Natural Fibers Transform Absorbent Products Market

The proliferation of new brands and product formats within disposable categories have led to some interesting new developments on the raw material front. Not only are brands using alternative fiber formats to provide improved absorbency and comfort to their products, they are touting the use of these materials to showcase their sustainability focused efforts.

A number of factors are contributing to this change in the product landscape. Consumers are becoming more aware of ingredients and their impact both on their overall health; consumer products companies and major retailers are demanding more sustainable product formats and government regulation is demanding less plastic-focused waste.

This summer the U.K. is poised to become the first country to ban wet wipes containing plastic, citing research that showing that plastic wipes break down into microplastics over time, which can be harmful to human health and can disrupt ecosystems. Lesgislators feel that banning plastic-containing wipes will reduce plastic and microplastic pollution and reduce the volume of microplastics entering wastewater treatment sites when wrongly flushed—meaning beaches and waterways will benefit from the ban.

Responses to the public consultation showed overwhelming support for the proposed ban – which will be introduced via secondary legislation under the country’s Environmental Protection Act 1990 – with 95% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with the proposals. Within the nonwovens industry, support is also favorable.

EDANA, the leadering global trade association for the nonwovens industry and a representative of many major wet wipes manufacturers in the U.K., supports the legislation.

“Reducing plastic in the environment is an extremely important goal and this needs to be done whilst also ensuring that parents, carers, businesses, and the NHS can continue to make use of the valuable functions that wet wipes provide regarding hygiene, anti-viral qualities post-COVID-19, helping with care, parenting, and industrial processes,” the association said in a prepared statement. “Reducing plastic also needs to be done in a way that achieves its environmental objective while avoiding unnecessary U.K. manufacturing job losses in communities across the UK, which in turn could lead to loss of investment, competitiveness, and innovation.”

Beyond the U.K., the European Union’s Single Use Plastics (SUP) directive and similar efforts in some U.S. states and Canada are also having some influence on nonwoven product designs.

“These types of regulations have opened opportunities for all the natural fibers. Cotton specifically has been around for a long time as the natural fiber of choice,” says Lewis Barnhardt, president cotton manufacturer Barnhart Manufacturing. “There are brands committed to natural fibers and the sustainability messaging. There is much more interest and development work occurring with cotton and other natural fibers,” says Lewis Barnhardt, president of cotton manufacturer Barnhardt Manufacturing.

Even before the passage of the new legislation, over half of consumer wet wipes on the market in the U.K. today are already plastic-free as major retailers like Boots and Aldi have already banned thei sale of plastic-containing wipes in their stores. At Aldi alone, the ban has removed an estimated 7000 tons of unnecessary plastic from the system, according to the retailer.

Major wipes makers are also focused on limiting the use of plastics in their products. Last year, Johnson & Johnson’s Neutrogena brand partnered with Lenzing’s Veocel fiber brand to transition its makeup removal wipes to 100% plant-based fibers. The wipes now use Veocel branded fibers made with renewable wood from sustainably managed and certified forests. and can be composted at home in 35 days, eliminating waste which ends up in a landfill.

“Our co-branding partnership with Neutrogena showed how we are committed to expanding the visibility of Veocel in the marketplace and providing consumers with simple, environmentally-friendly solutions,” says Anna Lasinger-Guserl, director of product management, Branding and Sustainability, Lenzing.

In the nonwovens industry, the Veocel certification criteria, introduced in July 2019, enables consumers to easily identify personal care products that are made from 100% cellulosic and biodegradable2 fiber materials by simply referring to the Veocel brand logo on the packaging. This certification is also applicable to our co-branding beauty, home and personal care products.

“Over recent years, there has been a noticeable trend of consumers becoming more aware of their environmental impact, which is influencing their purchasing decisions, particularly with single-use items like many nonwoven products,” Lasinger adds. “As a result, the industry is increasingly incorporating plastic-free alternatives to fossil-based fibers in their offerings. In addition to this, regulations like the EU directive to reduce single-use plastics is also accelerating the switch to products, materials and processes that have less of an impact on the environment.”

Partnerships in Play

According to India cellulose fiber manufacturer Birla, designing a sustainable and plastic-free alternative product requires careful consideration of performance, cost and scalability. It involves addressing various aspects, including: comparing the essential performance criteria of the alternative product with the one currently used by consumers, ensuring that claims, such as being plastic-free, can be verified and substantiated and choosing materials that are cost-effective and readily available in large quantities to replace the majority of plastic-based products.

“The crucial factor in this transition is the selection of appropriate raw materials or fibers,” says Rahul Bansal, head global business development & AVP Sales—Nonwovens. “Over the past five years, our R&D and application development teams have been dedicated to creating new functional fiber solutions tailored to specific applications. Our development objective has been crystal clear: the new fibers must be sustainable, with minimal or no additional cost, and must deliver the desired performance in end products.”

Birla has successfully integrated functional sustainable fibers into various applications, including flushable wipes, absorbent hygiene products top sheets and secondary top sheets, liquid filtration, battery separators, and flame retardant mattresses. Additionally, the company has collaborated with companies like Indian fem care start up Sparkle on the development of a plastic-free sanitary pad as well as  Ginni Filaments, a nonwovens producer, and Dima Products, a hygiene manufacturer, which have allowed the company to efficiently convert its new fibers into end products.

The study also found that the presence of polypropylene in blended nonwoven wipes did not hinder the biodegradation of the cellulose component. This suggests that even when combined in a single product, the cellulosic component can still degrade independently, while the polypropylene remains undegraded.

 

“These results reaffirm that fibers found in these cellulosic and cotton-based products can biodegrade easily in various environments,” adds Mary Ankeny, vice president of product development and implementation operations at Cotton Incorporated. “Our research highlights the importance of choosing natural fibers over synthetic alternatives to reduce the accumulation of non-biodegradable waste in our environment in order to promote a more sustainable future.”

This research studied the biodegradation of cotton microfibers, commercially available flushable wipes, polypropylene-based nonwoven wipes with a cellulose component, and toilet tissue. The biodegradation was tested in wastewater treatment plant solids, seawater, and lake water using standard methods in an ECHO respirometer. The experiments continued until carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions plateaued, and the final extent of biodegradation was calculated based on the theoretical CO2 production derived from elemental analysis.