To Become a Leader in Eco-friendly Fiber Market
Hyosung TNC, one of the leading textile companies in Korea, has started a project to develop biodegradable fibers after successfully recycling fibers and commercializing a bio-fiber.
Since the second quarter of this year, the company has been conducting research and development on biodegradable recycled PET yarn through cooperation with the Textile Research Group of the Hyosung R&D Center, which is affiliated with Hyosung Corp.
Biodegradable recycled PET yarn is a fiber that decomposes within a few years when buried under certain conditions. As synthetic fibers extracted from petrochemical-based raw materials take up to 100 years to decompose, it is evaluated as an eco-friendly fiber.
In Korea, Huvis is the first company that has successfully commercialized biodegradable fibers. Last year, the company commercialized Ecoen, a biodegradable polyester fiber, for the first time in Korea. Clothing made with Ecoen is biodegradable and decomposes within three years under a certain temperature and humidity when landfilled.
Hyosung TNC plans to focus on the development of biodegradable yarn based on its successful development of recycled yarn and bio yarn.
The company introduced Regen in 2008, the first polyester fiber in Korea made from recycled plastic bottles. It has since been steadily expanding its sales channels by supplying the fiber to producers of clothing, bags, and outdoor goods.
In 2020, it developed a bio-fiber using raw materials extracted from corn instead of petrochemical raw materials. In August this year, Hyosung TNC announced that it succeeded in commercializing bio-spandex for the first time in the world. Raw materials extracted from corn have been used for production of packaging paper, cosmetics, and liquid detergents, but they have never been applied to high-functional textile products such as spandex due to technological limitations.