The Glaukos project aims to develop innovative and environmentally sustainable textile fibres and coatings to significantly reduce the carbon and the plastic footprint of clothing and fishing gear. The fibres’ sustainability performance such as biodegradability and bio-recyclability is under research and the goal is to enhance them significantly.
The fibres’ technical performance with increased bio based content and reconciled product characteristics ensures the effective and long-term use of the fibres in the two application areas of fishing gear and clothing. The sustainability performance such as biodegradability and bio-recyclability will be matched to end-user requirements of the 21st century.
In detail, Glaukos builds on two concepts in polymer design to mitigate pollution caused by fibre fragments:
- triggerable biodegradability as a key concept, to increase the degradation rate of the (micro)plastics from Glaukos materials compared to conventional (micro)plastics, and
- bio-recycling as a sustainable end-of-life solution, to incentivise collection of the textiles at the end of their life.
By increasing the bio based content of the Glaukos fibres with European bio-based feedstocks, the supply chain distance will be substantially reduced resulting in a disruptive production process of high volume.