Soorty Expands Use of Haelixa's DNA Tracers

Yahoo

4 days ago

Soorty is expanding its partnership with Swiss traceability technology company Haelixa.
The mill announced it is integrating Haelixa's DNA markers to Second Life, Soorty's recycled cotton initiative designed to increase resource efficiency and reduce the environmental footprint of the denim supply chain.
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The invisible, non-toxic liquid-based tracers are sprayed directly to post-consumer textile waste before mechanical shredding. These markers withstand spinning, dyeing and garment manufacturing, enabling verification at every stage of production.
The partnership also gives Soorty's brand partners the option to use a 'Marked & Traced by Haelixa' label on garments made with Second Life fiber, including a scannable QR code that links to a dedicated landing page. Soorty says this enables brands to tell the product's sourcing story in detail, while giving end consumers direct access to verified data about fiber origin, processing stages, and supply chain transparency.
'Our partnership with Soorty shows how physical traceability builds confidence in circular claims and meets the rising demand for credible, transparent sourcing,' said Dr. Gediminas Mikutis, Haelixa co-founder and CTO.
Providing supply chain visibility and brand accountability have been long-time priorities for the Denim Deal members. In 2022, the mill began working with Haelixa to test the integration of the DNA marker technology within its recycled cotton workflow. It was limited in scope, applied strategically based on specific customer demands, but successful in proving that the markers could reliably survive the full manufacturing process and provide verified traceability.
Since then, Soorty has expanded the use of Haelixa's DNA tracers beyond that initial trial.
'Our long-standing partnership with Haelixa continues to advance Soorty's commitment to circular fashion,' said Eda Dikmen, senior marketing and communications manager at Soorty. 'By enabling reliable authentication and traceability throughout the lifecycle of the product—from our mills to the final garment, which could be traced at any time—we're solidifying our claims while also empowering our brand partners to meet their targets with proof. This shared transparency fosters deeper trust and genuinely equips end customers to make informed decisions.'
As one of Pakistan's largest vertically integrated denim manufacturers, this partnership with Haelixa presents a significant opportunity to drive meaningful impact in the field of traceable denim.
Soorty launched Second Life in 2022. The textile-to-textile recycling operation is supported by Soorty's large-scale vertical set-up, expertise in spinning short regenerative fibers and access to Pakistan's vast feedstock of post-consumer and post-industrial waste.
Dikmen said Second Life is establishing new benchmarks for closed-loop production, and the scale of its impact is both substantial and growing. In addition to being used for Soorty fabrics, Second Life recycled cotton is available to other mills and spinners. In 2023, the mill diverted 10.8 million kg of used garments from landfills, producing 5.4 million kg of post-consumer waste fiber with a recovery rate of almost 48-50 percent from garments.