Oil and the options

There is little doubt that big changes are taking place in many industries, and among other developments, Procter & Gamble’s announcement that it eventually intends to switch to 100% renewable or recycled materials in all of its products – and 25% by 2020 – suggests the nonwovens sector, or at least that serving consumer disposables, will be significantly affected.
In the debut edition of Sustainable Nonwovens, we asked five key industry specialists to do a little crystal ball gazing and give us their views on what they believe is likely to happen, in terms of the raw materials of the future.

Taking part were:

•    Wolfgang Plasser, General Manager of Lenzing’s Business Unit Nonwovens.
•    Colin Purvis, former Director General of both CIRFS, the European Man-made Fibres Association and EATP, the European Association for Textile Polyolefins from 2000 to 2010. Now of Purvis Consulting SCS.
•    Stephen J. Russell, Chair of Textile Materials and Technology and Director of the Nonwovens Research Group at the University of Leeds, UK.
•    Eamonn Tighe, EU Business Development Manager for NatureWorks.
•    Calvin Woodings, a provider of new product and market development consulting services with numerous patents on fibres and nonwovens, including several on new applications for lyocell fibre.