Updated: Mar 8
Lunar year have come and gone. Congestion remains the bigger issue at the major ports. Shortage of equipment, shortage of drivers continues to plaque the ports. On the horizon, Carriers have figure out how to control their vessel capacity on a global scale. Ocean freight rates skyrocketed 2nd half of 2021 and will continue to keep same pace after CNY. Orders are predicted to return to same level as 2021 and with port congestion continues with no relieve in sight till possibly 3-4th quarter of 2022. Rates will remain one of the bigger challenge for 2022.
Courtesy of Maresk North America Team
Full Circle Economy? Sustainability ?
MECHANIC RECYCLING: FROM PLASTIC BOTTLE TO FASHION
A truly sustainable strategy in the apparel and textile industry is circular and it starts at the design phase. Circularity means to move away from the current take-make-waste system that fast fashion imposes on the industry. The economy as-is takes scarce resources from our planet, produces low-quality products with them that are to be disposed quickly in exchange for something new, something trendier. Resources are wasted and the real, often toxic waste remains, forever. What the world needs is a transformation to a system that looks like nature’s nature.
Looking at things that live and grow on our earth, we see a cyclical movement without a need for landfills. Materials flow, one species is another’s food, plants and bacteria multiply with the energy of the sun and when they die, their nutrients go back to the soil. Repeat. The fashion industry requires a similar approach: one that is not linear but instead closes the loop. There are two paths we can take: recycling or biodegrading. Today, we focus on the former, which means to take waste and revive it into something new.
Looking at textiles, about 69% of clothes are made up of synthetic fibers. This includes materials such as elastane, nylon, polyamide, acrylic and polyester, the latter making up 52% of all fiber production. A recent study that looked at some of the biggest fashion retailers, showed that only 3% of those fashion brands use recycled plastics for their plastic-containing clothes. The result is pressing for mother earth: if usage and disposal continue with the current speed, the ocean will have almost 400 million metric tons of plastic by 2050.
We got used to the properties of plastics that enable the latest best practices in textile industries, so it is quite unlikely that we would switch to materials that are natural and decompose in the earth. This doesn’t have to be a problem, if we make sure to save the valuable capital in pre-consumer and beyond shelf-life products through recycling.
There are again two ways to go: mechanical and chemical recycling. The former collects, sorts, shreds and transforms old plastic into new, without significantly changing the material’s chemical structure. Unfortunately, only pure feedstocks such as pure cotton or one clean type of plastic — those are expensive and not easily accessible, can be mechanically recycled. (Cont')
Another challenging part is to keep the same level of quality. The fibers will shorten through mechanical recycling processes, so a mix with virgin materials is often necessary to achieve to expected textile properties.
Chemical recycling uses chemicals to remold old products into new ones. This method has been more popular in the textiles and fashion business, since it can be applied on any blend maintaining or even improving the quality. To recycle such mixed textiles, components must be separated through dissolving.
One special application of chemical recycling is PET. Instead of taking plastic fabrics, we take
0346 old plastic bottles and turn them into new fashion items. The bottles are cleaned, melted, spun into fibers, and woven into thread. Thanks to the chemical additives, the quality is higher than the original of the plastic bottles. The revived material can be assembled into different types of textiles, due to its versatile properties. Waste recovered, fewer virgin materials required, that is killing two birds with one stone. Considering that the largest soda companies together produce 500 billion PET bottles a year, this is not a bad idea to make the planet healthier.The best way to recycle is to keep everything within the same loop, fabrics for new fabrics, bottles for new bottles, using zero virgin inputs, clean energy, and without exposure to hazardous chemicals. This is an ideal that the industry is working on. In the meantime, we are normalizing the practice of recycling. Step by step, we get to that circular economy.
 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/06/clothes-made-from-recycled-materials-sustainable-plastic-climate  https://www.thersa.org/press/releases/2021/half-of-fast-fashion-entirely-made-of-new-plastics-study  https://goodonyou.eco/brands-using-recycled-plastic/  https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/7296/green-clothing-from-recycled-plastic-bottles  https://medium.com/modefica-global/recycled-pet-is-not-a-solution-for-sustainability-in-fashion-456d4049563c
What’s affects material cost?
Price Indicators :
USD vs NTD : 28.01 NTD to 1 USD up
USD vs RMB : 6.31 RMB to 1 USD up
Crude Oil WTI : 95.76 /barrel Highest since 2014
Nylon /Capralactum : Price up
Polyester Pet : Price remain same
As oil price and commodities jumps due to War in Europe. All initial indicators are showing price will continue to climb for the near short terms.
As war rage on in Eastern Europe. We are seeing the devastation on the civilian’s populations in Ukrainian. While we hope for a peaceful ending to this war soon. We are providing 2 following links to assist the citizen of Ukrainian with humanitarian support. Synthetic Resources will be assisting both organizations with donations to help the humanitarian effort in this country.
As one of my mentor share with this thought . “The Secret to life is giving “. Let's all look and see what we can contribute to people in crisis cause by this war. Let's bring some hope to others in need. People and family that are currently devested by war.