Mr. Alok Tewari, Regional Commercial Leader – West Asia for Colorants & Ingredients
Milliken is a US-based diversified Company in Specialty Chemicals and Performance Textiles. Speaking to Comfort Times, Mr Alok Tewari, Regional Commercial Leader – West Asia for Colorants & Ingredients – shares his thoughts on the sustainability efforts of the company.
Q Milliken is a diversified company providing solutions to various sector. How Milliken solutions are being used in Indian mattress industry?
Milliken’s Reactint colours are used at the PU Foam production stage to provide aesthetically pleasing colour to Polyurethane foam which otherwise degrades into yellow-colored foam negatively impacting the consumer buying experience. The industry uses these colours to differentiate various layers in a mattress construction and cue the Comfort and other features of a mattress.
Milliken’s anti-microbial – Alphasan AF protects from the growth of fungi/bacteria in a mattress necessary for the health and well-being of consumers. The textile Fire sock from Milliken Textile division provides Fire protection to mattresses making the usage safe and passing stringent Fire test standards including California standards.
Recent Acquisitions by Milliken allow us to develop more solutions for the Indian Mattress Market with encapsulated Phase Change Materials and fragrances that further improve a consumer’s PU-based mattress experience.
Q How Milliken is supporting Sustainability efforts of ISPF in its Mattress Recycle programme?
At this stage, we all are learning more and more about Sustainability, and we are part of the journey together with ISPF and other stakeholders. On a Global basis, Milliken has ambitious sustainability goals – we have been a carbon neutral Company for a few years now.
We have a Planet Goal of reducing GHG emissions by 25 percent and zero waste to landfill by 2025 and are making good progress with publicly reported results in these areas. We are also part of Global Alliances – like AEPW which focus on systematically working on questions of circularity and sustainability
Q Do you plan to add any product line for the healthcare sector?
The Mattress Industry has a direct participation in the Healthcare Industry and our products especially Antimicrobial Alphasan help maintain the hygiene of the mattresses in a hospital environment. Milliken also makes Advanced wound care dressings under the brand name Trite and Hospital-grade fabrics Biosmart for curtains and linens that are anti-bacterial and anti-viral.
We are looking at opportunities to introduce these products in India and are pursuing a registration process currently.