By eliminating PU, a hurdle in textile recycling, “DynaPel” aligns with circular systems, facilitating garment recyclability. Terry Tsukumo, Vice President of Product Strategy, emphasizes: “By employing ‘Empel’ technology, we can achieve the robust water protection expected from YKK products while eliminating the challenges that PU poses to recycling systems.” Conventional chemical and mechanical garment recycling systems cannot process the PU film commonly used on water-repellent zippers, necessitating the removal of zippers from garments before recycling. This additional processing step often deters recyclers from accepting garments with PU zippers, resulting in unnecessary waste. “Empel” technology uses advanced green chemistry devoid of PFAS and a specialized manufacturing process that allows the chemistry to penetrate the yarn and encapsulate it with a water-repellent layer through molecular cross-linking. The molecular cross-linking creates an extremely durable layer that is highly resistant to abrasion and invisible to the eye. “DynaPel” marks a sustainable stride in zipper technology. Moreover, the zipper has been nominated for the Best New Product Award at the ISPO Textrends competition, marking a significant step toward sustainable, high-performance water-repellant zippers.

*About GTT (Green Theme Technologies): Green Theme Technologies, Inc. is a textile innovation company with the mission to create products that out-perform existing technologies while eliminating water usage and pollution. Click here for more information.