The Swedish cleantech company OrganoClick that develops and produces environmentally friendly chemical products, has presented a tailor made garment made of the water repellent and fluorocarbon-free fabric OrganoTex  at the seminar called The world’s most sustainable catwalk that took place in Almedalen this week.

The material was made of recycled polyester from 7 Up bottles collected by the Buddhist charity organization Tzu Chi Foundation in Taiwan. The presented OrganoTex-treated garment was designed by Karolina Nilsson.

Water repellent treatments

Water repellent treatments (so called DWR’s) for textiles and garments almost always contain fluorocarbons, a group of chemicals that are bio-accumulative and can cause cancer and are hormone disturbing, the company reports.

OrganoClick has developed an alternative DWR-technology free from fluorocarbons, which is said to contain only non-harmful substances, which are biodegradable.

“By using biodegradable and non-toxic chemistry in our products we can be sure that we don´t cause any environmental problems which the long-chain fluorocarbons do,” commented Robin Grankvist, Business Area Manager for Performance Textiles & Nonwoven at OrganoClick.

Fluorocarbon-free technology

The new fluorocarbon-free technology has been developed by OrganoClick´s scientists and in January 2014 it was implemented in factories at Chang-Ho Fibers, a Taiwanese textile producer.

Since then about 100 textiles has been developed, which are water repellent and free from fluorocarbons, according to the manufacturer. Filippa K was the first fashion brand to start use OrganoClick’s technology in its collection in February 2015.

Recycled polyester

The tailor-made garment shown in Almedalen is made from recycled polyester made by OrganoClick´s Taiwanese partner Chang-Ho Fibers. The raw-material for the fabric originates from 7 Up bottles collected by the Buddhist charity organization.

The fabric is undyed and thereby the original green colour of the bottle has been preserved, which is said to save great amount of chemicals, water and energy during the manufacturing process. The garment has been developed in collaboration between OrganoClick, Chang-Ho Fibers, the Textile University of Borås and TEKO.

“We are very proud to present such a well-designed sustainable garment that combines sustainable chemistry, recycled raw-material and savings in energy. In particular it’s nice that the collection of bottles is for charity through the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation,” commented Mårten Hellberg, CEO of OrganoClick.

www.organoclick.com