Likely, you don’t give much thought to the amount of polyurethane foam in our everyday lives. Everything from our beds to chairs to cars and airplanes is stuffed full of PU foam. It’s not recyclable, and when it hits the end of its life, we just dump it in a landfill. But there may be a better option soon available with the reusable Piana Technology E/Smart Fiber.
Non-woven Piana Technology E/Smart Fiber improves upon foam fabrics in several ways. One, it’s lightweight and built to orient the fibers vertically, which basically makes it stronger, more supportive, and more breathable than traditional foam materials.
This also allows Piana to integrate digital sensors in the fiber; the fiber products can then be used in contexts like long-term care facilities where monitoring for movement can help prevent bedsores and other complications.
And in other practical applications, Piana Technology E/Smart Fiber is lighter than the competition, meaning a car or airplane seat made from it can help reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency. Basically, from a bottom-line cost savings perspective, E/Smart fiber adds significant value.
Amazing how this one piece of fiber can be re-molded over and over!
But that’s not the only reason E/Smart is so interesting. It’s also easily refurbished, meaning that if it’s used for a while and the seats or material are worn, it can be sent back to Piana Tech, refreshed, and put back into circulation as fresh fiber again.
Piana says that by reducing the 1.3 million metric tons of PU that gets dumped in landfills, it can eliminate 4 million metric tons of CO2. This is a huge step forward in reducing environmental impact and a significant selling point of E/Smart fiber.
Piana Tech fiber in its raw form
Keep in mind that a tree only absorbs about 48 pounds of CO2 in a year, a fact that Piana Tech cited a few times in our chat with them. To put it into percentages, one tree’s absorption equals .00001% of 4,000,000. It really brings home how much of an impact reusing fabrics like E/Smart can have.
You need several forests working very hard to reduce CO2 by the equivalent amount to just reusing foam material! That’s how big of a footprint using a material like Piana Technology E/Smart Fiber can have!
A finished product made from Piana Technology E/Smart Fiber
Piana Technology is clearly very passionate about its new material. They’re quick to point out that it does not create an odor or have off-gassing like other kinds of foam, plus the breathability and lightness make it more pleasant whether it’s for seats or mattresses.
But they’re equally concerned that people understand the footprint we all leave behind and how we, as consumers, can create a more sustainable world by reusing materials instead of just dumping them.
Piana showcased how foam is everywhere in our lives!
Piana lays out all the benefits to E/Smart in this delightful quick video that shows why it’s essential to protect the environment and the various benefits of E/Smart and the “Piana for the People” solution:
Piana Technology has been chiefly known for its business-to-business work, but they’re expanding into working with consumers with E/Smart foam.
