Truck tarps are robust and long-lasting, and even when used are still a good source material for our kind of bags. Our upcycling approach is designed to extend the life of this durable material.

After spending an average of six years on the road, the tarp assumes a new role and survives for many more years as a bag. External calculations have shown that using old truck tarps instead of new material reduces our CO₂ emissions by 22%.

Since 2022, we’ve also been repurposing the reflectors stuck onto the tarps themselves and making them part of our Reflected Bags.

To ensure the safety of our products, we test incoming truck tarps for undesirable constituents and separate unsuitable ones. Before transforming the tested tarps into bags, we wash and disinfect them. This way, we can be sure to eliminate bacteria or mold.

Unfortunately, the polyester/PVC compound can’t be separated. So, after spending their long second lives as FREITAG bags, the tarps end up in the trash. To help prevent this from happening in the future, we’ve started working on a project with other partners: We’re developing a circular truck tarp.

For the Mono[PA6] Backpack, we use polyamide 6, PA6 for short, better known as nylon. The first circular FREITAG backpack is made entirely from this material: from the outer fabric to the buckles and sewing thread, a total of 17 different components are made from PA6. Thanks to its mono-materiality, the backpack can be easily recycled as a whole at the end of its life, thus conserving resources.

However, restricting production to this one material is more complex than it might sound. Specifically because the search for an existing water-repellent fabric made from a single material was unsuccessful. Until now, such textiles have traditionally needed an additional coating or membrane made from other materials. So, working closely with a partner in the textile industry, we’ve developed a new kind of fabric, a mono-material that’s also water-repellent. After an extensive development phase, the innovative fabric, which contains three layers made exclusively of polyamide 6, finally passed all its material tests.

To ensure our smartphone protective cases are circular despite the rapidly changing sizes of devices from one generation to the next, we use recycled thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU-R) made from worn-out ski boots.

This mono-material is recyclable up to seven times. It’s flexible, robust and shock-absorbent, and therefore ideal for making custom-fit smartphone sleeves from it repeatedly. What is special about the new TPU-R material, in addition to the take-back system, is the very short distances in the supply chain: the entire production process, from raw material procurement to preparation and processing to the final product itself takes place in Switzerland within a radius of 150 km from Zurich.

For the development of this product, FREITAG cooperated with a Swiss developer and manufacturer of plastic filaments and with a Davos-based recycling specialist, where people with disabilities dismantle old ski boots and prepare them for new applications.

The fabrics used as the linings for our bags or as the main material for some models are made of 100% recycled PET and dyed using spinneret technology. In this process, the yarn is dyed during the actual spinning rather than as a finished fabric.

The method is much more environment-friendly than traditional dyeing because it requires 75% less water, 90% fewer chemicals and 30 to 40% less energy.

From 2014 to 2023, we produced F-ABRIC, a clothing line made of textiles developed in-house and containing bast fibers (linen and true hemp) and modal. The material was produced in Europe with minimal use of resources, is hard-wearing and fully biodegradable.

The raw materials for F-ABRIC all came from European growers. The focus was on preserving soil quality, using water efficiently and not using pesticides. We also kept the use of chemicals as low as possible during processing and dyeing. Every stage in the production of F-ABRIC took place a maximum of 2,500 kilometers away from Zurich.

F-ABRIC textiles come without rivets, zippers and synthetic constituents and are 100% biodegradable. Our garments become breeding grounds for new raw materials, and we thus close the biological cycle.

However, since we would now like to devote ourselves increasingly to closing various technical cycles – the development of a circular truck tarp and a circular backpack, for example – we will no longer be producing or further developing F‑ABRIC.