Black Moda Oy, a Finnish manufacturer of tricot clothes, bath and home textiles, knitwears and socks, is the first textile company to expand its packaging range to packaging bags made of carbon-neutral wood. This main raw material for Finnish Woodly material is wood cellulose and the packaging bags can be sorted into plastic recycling or mixed waste after use if sorting for plastic recycling is not possible.
In terms of performance, Woodly packaging bags correspond to conventional fossil plastics, of which transparency is one of the most important criteria for packaging textiles. “Textiles and clothing need see- through packaging that protects them from dust, dirt and moisture during transport and storage. An important goal of Black Moda Oy has been to find more ecological material alternatives alongside plastic packaging bags, but properties do not have to be compromised, ”says Marko Keski-Vähälä, CEO of Black Moda Oy.
Riikka Keski-Vähälä de Oliveira, CEO of Black Moda Portugal, Lda, played a key role in finding a partner in Portugal to manufacture Woodly packaging bags. “When I heard about Woodly material, I immediately found it interesting. When I was looking for a partner in Portugal to make a bag, I found that there is a strong demand for a material like Woodly. Black Moda is aware of the problems of traditional plastic and feverishly sought a solution to this. Now that we’ve got the Woodly packaging bags done, we’ve found that it’s really the best option for us.”
The advantage of Woodly material is that it can be processed to make packaging on existing production lines and there is no need to build new plants. Black Moda´s packaging bags have been manufactured in collaboration with a Portuguese bag manufacturer. The first packaging bags will protect Black Moda Oy's own Puuvillatehdas-brand classic products. The classics are manufactured and packaged in the Black Moda Portugugal, Lda sewing company and the products will arrive in Finland during April. For example, a customer of a Puuvillatehdas` online store can get a product packed in a bag made of Woodly material.
The importance of the online stores has grown as the corona epidemic has led consumers to shop instead of in-store and more and more from the home couch. It also puts pressure on what material to chooce, use and recyclability of packaging materials. “Cooperation with Woodly Oy has been smooth and the introduction of a bag made of Woodly® material is one significant step for Black Moda towards a more sustainable clothing industry. In 2020, we produced approximately 1 million pieces of products. We can now offer this packaging option to those of our production customers who want to reduce the use of fossil raw materials in their packaging,” Keski-Vähälä sums up.
