ERCA SPA, Patagonia® and YKK announced the successful implementation of ERCA’s REVECOL®, a sustainable, innovative chemical agent, in YKK’s dyeing processes at their Vietnam production sites at the end of last month. The development will be on show at the ITMA event in Milan from 8-14 June 2023.
ERCA transforms common waste material, such as exhausted vegetable cooking oil, into an upcycled, certified high performance, safe textile chemical. ERCA has invested in circular practices to take waste material and use them as feedstocks to create new responsible chemical products.
Always searching for new sustainable innovations, REVECOL® caught the attention of Patagonia®. Driven by the goal to utilise non-extractive chemistry in their supply chain wherever possible, the brand teamed up with ERCA and trim
supplier YKK to deploy REVECOL®. Matt Swartz, Patagonia®’s Colour and Material Quality Manager, introduced the ERCA technology to YKK.
We saw an opportunity to build a partnership with an innovator, ERCA, who was pushing the boundaries of sustainability and match them with an existing partner, YKK, that consistently delivers high caliber, quality goods and services. This has
proven to be a dream team. Through thoughtful consideration we designed our approach and conversion to
REVECOL® LV-TS to have an outsized impact from the start. The real success is seeing this go beyond Patagonia® products and spread across supply chain partners, brands and consumers. This is one domino to fall in how we do business to save our home planet.
REVECOL® LV-TS has a carbon footprint that is 72% lower* than the more conventional chemical auxiliaries produced by ERCA. Today ERCA produces a wide range of high-performance chemical auxiliaries made from used vegetable oil that are
ZDHC, bluesign® approved and GRS certified. ERCA is the first company in the world to have GRS certified chemical products, opening the door to circular chemical auxiliaries.
As part of their Sustainability Vision 2050, YKK is constantly working to deploy more sustainable chemical processes in their production. The ability to replace a commonly used dye chemical with a lower impact version was a no-brainer for
YKK’s Vietnam management. REVECOL® is not only more sustainable, it is also more efficient, reducing the use of the dyeing auxiliary by 20% to 30%, thus helping to lower YKK’s overall chemical usage.
You can see these initiatives and developments at the ERCA stand in Hall 5, A201 at ITMA later this week.
