modebranchen.NU NU International no. 1 January 2020 Fashion Part | Page 27

IMPROVED CO 2
BALANCE BY USING
Grass Coat
Hangers
BY HELLE MATHIESEN
Each year billions of new coat hangers are
used for transport and presentation. Million
tons of plastics, timber and metal are pro-
cessed for this purpose. Considering the
origin of material and the product lifecycle
the environmental impact is remarkable. The
re-using or re-cycling ratio is unfortunately
quite low.
Bio composites are an interesting alternative
to traditional hanger materials. Cortec, coat
hanger manufacturer based in Germany,
launched its line “Corteco” which is using
an innovative composite consisting of 50%
regional grass fibers and 50% recycled con-
sumer plastics. The independent German
IfaS Institute for material sciences certified
a CO 2 reduction of up to 64% compared to
common materials.
- The grass fibers reduce the general use of
crude oil and make the hanger quite durable.
No harmful substances, no overexploitation
of forests, no journey to landfills. We de-
signed the hangers for long term use and
installed a re-using cycle. Hangers shall be
kept in the system as long as possible and
at the end of the product lifecycle we recy-
cle the material to new hangers. It is a daring
approach for a hanger manufacturer but the
time is now if we want to drive the change,
says Torsten Schmitt, GM at Cortec to NU.