The Future Development of Flushable Wipes

Flushable wipes, including adult toilet wipes, baby hygiene with wipes and women wipes, the use of three parts has been in a growing trend.

According to investment research firm Smithers Apex latest market research report, by 2018, the market demand for dispersible wipes is estimated at 55720 tons, sales of about 1.4 billion US dollars.

The increase in demand for dispersible wipes is mainly due to the convenience, hygiene, functionality, cost and consumer awareness of environmental protection, but where is the future direction of development of wipes, the direction of development in the next few years, and the nonwovens What kind of efforts should the base fabric manufacturers make?

In this regard, the British market research firm Smithers Apex report summarized as the following four points:

1, change the non-woven fabric on the wipes with non-woven fabric base change is imperative, due to the specific structure of the existing sewage treatment system, if the wet towel size exceeds a certain size will cause clogging, this phenomenon In the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom have occurred, so the relevant government departments issued a number of unrealistic laws and regulations. On the other hand, the oil-based unreacted fiber prices are rapidly increasing, so close to or exceed the price of degradable fibers, such as viscose and cotton fiber, previously because the price of degraded products is high and consumers do not want to pay the problem is no longer exist, Although the market price of wood pulp is close to the highest in history, but still 50% cheaper than the oil base, although the wood pulp, viscose and cotton fiber prices will increase over time, but some experts predict the growth of oil-based fiber prices The speed will certainly be more than non-petroleum-based fibers, these factors will prompt non-woven manufacturers in the selection of fiber to re-consider.

2, increase the amount of wood pulp and cotton fiber Smithers Apex company reported that the second point is added in the wipes non-woven wood pulp and cotton fiber use, the use of wood pulp is conducive to reducing costs, air into the network method With the advantage of using a higher proportion of wood pulp, the amount of wood pulp fiber now commercialized in clean paper has reached 85-90%. The early spunlace and air-laid + spunlace process can only use 50% wood pulp, and now 60-70% wood pulp content of the spunlace cloth has also been commercialized, using Suominen Hydraspun technology, through the wet + spunlace Of the use, for private brand toilet wipes in wood pulp content can reach 80%. The use of wood pulp in the wipes is the most environmentally friendly method, and cotton fiber with air into the network and spunlace made wet wipes are still loved by consumers. In addition, manufacturers have also noted that cotton fiber and other fibers such as viscose fiber and polypropylene fiber prices are gradually narrowing the difference, renewable cellulose fiber sustainable development is better, and cheaper than the new cotton fiber, with more The use of the manufacturer, it is expected that the application of regenerated cellulose fibers in the wipes will be more and more.

3, from small size can be washed and transferred to the real can be scattered wet wipes are less than a certain size can be directly washed away by the sewage treatment system, turned to the true sense of the scattered. 2001 Kimberly-Clark in order to increase the sale of wet wipes, first introduced Cottonelle Rollwipes adult toilet wipes, is the first market can be scattered wet wipes, when the other brands on the market and some private brands are all small size can be washed Wet wipes, but Rollwipes did not increase the number of sales, the market reaction is dull, a few years later the product faded out of the market. In addition to being able to disperse, the Rollwipes wipes are sold in roll form, and there are many problems in this form, such as technical issues that need to be formulated for slicers, and where marketing is not done. When the Rollwipes sales did not achieve the desired results, Kimberly-Clark would be removed in the form of a package, replaced with a barrel-shaped sheet, and changed to a small size of the removable form, corresponding to other brands on the market. Incredibly, in the various uses of wipes, after a modest marketing policy, adult toilet wipes sales continue to increase, has now become a high value and growth products. The difference between the wipes and the 2001 is that all brand manufacturers such as Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble and some of the mainstream brands of adult toilet wipes are flushable, rather than small-sized flushable, To meet the INDA / EDANA guidance rules, it is clear that this change is the role of government regulations rather than the actual needs of consumers.

4, spunlace jacquard instead of hot embossing in the past, for the thin non-woven surface pattern is usually used to achieve hot embossed, because the spun jacquard will lead to slower production speed, jacquard quality is not high and the need for investment in jacquard equipment. Polypropylene fibers are often used by most nonwovens manufacturers because of frequent price fluctuations, accelerating the use of spunlaced jacquard nonwovens from another angle. Since the spun jacquard does not use hot embossing between the fibers produced by the thermal bonding (due to the thermal melting of the fibers resulting in the combination between the fibers in the sewage treatment system is difficult to separate), and thus can disperse the wipes Is a very good choice, and now Spunlaced nonwovens can use almost all of the natural fiber, so that the degradation and disposal of products can be possible.

As the world's environmental pollution is increasing and consumer awareness of environmental protection continues to increase, when the economic crisis gradually eliminated, the consumer began to rational purchase. Developed countries such as the United States, Western Europe and Japan and some areas of developing countries, consumers are also advocating the concept of sustainable development, and from the purchase action to support. Dispersible wipes are a sustainable product that can be used as a useful soil improver after the sewage treatment system, rather than just a landfill in a landfill.