biodegradable?

BIODEGRADABLE INSULATION

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE COMES FROM SPORTING GOODS BUSINESS ON LINE EDITION

The scientists and engineers at primaloft have created the brand’s first synthetic insulation that is 100 percent recyclable and completely breaks down in a landfill or the ocean within 394 days.

I do not believe it takes 394 days for it to breakdown. Once you start wearing a garment that has the primaloft fiberfill batting in it, it starts deteriorating as far as the insulation goes. It goes flat.

The technology—four years in development—attracts naturally occurring microbes that live in landfills and in the ocean that then eat the fibers at a faster rate than standard polyester, leaving behind water, methane, carbon dioxide, biomass, expired micro-organisms and organic waste. And primaloft Bio will only biodegrade where these microbes are present, leaving no compromise to the insulation properties when used in the construction of clothing.

Microbes that live in landfills and the ocean are living entities and as such I do not believe for one minute these living creatures are capable of consuming a plastic substance and survive. It is my opinion that a living entity may try anything and if it is not good for the entity it will cease consuming it. I do agree there will be expired organisms that have died from consuming the plastic, and they will become the organic waste. As for the insulating properties not being compromised, there were none to begin with so how could they be compromised when used in clothing.

“…We are intent on providing better answers to the environmental issues facing our industry. … This technology, the most significant global technology launch in the company’s history, provides a solution at the material level, which was key for our vision.” — Mike Joyce, president and CEO, primaloft

I am not so sure mike knows what he is talking about. The company and its predecessor never made a new form of insulation to begin with. They have always sold chopped staple fiberfill which was what I was selling in 1961 when I entered the textile business selling fiberfill batting's to skiwear and outerwear manufacturers. What I sold was at the very least one million times better and far less expensive and that is true today if I were to resurrect the products I sold 50 years ago. As for their vision, they have a distorted uneducated vision of insulation's.

To date, PrimaLoft has extracted more than 84.7 million plastic bottles from landfills and is recycling the material to be used for insulation technologies. By 2020, 90-percent of primaloft insulation products will have at least 50 percent post-consumer recycled content. The brand is on a mission to reduce the company’s footprint through the supply chain with an emphasis on finding solutions for reducing energy, carbon emission reduction, utilizing biodegradable products and plant-based fibers in its products.

Was mike working the grave yard shift to help extract some of the 84.7 million plastic bottles from landfills all over the country? I want to know who was counting them, or was there a counter at each land fill? I am optimistic by the year 2020 primaloft will have gone the way of 3-m’s light loft or it should. That is to say no companies to the best of my knowledge still use lite loft.

“The technology in primaloft Bio leverages progressive end-of-life material science and demands the attention of every apparel brand interested in making a smaller environmental footprint. primaloft Bio is a leader in its potential conversion to energy-producing biogas during the active production lifetimes of most U.S. landfills, and it is setting a new industry standard for synthetic insulation.” – Dr. Charles Lancelot, Materials Technologist

primaloft expects to have the technology ready for market by Fall 2020.

The only standard that primaloft has set in the synthetic insulation industry is marketing in my educated opinion a material that has no value as an insulation when the temperature drops below 50 degrees F. I have in the past come across people with the title “materials technologist” and they ALL work at laboratories they never make anything.

I am astounded by the measures that companies will take to ingratiate themselves to the general public in order to sound like they are doing something wonderful for the environment such as what you have thus far read. Then they talk about sustainability or humane treatment of ducks and geese before they are slaughtered so one can have a down jacket.

If they in the industry are so concerned about sustainability they should make products that not only work but will last. One reader sent me a picture of a Patagonia puffy jacket that was returned to rei that had an original price of $175.00 and was now being sold for $54.32. It was returned because the original purchaser was cold. Seemed to my reader there were many of them returned for the same reason; were they insulated with primaloft?

That just about sums up the outerwear aspect of the outdoor industry, they talk the talk but do not walk the walk when it comes to sustainability or performance. And it is all degradable!!!

Update on boots. I was told about a company that makes boots similar to what i have been selling. I wrote to them about making boots for me. They responded with some interest and that was as far as it has gone. They make their boots in ,Mexico and the USA. At this time an order for 1000 pair is apparently is not enough of an incentive to get started. I am still leaving the boot business.