The Swiss bag label Freitag presented its first fully recyclable backpack made from just one material on Wednesday; now the first circular backpack that does not need a truck tarpaulin is to go into production.
“It is not enough to develop products that can be recycled. We have to design products holistically, with their end-of-life in mind and ensure that everything that can be recycled actually comes back into the cycle,” explains Anna Blattert, Circular Technologist at Freitag, in a statement.
[Mono]PA6 from only one material
In order to make the recycling process as simple as possible and to keep the real recycling rate as high as possible, Freitag decided to make the new backpack from just one material, which eliminated the truck tarpaulin. According to Freitag, the choice fell “after an intensive material and market analysis” on polyamide 6 – called PA6 for short, and also known as Perlon or Nylon 6.
The advantage of plastic is that it can be used in a variety of ways, is well suited for durable products and is particularly easy to recycle. For Freitag, however, making everything from the same material was easier said than developed and procured.
“We were never concerned with simple carrier bags, but with functional, durable and, last but not least, water-repellent Freitag products made from just one material. We did not expect that the reduction in materials would increase the complexity of this project so much – especially in terms of procurement,” reveals Blattert.
Freitag – together with a partner from Taiwan – had to be inventive itself, because a waterproof material made of polyamide 6 did not yet exist, even after a long period of research. So instead of waterproofing an existing fabric, an attempt was made to produce a three-layer, laminated fabric where the lining, the waterproof membrane and the outer fabric are made of PA6.
New fabric made of Polyamide 6 is waterproof
“After a little more than two years and many rounds of tests, including with the engineering faculty of the Albstadt-Sigmaringen University of Applied Sciences, the time had come: The Freitag fabric made of PA6 was able to convince in tests for durability and water impermeability,” says Freitag.
In order to make the product design circular as well, the bag label worked together with the British designer Jeffrey Siu, who kept two-wheeler culture in mind. “The material polyamide 6 can take very different forms; it can be robust or soft, become a mesh or a waterproof textile. Combining this diversity of a single material in a backpack and at the same time carrying on the core of Freitag with products suitable for cyclists was incredibly exciting and challenging,” says Siu.
It was also important that the functional and durable backpack can be recycled as a whole without having to take it apart. The proportion of other materials has been kept so low that mechanical recycling will be possible, such as the adhesive dots of the lamination, the printing ink of the inner label and the zipper puller have been reinforced with glass fibers.
At KATZ Aarau, Switzerland’s plastics technology platform, the complete prototypes were first chopped up in a cutting mill and then extruded into high-quality PA6 granules. “These tests confirm that Friday- Mono[PA6]backpacks can create new things again”, is the conclusion.
Reusable raw polyamide 6 is made from an old backpack
The confirmation of the mechanical recyclability was reason enough for Freitag, now the production of the first 1500 copies of the Mono[PA6] to commission. They will be made of virgin PA6, i.e. non-recycled material, and are expected to be available in spring 2024 together with a repair concept and a take-back process.
Only when all “life-extending services such as repair and reuse have been exhausted and the product has reached the end of its life cycle does it return to the open material cycle via the Friday take-back service and can be mechanically recycled into reusable raw polyamide 6 ‘ concludes Friday.