Before press time, Suominen, one of the world’s largest suppliers of nonwoven materials to the global wipes market, announced it would invest more than $20 million in a new CPC (card-pulp-card) line at its facility in Alicante, Spain. The new line investment, which is rare in today’s challenging economic times, will strengthen Suominen’s capabilities in sustainable products, responding to demand in Europe and enhance profitability and competitiveness, the company says.

While it continues to grow and expand globally, the market for disposable wipes has seen its fair share of challenges during the past two years. Customer stockpiling, overcapacity, government regulations—these are just a few of the issues that are facing wipes after the boom times of the Covid pandemic. Suominen’s investment proves that the market is looking toward innovations—notably in the form of sustainability—to reach recovery.

These efforts are not just being seen on the nonwovens side of the business. In recent weeks, two of the world’s biggest suppliers of disposable wipes to professional applications—Clorox Pro and Ecolab—have each introduced plant-based products that will lessen wipes users’ reliance on plastics. A few years ago, technological restraints kept industrial-focused companies from using natural fiber materials because the formulation’s strength would degrade the wipe substrate too quickly.

What has changed?

Well, the pressure on the wipes supply chain to innovate beyond plastics has strengthened. As we speak, the U.K. is instituting a nation-wide ban on plastic wipes and single-use plastics legislation in Europe and in some U.S. states is also targeting some wipes applications, with more expected in the near term. These efforts will surely continue to drive innovation within wipes toward the development of more Earth-friendly substrates and active ingredients that don’t sacrifice performance.

Karen McIntyre
Editor
[email protected]