Revolutionary fabric assists China with major waste stream

June 13 2012

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Revolutionary fabric assists China with major waste stream.

From the company that transformed Starbucks coffee sacks into high quality upholstery fabric, The Formary leads the way again with another groundbreaking fabric.

Developed with funding from Beef and Lamb and with assistance of Massey University Textiles Department and WoolYarns Lower Hutt, The Formary has created a new fabric from a blend of waste rice straw and New Zealand strong wool.

China produces approximately two hundred million tonnes of rice per year resulting in vast amounts of waste rice straw from the harvest. Burning of the unused straw not only affects air quality in China but also impacts on individual health and wellbeing.

Converting the waste straw into textiles fits with the Chinese Government’s current Five Year Plan, specifically their target to reuse seventy five percent of rice straw generated.

The Formary’s solution of blending straw with wool has created a hardwearing and beautiful fabric that not only provides a valuable solution to a key waste stream within China, but also takes New Zealand strong wool into the rapidly expanding sustainable market.

“With the world’s population predicted to swell by another two billion in the next forty years, it is anticipated that farmers will need to grow fifty percent more food to meet population demand. Our concept of creating a range of fabrics as a bi-product of food crops reduces reliance on crops grown for their fibre alone, freeing up precious arable land for food production. This increases the value of the crop as well as the productivity of the land.” Says Bernadette Casey, Managing Director of The Formary.

Building on relationships developed last year while on the Wellington City Council’s Mayoral Delegation to China, The Formary also attended the Council recent delegation in June. Presenting the Rice Straw fabric samples to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing. “We could not have achieved the level of engagement we had in China without the assistance of Wellington City Council. Our meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing was very successful. A State Owned rice company have expressed the desire to commercialise our fabric at the next rice harvest in October” says Bernadette Casey.

ENDS

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