Kathmandu launches ‘BioDown’, the first fully biodegradable jacket of its kind to tackle fashion waste

Piles of rotting landfill might not seem to be the most appealing backdrop for advertising a jacket, but Kathmandu is aiming to tackle the issue of fashion waste head on.

Kathmandu’s BioDown jacket, which is treated to decompose quickly in landfill.

Piles of rotting landfill might not seem to be the most appealing backdrop for advertising a jacket, but Kathmandu is aiming to tackle the issue of fashion waste head on.

The New Zealand company claims its BioDown jacket is the first fully biodegradable jacket of its kind.

“If (this jacket) comes to the end of its life and goes into the right (oxygen-deficient) landfill conditions, it actually biodegrades in three to four years as opposed to 200 years, which is what nylon would normally take,” Reuben Casey, chief executive of Kathmandu, tells The Australian.

The jacket’s outer, thread and tags are made from nylon treated with an additive that breaks down the fabric in landfill, and the filling is traceable duck down.

The zippers are made with a plastic that is treated with similar additives to break them down.

Nylon is one of a number of synthetic fabrics that are environmentally problematic, produced using fossil fuels, shedding microparticles into the environment and then taking hundreds of years to break down in landfill.

Kathmandu’s fully biodegradable BioDown jacket.

The BioDown fabrication aims to address the latter of these.

“It’s not the perfect solution by any means, but it’s a much better outcome than having something that lasts for 200 years,” says Casey. “We use nylon for its durability, so the garment lasts a long time.”

According to Casey, the residue after biodegradation is a non-toxic biomass.

“The way I talk about it with the team is that we’re taking fossil fuel that’s produced into synthetic fibre which is then treated with these microbes which under the right conditions activate to return it to fossil fuel.”

While natural fabrics including cotton, wool and linen are inherently biodegradable, they are not as suitable for all-weather wear as synthetics for items such as down-filled jackets.

Brands large and small are trying to tackle the issues of biodegradability and circularity to deal with the issue of fashion waste.

Fellow New Zealand company Orba launched what it claims is the world’s first fully biodegradable sneaker in late 2021, while German sportswear company Puma this month announced the start of its experimentation in biodegradability with its Re:Suede sneaker.

According to the National Waste Report 2020, each year around 780,000 tonnes of clothing and textile waste ends up in landfill in Australia – the majority of these textiles contain synthetic fibres.

The jacket’s outer, thread and tags are made from nylon treated with an additive that breaks down the fabric in landfill, and the filling is traceable duck down.

While recycling of synthetic fibres is possible, there is not yet a scaled solution in Australia, one of many issues that the government’s National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme is aiming to address along with the Australian Fashion Council and wider industry.

Kathmandu received BCorp certification in 2019, and Casey says the company is aiming for a net-zero waste, circular business model by 2025.

“I think consumers expect businesses to play their part as well as governments, it can’t just be all on one part of society.

“So we have to keep pushing, pushing, pushing on this to try and improve what we do in the hope that it creates a ripple effect for other businesses to raise their standards, too.”

The BioDown jacket will be launched at Melbourne’s Federation Square on Tuesday, with zero-waste advocate Joost Bakker creating an installation from 6000kg of clothing waste — the amount that is said to end up in landfill every 10 minutes in Australia.