The Embroidery Column


Let’s talk rubbish S


ome of you may be saying I talk rubbish anyway, but a question I get asked often, especially after the Blue Planet aired is ‘whether ETC products are recyclable?’.


The answer is complicated – yes and no. Confused? Well, you should be. The person asking the question is relying on me (the supplier) to help them save the planet. Not to mention a 19-year-old girl who flies around the world using more than her share of CO2 emissions.


Well let’s take for example embroidery backings. Yes, they can be recycled, but only if the correct recycling facility exists and no because no such facility is available in the UK. In the US, these facilities do exist and companies even pay for your non woven waste that they turn into other non woven fabric uses.


| 58 | February 2022


What can you do with your waste from backing?


The answer depends on what the backing is made from. Now you are losing interest in this article as you wanted a quick and simple fix to make yourself feel better and that you are saving the world. Don’t worry, at least you are thinking about it. The big companies that should be leading the way in this, do not even give it a second thought.


If your product is manufactured from polyester or any other poly (plastic) family chemical, then this must be 100% poly to be recycled. Even then, most companies will not accept this as they have no way of knowing the fibre content. So, you have a choice of putting it in landfill – this will take a very long time to breakdown or you can use it as a fuel to burn and create power. If you’re your product is 100%


Jas Purba, managing director of ETC Supplies, takes a look at the ways you can dispose of or recycle your embroidery backings.


viscose, then great. Put it in landfill and it will breakdown only leaving a small residue of the chemicals used to make it into embroidery backing and the conversion process to make viscose fibres.


If your product is made from cellulose fibres then it is biodegradable, Brilliant you say. Subject to the manufacturers’ certification this will breakdown easily in landfill without any harmful residues and even better if the fibres are mostly cellulose it can be recycled with wastepaper and cardboard. So, the answer to your question on recycling is ‘what are your product fibres made from?’.


Let me ask you a question. How can it be better to burn plastic (two thirds of recycled materials collected) than using gas or coal?


www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk


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