100% of its textile products to be made exclusively from materials with a smaller environmental footprint by 2030. As part of this commitment, the Group expects to have 25% of the textile fibers made from next-generation materials that do not yet exist at an industrial scale, 40% of conventional recycled materials and 25% of organic and regenerative fibres. Polyamide 6, commonly known as nylon 6, is a type of synthetic polymer that is widely used in various applications due to its excellent mechanical properties and versatility. BASF is one of the leading manufacturers of polyamide 6 and its precursors, with production sites in Europe, Asia and North America.

SPAR has organised and evaluated its first carbon awareness event. The company will offset the carbon footprint of its partner event of the Budapest Wine Festival by planting 392 autochthonous fruit trees.

“Our world is rather fragile, so we must take all reasonable efforts to protect it as much as we can. For many years, SPAR Hungary has been consciously striving to ensure that the operation of its stores, as well as the production and distribution of its products and the organisation of its events are all guided by this principle. That is why at this year’s Budapest Wine Festival, SPAR’s partner event has been planned with the smallest possible carbon footprint. We voluntarily compensate for the emissions generated by organisation, energy consumption, travel of guests and meals by planting native fruit trees,” summarised Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

SPAR’s partner, the GreenDependent Institute, accurately calculated the carbon footprint of the event based on the number of participants, the duration of the event, the number of travels to and from the event, the food, drinks, service, printed materials, the amount of paper used in organisation, and the energy used at the event (for lighting and sound). Thus, the carbon footprint of the event was 8.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted, mostly from catering (more than 60%), and 38% from travel. Three quarters of the 440 participants travelled to the event from Budapest, and how they travelled (by car, public transport, bicycle, on foot, etc.) was also assessed.

Already in the organisation phase of the event, SPAR Hungary made participants aware of how to be carbon-conscious. For example, by trying to avoid generating food waste by putting only the necessary portion on their plate and using public transport to get to the venue, or by sharing the use of cars. The company also sought to reduce environmental impact by sourcing ingredients for the food served at the event from local producers to support shorter supply chains, and by also sourcing beverages from domestic partners. Dishes were prepared on site, eliminating the need to transport and package food separately, and reusable cutlery and glasses avoided the build-up of additional waste. Waste was collected selectively, untouched food was distributed to those in need with the help of the Hungarian Food Bank Association, and the remaining waste was transported and processed by Biofilter.

The 8.5 tonnes of CO₂ emissions from the event, calculated by the GreenDependent Institute, were voluntarily offset by the Hungarian retail chain by planting native fruit trees. According to calculations of the experts this would require 392 tree seedlings over five years, which the green organisation distributed to the gardens of educational and welfare institutions in cooperation with SPAR Hungary. By offsetting the carbon footprint of the event this way, and by planting indigenous trees from the “Fairy Garden” (Tündérkert) orchard in Pórszombat, a gene conservation site in the Zala County, the company has contributed to the conservation of biodiversity and local varieties.

70% less plastic than before is used in the new innovative vacuum-formed film packaging of SPAR’s popular S-BUDGET pork mince. The saving on packaging also enables the Hungarian retail chain to reduce the consumer price of the product.

“It is a primary objective of our company to use less plastic in the packaging of our goods, while also complying with the strictest food safety and storage standards. With our environmental measures taken, we saved more than 550 tonnes of plastic packaging in 2022. This figure could now increase further as one of our most popular meat products, the 500g SPAR S-BUDGET pork mince is now available in INTERSPAR stores in film packaging with protective gas instead of the previously used plastic tray. Following the trial period until next February, we aim to switch to flow pack packaging for this product in all our stores, provided that customer feedback is positive,” explained Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

The new flow pack packaging of S-BUDGET pork mince in 500 g packs, produced in the company’s proprietary Regnum meat-processing plant, now uses 70% less plastic and a protective gas film with absorbent paper instead of a tray. The volume of plastic used is less than a third of the previous packaging, only 4.95 grammes. With the new packaging, SPAR is able to sell this mince for 899 HUF instead of the previous price of 1049 HUF, now available in INTERSPAR hypermarkets.

Flow pack technology is safe, preserves the freshness of the meat and uses only packaging material that meets the stringent international quality assurance standards of SPAR. Since the S-BUDGET pork mince is one of the most popular products of the retail chain (with nearly 40 000 packages transported from the meat-processing plant and reaching store shelves every month), this innovative packaging allows SPAR to significantly reduce its environmental impact.

Created in 2021, the Startup’s core driver is to produce products that make a significant contribution to the shift to carbon neutrality.

They are working on an “Upgrade Spray-coating” solution that works by absorbing light that is not useful for solar panels and emitting it in a spectrum that the solar panel can use, thereby significantly increasing their energy production immediately after application. Their solution can also be applied to solar panels already installed.

Lanus Solar contributes to increasing sustainability by optimising the use of solar energy by increasing carbon neutrality, reducing the environmental footprint and increasing the uptake of green energy.

They join BCSDH to increase their sustainability knowledge, participate in professional programs, and meet and share experiences with the membership.

Power lines and poles to disappear from Natura 2000 sites in the Buda Landscape Protection Area

The Buda Landscape Protection Area, also known as the “lungs of the capital”, is crossed by the E.ON backbone network built in the 70s and 80s, which provides electricity to the surrounding settlements – Nagykovácsi, Máriaremete, Remeteszőlős, Solymár, Pesthidegkút, Pilisszentiván, Pilisvörösvár, Piliscsaba – and more than 40,000 consumers.

In response to the growing consumer demand, E.ON has completely renewed the Solymár substation, which serves these most energy-intensive settlements in the region, and has also started to dismantle part of the medium-voltage network in the surroundings and protected forests and replace it with underground cables.

In the context of the project, E.ON is removing and replacing more than 450 poles and 50 kilometres of overhead lines with underground cables in Natura 2000 areas and residential areas in the Buda Landscape Protection Area. The installation of an underground cable network will significantly reduce the exposure of the area’s electricity supply to the forces of nature, thus ensuring safer operation. The upgraded sections will eliminate storm damage and power outages caused by falling trees and will eliminate the need for felling in residential areas and continuous opening management in protected forests.

In addition to operational safety, underground cable is a major step forward from a nature conservation perspective. The dismantling of the medium-voltage network can significantly increase the area covered by trees by several hundred hectares, and the artificially straight lines of the openings can be healed by self-reforestation or by planting native tree species.

The complete renewal of the Solymár substation and the development of the electricity network with underground cables by 2025 will cost more than HUF 2 billion. The investment will be partly financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) with pre-financing and support from the Hungarian Government, and partly self-financed by the E.ON Hungaria Group.

E.ON is also taking sustainability aspects into account in the further use of the hundreds of tonnes of dismantled raw material: the 50-60 year old iron poles removed from their former locations will be cast in, the pole switches installed a few years ago will be reused, and the dismantled cables will be recycled as aluminium.

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