Israeli Company Converts Trash into Hangers Used in Fashion Outlets Around the World

The Israeli cleantech startup UBQ Materials has signed an agreement with Mainetti to provide it with an innovative alternative for plastic that will be produced from the trash thrown out by Israelis.

UBQ Materials, an Israeli company based in the Negev, has developed a process to convert unsorted household waste into a plastic substitute that can be made into everyday goods, and in this case, clothing hangers.

Mainetti is one of the world’s largest full-service suppliers of retail solutions. The Mainetti Group operates 52 production sites around the world and is a major equipment supplier to the major fashion companies and chains. The company produces billions of hangers a year.

The UBQ Materials factory in Kibbutz Tse’elim employs a unique technology that turns all types of waste, including food scraps and plants, various plastics, cartons and dirty diapers, into raw material useful for the automotive industry, trash cans, shopping carts, pipes, 3D printing, and variety of other products.

Thanks to the treatment of waste types that are not currently recycled, every ton of raw material processed in the plant saves carbon emissions and helps companies that are committed to environmental protection to achieve their goals.

Entrepreneur Jack “Tato” Bigio, who founded and manages UBQ Israel, said the agreement with Mainetti is an important step in the enlisting of leading plastic manufacturers in the world to use environmentally friendly substitutes.

The agreement was signed after lengthy tests conducted in factories that proved that UBQ’s innovative material is suitable in its physical and chemical composition.

“It is very easy to underestimate the importance of recycling in the manufacture of hangers, but when you make the multiplications of the enormous quantities used in the fashion industry, one realizes the tremendous environmental contribution that using the material has,” UBQ stated.