EDANA, the international association representing the global nonwovens and related industries, wrapped up its third Outlook Asia conference in Singapore on March 3, delivering two days of presentations from economists, product and technology specialists, a review of the challenges to the industry of managing the waste that comes from the end of life of the industry’s products, and the actions EDANA and its member companies are taking to address these questions.

“Since the late 1990s, strong income growth in Asia has been transforming the global income distribution,” EDANA’s general manager Pierre Wiertz said at the opening of the conference. “As Max Roser, founder of ‘Our World in Data’ has stated, while there are challenges, world income is heading in the right direction and the once poorest countries now have the highest growth, and here in Southeast Asia, other prerequisites for creating attractive markets for personal care products are met. In the complex, and admittedly uncertain economic and geo-political climate of our world today, EDANA is dedicated to providing forums like this to deliver our common objective to contribute to the sustainable growth of the global nonwoven hygiene and personal care products industries.”

According to EDANA, participants highlighted their delight at the event, especially with the growing representation and attendance of regional professionals. Additionally, the range and coverage of topics presented by speakers was regarded as a positive reflection on the state of the Asian Pacific region, recognizing both the opportunities for growth of the industry, and its responsibility not just to its consumers, but to the broader society.

The conference attracted 155 delegates, and an audience representing companies from 23 countries, with more than 90 professionals from the Asia Pacific and Australia.

The conference also included the second edition of the Outlook Asia Award.

This year’s award went to Diaper Recycling Technology, a Singapore-based company focused on advanced diaper recycling solutions, for their system which aims to address the average 2% of reject or scrap rates from the manufacturing process, while offering a recycling process with high purity and separation of the raw materials stream.

Diaper Recycling Technology, which presented at the conference, was one of three companies vying for the award, and was selected by delegates as best meeting the brief of providing a product or service that best matched the needs of the Asia Pacific market, including India.

In receiving the award, Martin Scaife, managing director of the company, said: “We are most honored to win the 2016 Outlook Asia award and see this as confirmation of our team's innovative and technical excellence and the positive confirmation that hygiene industry is quickly moving towards reducing waste and making the operations more efficient. Our team wishes to thank EDANA for their ongoing support to the Asian Pacific region and delivering the extension of their Outlook conferences series in South East Asia.”

Runners up included Hemas Manufacturing, a Sri Lankan-based company that develops and manufactures feminine hygiene products. Their product, the ‘Fems Sanitary Napkin,’ aims to meet the needs of women in Asia, with particular reference to the needs of modern women in an urban, and often tropical, environment. Eastman Chemical, a global specialty chemical company, was also nominated for its newly developed Aerafin polymer, which enables manufacturers to formulate extremely stable, low odor construction adhesives for the hygiene industry.