Cork-A-Tex - yarn from recycled cork
Cork-A-Tex is a project that uses recycled cork to create a yarn with high incorporation of cork. Cork is a 100% natural material made from the oak cork trees which can be recycled after use as cork stoppers in wine bottles.
However, during the production of cork stoppers waste is produced which is usually burnt.
The project recognizes the useability of this waste as a bio-based renewable, natural and recyclable material. It turns the cork waste into a paste to coat knitted, woven and non-woven textile yarn for clothes, home textiles, transports and many other applications. The new and disruptive yarn has many benefits, such as a new natural comfort feeling, better strength, low abrasion and pilling, elongation and tear resistance to washing and drying, among other features.
The project is a cooperation between cork-making company Sedacor, Portuguese textile companies Têxteis Penedo and CITEVE, and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.
©Cork-A-Tex
The project has reached the following results:
- preserving the cork oak forest and industry, capturing more than 14 million tonnes of CO2 per year
- Product Innovation Award: Inova Textil 2015 (Portugal), Sustainability Award at the Itechstyle Summit 2019 (Portugal), Product Innovation Award at Portugal Home Week and Techtextil Innovation Award for new material in 2019 (Germany)
- breaking frontiers on the use of cork on textiles as never before, contributing to the circular economy, satisfying the growing need for better, innovative and sustainable textile products worldwide
- setting up the industrial company “Cork-a-tex”: new production machinery and facilities producing exclusively this new product are now becoming real.