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A SUPERMARKET opens its first branch in Warrington on Saturday, with ambitions to build a network of 30 outlets within three years.
Asco aims to take advantage of the failure of other retailers during the recession, resulting in increased availability of prime locations at knockdown rents.
The first store will create 65 jobs on the site of Warrington’s 10,000 sq ft former Woolworth’s branch on Sankey Street.
Asco has plans for another 11 stores in the north west by next summer, with further expansion to follow, creating 3,000 jobs. The business has secured banking facilities from NatWest.
Managing director Dave Laney, who boasts a 30-year retail career, said: “As a result of the recession there are many retail properties in prime town centre locations made available on good terms.
“It gives a start-up business like Asco the chance to establish a foothold in this marketplace.”
The chain is backed by private investors and will carry up to 20,000 products.
Mr Laney added: “It takes considerable effort to set a business like this up from scratch, but now we are about to open in Warrington, we can use this as a blueprint for future stores.”
Asco’s principal supplier is Midlands-based Blakemore Wholesale, which also works with Spar.
Mr Laney added: “Our customers will come from every walk of life, but those people who work in or visit town centres and like to shop little and often are likely to form the core of our business.”


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- Toys R Us might be the reason why the US economy added fewer jobs than economists forecast in July.
- The jobs report released on Friday showed that no group of companies saw bigger losses than retailers of sporting goods, toys, books, and music.
- Toys R Us announced in January that it was closing all its US stores, meaning that over 31,000 workers lost their jobs.
Toys R Us appears to have taken a chunk out of the US economy’s job gains in July.
The jobs report , released on Friday, showed that employers added 157,000 nonfarm payrolls, fewer than…

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Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has launched a ‘Switch Delhi’ campaign on Thursday which aims at turning Delhi’s electric vehicle (EV) adoption movement into a mass movement.
This ambitious project of EV policy was launched by Delhi government in August last year with a target of achieving 25% EV vehicles in Delhi by 2024.
‘Switch Delhi’ is an awareness campaign also as it aims to aware every citizen about the benefits of EV Vehicles for the environment and also about the initiatives and infrastructure development goals of the campaign.
The Chief Minister said that the campaign not only aims but will encourage people to switch to zero-emission EVs from polluting vehicles and also said that “the Delhi government has decided that all hired cars being engaged by various departments of the Delhi government will transition to EVs within the next six months.”
“The Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy has been called the most progressive EV policy in India and among the best globally. The Delhi government has rolled out the highest incentives on the purchase of EVs among all Indian states, which range from a maximum of Rs 30,000 for two and three-wheelers and up to Rs 1.5 lakh on the purchase of four-wheelers, which is transferred directly to the buyer’s bank account within three days of the purchase,” said Kejriwal.
“We have made road tax and registration fees also completely free on EVs. Since EVs cannot run on petrol, we are issuing tenders to develop 100 public charging stations spread across the length and breadth of Delhi,” he added.
“Since the launch of our EV policy in August, nearly 6,000 new EVs have been registered in Delhi. Maximum EVs have been registered under subsidies and the rest are in the process. This is not sufficient, we need to do much more to promote this on a large scale,” the CM further added.
“I appeal to each and every vehicle owner in Delhi to switch from polluting vehicles to zero-emission electric vehicles, I appeal to the youth to let their first vehicle purchase be an electric vehicle,” Kejriwal appealed for the better implementation of the scheme.


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Colin Kaepernick Tweets Nike’s ‘simply Do It’ advert, President Trump Isn’t a Fan
Nike isn’t holding back any punches with it’s Colin Kaepernick “just Do It” crusade.
the world’s greatest shoe and attire brand, which acquired the consideration of the realm by using using the quarterback-turned-activist in ads published on friendly channels on Monday, was scheduled to debut a “just Do It” business all over the NFL’s average-season opener that includes the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles on NBC on Thursday nighttime, but the trailer turned into released early by means of Kaepernick’s https://www.indobetpoker.net/
trust in some thing. even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt pic.mx5TnU7Z51i
— Colin Kaepernick Kaepernick7 September 5, 2018
The advert is voiced with the aid of Kaepernick and lines him, along with NBA megastar LeBron James, tennis champion Serena Williams, big apple Giants huge receiver Odell Beckham Jr., marathoner Eliud Kipchoge and skateboarder Lacey Baker, and inspirational athletes reminiscent of NFL linebacker Shaquem Griffin, wheelchair basketball player Megan Blunk, boxer Zeina Nassar and legless wrestler Isaiah hen.
The Nike add has acquired push again simply as plenty because it’s receiving praise. President Donald Trump revealed within the backlash Nike is facing over making Kaepernick the face of its “just Do It” crusade, tweeting Wednesday that the sneaker gigantic is “getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts.”
The president, who played an immense function in pressuring the NFL to crack down on gamers protesting police violence and other considerations by way of kneeling all over the countrywide anthem, compared Nike’s quandary to the football league’s.
identical to the NFL, whose rankings have long gone way DOWN, Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts. i’m wondering in the event that they had any theory that it would be this manner? as far as the NFL is involved, I just discover it challenging to watch, and at all times will, unless they stand for the FLAG!
— Donald J. Trump realDonaldTrump September 5, 2018
Nike’s stock dropped three.2 p.c on Tuesday, and the new advert inspired a rash of protests, with americans destroying the company’s products and sharing the pictures and videos on palsy-walsy media, in keeping with The Hill.
cited that Tuesday changed into Nike’s biggest one-day drop given that April, however additionally cited that shares in Adidas ― Nike’s largest competitor ― dropped as well. Nike isn’t backing down and a matter of fact, the company is doubling down and is greater than standing with Kaepernick.


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by Mark Liu
The rise of fast fashion in Australia means 6000 kg of clothing is dumped in landfill every 10 minutes. The ABC’s War On Waste visualised this statistic by piling a giant mound of clothing waste in the middle of the city. So what to do about it?
Sustainable fashion experts advocate abstaining from buying fast fashion, promoting clothing swaps and repairing old clothing. Others suggest buying organic and ethically-sourced clothes or designing clothing using zero waste techniques. The hope is that greater transparency in supply chains will lead to an end to sweatshops and unsustainable fashion practices.
These are admirable initiatives, but they only reduce wastage or delay garments from ending up in landfill. They do not address the fact that the scale of fast fashion is so massive it can easily eclipse other sustainability initiatives. Nor do they address the wastefulness of existing technologies and the urgent need to research new ones.
Even if we could magically stop the global production of all garments, we would still need new, green technology to clean up the waste we have already created. There are long-term strategies for green technologies such as electric cars, but where are the major companies and research institutes developing the next generation of sustainable fashion technologies? The development of new synthetic biology technologies may be the key.
From catwalk to research
I would like to share my journey from zero waste fashion design pioneer to trans-disciplinary fashion researcher to highlight the challenges faced by sustainable fashion and the need for more research.
Ten years ago, I presented my “Zero-Waste” Fashion collection at London Fashion Week. I and other sustainable designers at the time took the waste streams of other industries such as scrap materials and leftover fabric and created our collections from them. I was selected for “Estethica”, a new initiative created by sustainable fashion gurus Orsola De Castro, Filippo Ricci and Anna Orsini from the British Fashion Council. Sustainable fashion was shown on London catwalks next to luxury fashion – a revolutionary step for the time.
I pioneered a way of creating tailored, high fashion garments so that all the pieces of a garment fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle and no waste was created. Conventional pattern cutting creates about 15% wastage of material, even if the pattern has been optimised by a computer. I wanted to systemically change the way clothing was made.
But the problem with zero-waste design is that it is very difficult to create. It requires a skilled designer to simultaneously imagine the garment as a 3D item and a flat pattern, while trying to fit the pieces together like a jigsaw. It is easy to make an unfitted or baggy garment, but creating something that looks good and fits the body was a real challenge.
Even after all these years, most contemporary zero-waste fashion is still not tailored to the body. I practised this technique for years to master it. It required breaking all the rules of conventional pattern-making and creating new techniques based on advanced mathematics.
These were exciting times. Our fabrics were organic, we made everything locally and ensured everyone was paid an ethical wage. The press loved our story. But problems started to emerge when it came to sales. We had to sell more expensive garments, using a smaller range of fabrics – our materials and labour costs were higher than those of companies that produced overseas. Often fashion buyers would say they loved what we did, but after looking at the price tag would politely take their business elsewhere.
As a sustainable fashion designer, my impact was limited. It was also impossible to teach zero-waste fashion design without explaining how advanced mathematics applied to it. It was time to try a new approach, so I decided to apply science and maths to traditional fashion techniques.
My PhD research explored the underlying geometry of fashion pattern-making. Combining fashion with science allowed the traditional techniques and artistry of making garments to be explained and communicated to scientist and engineers.
In the meantime, fast fashion companies rapidly expanded, with Zara, Topshop and H&M reaching Australia by 2011. They produced massive amounts of cheap products making low margins on each garment. Consumers quickly became addicted to the instant gratification of this retail experience. The size and scale of their production produced hundreds of tonnes of garments every day.
The limits of fashion technology
Fast fashion companies such as H&M have developed recycling initiatives in which consumers can exchange old clothing for discount vouchers. This is supposed to prevent clothing from going to landfill, instead recycling it into new clothing.
However, there are those who are sceptical of H&M’s recycling process. In 2016, investigative journalist Lucy Siegle crunched the numbers and concluded that “it appears it would take 12 years for H&M to use up 1,000 tons of fashion waste”. This, she said, was the amount of clothing they produce in about 48 hours.
A 2016 H&M sustainability report reveals that only 0.7% of their clothes are actually made from recycled or other sustainably-sourced materials. In the report, H&M acknowledges :
Today, this is not possible because the technology for recycling is limited. For this reason, the share of recycled materials in our products is still relatively small.
In fact, their 2016 annual report states that more research is needed:
if a greater proportion of recycled fibres is to be added to the garments without compromising quality, and also to be able to separate fibres contained in mixed materials.
Sustainable technologies strive for a “circular economy”, in which materials can be infinitely recycled. Yet this technology is only in its infancy and needs much more research funding. H&M’s Global Change Award funds five start-up companies with a total of 1 million Euros for new solutions. Contrast this with the millions required by the most basic Silicon Valley start-ups or billions for major green technology companies such as Tesla or SolarCity. There is a dire need for disruptive new fashion technology.
Many of the promising new technologies require getting bacteria or fungi to grow or biodegrade the fabrics for us – this is a shift to researching the fundamental technologies behind fashion items.
For example, it takes 2700L of water and over 120 days to grow enough cotton to make a T-shirt. However, in nature, bacteria such as “acetobacter xylinum” can grow a sheet of cellulose in hours. Clothing grown from bacteria has been pioneered by Dr Suzanne Lee. If a breakthrough can be made so that commercially grown cotton can be grown from bacteria, it may be possible to replace cotton fields with more efficient bacteria vats.
But why just stick with cotton? Fabrics can be generated from milk, seaweed, crab shells, banana waste or coconut waste. Companies such as Ecovate can feed fabric fibres to mushroom spore called mycelium to create bioplastics or biodegradable packaging for companies such as Dell. Adidas has 3D printed a biodegradable shoe from spider silk developed by AM silk.
Although I began my journey as a fashion designer, a new generation of materials and technologies has pulled me from the catwalk into the science lab. To address these complex issues, collaboration between designers, scientist, engineers and business people has become essential.
To clean up the past and address the waste problems of the future, further investment in fashion technology is urgently needed.
*This story first appeared on The Conversation
By Lucy Seigle
Every year millions of garments are discarded as consumers ditch fast-fashion styles for a new wardrobe. At last the industry is acting – but more has to be done
Facebook users will be familiar with the On This Day feature. From time to time it greets you with a blast from your relatively recent past. Some find it unnerving, especially if it’s a picture with an ex, for example. But my eye is always drawn to the clothes. Whatever happened to that handbag? Do you still wear those jeans?
If it’s an image from more than three years ago, then the answer is probably “no”. According to a recent report from Wrap (the Waste and Resources Action Programme), the average piece of clothing in the UK lasts for 3.3 years before being discarded. Other research puts the lifespan of UK garments at 2.2 years. For a younger demographic, you can probably halve that. A UK-based fashion company tells its buyers to remember that a dress will stay in the owner’s wardrobe for only five weeks.
The way we get dressed now has virtually nothing in common with the behaviour of previous generations, for whom one garment could be worn for decades. Wrap estimates that we purchased 1.13m tonnes of new clothing last year in the UK. While an estimated £30bn-worth hangs about gathering dust – Tinie Tempah’s refrain “I have so many clothes, I keep some at my aunt’s house” was spot on – an unpalatable quantity goes in the bin. A survey commissioned by Sainsbury’s last spring found that 235m items ended up on landfill sites as people readied their wardrobes for summer. Surely we can do better than this?
Vivienne Westwood – never one to miss an opportunity to call her legion of fans to action – thinks we can. “It’s about quality, not quantity – not landfill,” she said recently at one of her own shows. Hot on her heels, Vetements, very much the “it” brand of our times, made its own statement last week. The label filled the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue in New York – one of the commercial hotspots of global fashion retail – not with its latest collection, but with waste garments en route to a recycling charity.
But it was Stella McCartney who really upped the ante, electing to shoot her latest collection on a Scottish landfill site. Models lay across the rusted husks of old cars and languished on top of household waste. From a sustainability perspective, Stella McCartney is the luxury Kering group’s top-performing brand. Much of this success is based on McCartney’s own personal resolve. It’s clear that the landfill backdrop is not just an interesting aesthetic to her.
Now there’s an obvious contradiction between selling fashion and instructing us to buy less, but what these designers are calling for is some sanity in an industry now rated as the fifth-most polluting on the planet.
The fashion industry has developed a pretty terrible reputation – not least for exploitation of human capital, outsourcing production to the world’s lowest-wage economies. Four years ago, 1,133 garment workers were killed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, while producing clothing for high-street brands and their subsidiaries. After that, many worried what was next.
For those in and around the industry, garment waste has long been rumoured to be the next big scandal. Globally, levels of production and consumption are forecast to increase as fashion waste becomes an environmental crisis to rival plastic pollution in oceans. This is a tale of over-production and supply, powered by the relentless “fast fashion” system of production that over the past three decades has revolutionised both the way we dress and the way clothing is produced – and not often for the better.
Much of the waste in the fashion industry is hidden along a chaotic supply chain and doesn’t make it into the environmental accounting that underpins a Wrap report. Perhaps the worst of it comes in the form of readymade garments, assembled and sewn but discarded because of an order mistake or an issue with the colour. According to industry insiders, this waste represents 3-5% of every factory’s inventory (and a large factory in Dhaka can produce 240m pieces a year).
There is no verified figure for the amount of clothing produced globally each year (predominantly in low-wage textile hotspots like Dhaka without waste management systems) but my own research puts it between 80bn and 100bn garments. That means a lot of hidden fashion waste.
Where it becomes highly visible is on the outskirts of big production areas, such as the garment districts of Dhaka. This is where the production waste leaves the factories and is absorbed by the air and earth in the local community. Waste from the cutting room (called jhut) often ends up in so-called go-downs. These makeshift sorting operations are the stuff of legend in Dhaka, with fires a regular occurrence. But what happens to all the rest?
“You don’t even want to know,” says Estonian designer and clothing waste researcher Reet Aus, who spends a lot of time following unwanted garments out of factory gates. “You see it by the side of the road being sold, or just dumped, but a lot is burned,” she says. “I know a brick factory near the garment district where the main fuel is garment waste. You can’t really see anything around there, the pollution is terrible. Remember that thanks to the chemicals and finishing agents, used textile waste is basically toxic waste.”
Meanwhile, the urge to buy grows stronger as clothes shopping takes on a quasi-addictive quality. And let’s be honest here, are the fast-fashion corporations with their extraordinary profits likely to do anything about consumption, the driver of waste and the driver of the industry’s impact? Their business model, after all, depends on it.
Increasingly these brands are signposting a way of allowing us to have our cake and eat it. They are buying into recycling schemes and investing in competitions to close the loop on textile fibres. The idea is that if they can collect waste garments and regenerate fibres to be used in new garments, the impact of fast fashion can be negated.
The trouble is, it’s hard to buy into. I have been critical of brands overclaiming in this area before, particularly when I looked at the numbers around H&M’s recycling week in 2016. In truth, there are quite a few technical barriers to closing the fashion loop – that is, regenerating fibre from an old, unloved outfit, spinning and making it into something else, all within a timeframe and quality that’s interesting to the consumer.
“Every fabric is different,” says Aus, “so one garment might contain a blend of different fabrics. On top of that, you have to strip out the zippers and buttons inherent in post-consumer fashion waste.” So while a consumer may believe that a loved jumper or sundress is going to be magically regenerated into a new item, in practice your old T-shirt is probably going into a well-worn recycling network.
She and her team have developed software to keep track of potential garment waste data during production, which she is trialling with a large manufacturer: Beximco in Bangladesh. By getting information about the volume and material of leftover textiles, she can design that material back into a product before it becomes waste. “I’d rather not produce waste in the first place,” she reasons. “Plus, this is a better system for large brands who find recycling and regeneration difficult. That is easier for smaller, more agile companies.” This means some of fashion’s big lessons about its waste may come from unlikely parts of the apparel world. For once, the smaller companies have a chance to steal.
Tom Kay, the founder of Cornish outdoor brand Finisterre, is addressing a waste problem highly relevant to his customer and doesn’t care that it might seem niche to the rest of us. “The average neoprene wetsuit only lasts two years,” he says. “We’ve redesigned with wider seam tape and better stitching but it still only lasts probably for three. It would be disastrous for these things to be dumped, but there’s nowhere for them to go. That’s why you see them piled up in people’s garages.”
Last week, he launched an intriguing job advert in partnership with Exeter University: a £26,000-a-year position, paid by Finisterre, to be filled by a materials scientist who shares his dream of making wetsuits from wetsuits. “We don’t know how it will go, but I’m excited,” he said.
■ Last year 1,130,000 tonnes of new clothing was purchased in the UK – an increase of 200,000 tonnes since 2012.
■ Fashion in the UK lasts an average of 3.3 years before a garment is discarded.
■ Extending the life of a garment by an extra nine months reduces its environmental impact by 20-30%.
■ Providing one tonne of clothing for direct re-use by giving it to a charity shop or selling it online can result in a net greenhouse gas saving of 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
*This story first appeared on The Guardian
The circular economy.
Closing the loop.
Cradle to cradle.
These are all phrases you may well have heard of. If not, best to familiarise yourself with them a.s.a.p. As our increasingly consumerist lifestyles reach tipping point, organisations are desperately trying to gather and reuse our rubbish, because otherwise, we may have nothing left to make anything with.
This year’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit was kicked off by someone I had, until that moment, not heard of: Bill McDonough. If you are as clueless as I was, take the next 14 minutes and 30 seconds to get to know him and his ideas a little better. You won’t regret it.
People were still clapping by the time I’d completed my purchase of his book, Cradle to Cradle.
Fashion’s grave reality
McDonough’s work is clearly applicable to the creation of many, if not all, products. But it is particularly relevant to clothing because this industry has arguably one of the most linear and wasteful cycles in modern society. And this cycle’s impact on the environment is exacerbated by its speed and the quantities involved.
The fashion cycle: cradle to grave
With 92 million tonnes of textile waste being produced by the global fashion industry in 2015, corresponding to more than 12 kg per person, it’s clear that we are hemorrhaging valuable resources every second of every day.
So What Exactly is Being Wasted?
In particular, I highlighted popular man-made fibre polyester as the most used in clothing production today.
Polyester is derived from fossil fuels, one of our planet’s none renewable resources. A resource so valuable in fact, that it should be treated as a ‘nest egg’ McDonough suggests.
And yet, not only do we buy cheap, poorly made clothing using this precious resource, but we throw it out in such a way that these valuable materials cannot be retrieved.
Perhaps excavating landfill sites will be a common activity in the future?
How insanely backward would that be?
How Can the Fashion Industry Do It Better?
How can this regressive fashion industry transform itself into a regenerative one?
When it comes to fashion, and the materials we use, we can work to achieve a circular system in two ways:
By creating a “biological” cycle, whereby an item made with 100% natural fibres (wool for example), able to be broken down by bacteria, is reclaimed by nature into its vast ecosystem when we no longer want or require it.
The fashion cycle: cradle to cradle (biological)
Or a “technical” one, whereby the clothing we buy made of man-made fibres is designed in such a way that the fibres can be separated and reused in a never-ending production cycle, whilst not degrading in quality.
The fashion cycle: cradle to cradle (technical)
Some organisations are themselves working on large-scale collection schemes in their shops. These schemes provide them with the raw materials to experiment with ways of recycling fibres.TT
Unintelligent and Inelegant Things…
My favourite phrase from ‘Cradle to Cradle’ is: ‘products that are not designed particularly for human and ecological health are unintelligent and inelegant –what we call crude products’
Everything we buy, and everything we do, is part of a bigger process.
We can’t know everything. But know this: as a wearer of clothes, what you chose to buy and wear really matters. Because with every purchase, you are telling the world who and what you support.
Choose not to buy cheap clothes from people who cannot tell you how or where their products are made.
Chose not to buy clothing from companies who ignore our collective responsibility to address the issues the fashion industry and, by default, we all face.
A product without background, without craftsmanship, made without thought or purpose or regard for the future is a product without beauty, without meaning and without worth.
It’s a crude purchase. Simple.
*This story first appeared on Study 34
The apparel and footwear industry is forecast to generate double-digit growth to 2020 according to business analysts McKinsey & Co. One of the challenges is reconciling this growth with sustainability initiatives. As this report states it, “Sustainability and rapid business growth are not compatible; to pretend otherwise would be disingenuous.” The solution proposed is an alternative business model that is based on a closed-loop system.
A circular economy
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation describes the circular economy as being “restorative and regenerative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between technical and biological cycles.” In striving to achieve greater environmental responsibility, the notion of a circular economy is the latest iteration in creating a blueprint for industry.
In his book, Closing the Loop, Brett Matthews asks whether this laudable aim of infinite recycling is in fact realistic. The report is divided into seven sections and concludes with actionable recommendations and further reading resources. The first section gives an overview of the issue, definitions, and the global and local challenges. The second section considers how these principles are applied largely using interviews with innovative thinkers, manufacturers and brands. The approach provides a clear introduction for readers new to the field, as well as more in-depth information and actionable strategies for those already implementing a sustainable plan.
In the U.S. there are an estimated 25 billion pounds of textile waste generated annually of which just 15 percent is donated or recycled, much of it shipped to African countries. In Uganda, 81 percent of all clothing sold is second hand, according to Dr Andrew Brooks, whose book Clothing Poverty investigates the connection between garment retailers and sub-Saharan poverty.
Recycling alone is clearly not enough. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is one of the initiatives that’s attracting much interest as a way of promoting recycling and end-of-life management. The European Union (EU) has already successfully implemented such schemes for the automotive and packaging industries. Voluntary measures are also not enough, but they do serve an important function with trial initiatives on a small scale, before larger investment is made. Ultimately, legislation is needed at an industry or global level.
Mechanical textile separation has been used with some success for quite a while, but the increase in blends and hybrid textiles, laminates and finishes make this process increasingly difficult. Chemical recycling is now receiving more attention and some funding – in Europe.
Scale is a key issue in the sustained supply of quantity and quality of material ideally achieved locally to prevent increasing the carbon footprint. Solvay’s Move4earth is a European Union funded project that seeks to recycle airbags using a technology that allows them to separate the technical textile from its coating without any significant loss to the material properties.
The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have been developing a cellulose dissolution process for recycling cotton that reduces the water footprint by 70 percent and the carbon footprint by up to 50 percent.
In North America, Evrnu use a combination of chemical and mechanical processes to recycle post-consumer cotton garments. The process is designed to prevent off-gassing, reusing solvents and manage the environmental impact in a closed vat system. Importantly for the industry, it works within existing apparel business models.
“Going circular” successfully will require a varied but cohesive approach, and should include these considerations:
- Whole system solution: The issue has to involve stakeholders at every stage, as textile innovation alone is not enough.
- Collaboration: This needs to go beyond textile manufacturers and brands to include retailers.
- Mechanical versus chemical recycling: Partnerships are crucial to achieve scalability and commercial success.
- Complexity: More research is needed to determine the level of benefit measured against cost of development and implementation.
According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitive Index (GMCI) report the U.S. is set to overtake China as the most competitive manufacturing nation within five years. This brings tremendous opportunity and responsibility for North America to take the lead in developing the principles of a circular economy for the apparel and textile industry. This has to be part of the innovation agenda if it is to be made to work environmentally and economically.
*This story first appeared on Advanced Textiles Source
Pollution created by making and dyeing clothes has pitted the fashion industry and environmentalists against each other. Now, the advent of “fast fashion” — trendy clothing affordable enough to be disposable — has strained that relationship even more. But what if we could recycle clothes like we recycle paper, or even upcycle them? Scientists report today new progress toward that goal.
The team will present the work at the 253rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world’s largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 14,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
“People don’t want to spend much money on textiles anymore, but poor-quality garments don’t last,” Simone Haslinger explains. “A small amount might be recycled as cleaning rags, but the rest ends up in landfills, where it degrades and releases carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Also, there isn’t much arable land anymore for cotton fields, as we also have to produce food for a growing population.”
All these reasons amount to a big incentive to recycle clothing, and some efforts are already underway, such as take-back programs. But even industry representatives admit in news reports that only a small percentage gets recycled. Other initiatives shred used clothing and incorporate the fibers into carpets or other products. But Haslinger, a doctoral candidate at Aalto University in Finland, notes that this approach isn’t ideal since the carpets will ultimately end up in landfills, too.
A better strategy, says Herbert Sixta, Ph.D., who heads the biorefineries research group at Aalto University, is to upcycle worn-out garments: “We want to not only recycle garments, but we want to really produce the best possible textiles, so that recycled fibers are even better than native fibers.” But achieving this goal isn’t simple. Cotton and other fibers are often blended with polyester in fabrics such as “cotton-polyester blends,” which complicates processing.
Previous research showed that many ionic liquids can dissolve cellulose. But the resulting material couldn’t then be re-used to make new fibers. Then about five years ago, Sixta’s team found an ionic liquid — 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene acetate — that could dissolve cellulose from wood pulp, producing a material that could be spun into fibers. Later testing showed that these fibers are stronger than commercially available viscose and feel similar to lyocell. Lyocell is also known by the brand name Tencel, which is a fiber favored by eco-conscious designers because it’s made of wood pulp.
Building on this process, the researchers wanted to see if they could apply the same ionic liquid to cotton-polyester blends. In this case, the different properties of polyester and cellulose worked in their favor, Haslinger says. They were able to dissolve the cotton into a cellulose solution without affecting the polyester.
“I could filter the polyester out after the cotton had dissolved,” Haslinger says. “Then it was possible without any more processing steps to spin fibers out of the cellulose solution, which could then be used to make clothes.”
To move their method closer to commercialization, Sixta’s team is testing whether the recovered polyester can also be spun back into usable fibers. In addition, the researchers are working to scale up the whole process and are investigating how to reuse dyes from discarded clothing.
But, Sixta notes, after a certain point, commercializing the process doesn’t just require chemical know-how. “We can handle the science, but we might not know what dye was used, for example, because it’s not labeled,” he says. “You can’t just feed all the material into the same process. Industry and policymakers have to work on the logistics. With all the rubbish piling up, it is in everyone’s best interest to find a solution.”
*This story first appeared on American Chemical Society
About 13 years ago, I was travelling in a beat-up “bakkie” (or, as we Americans call it, pick-up truck) through a dusty, northern Mozambican town. With a bucket on her head and a face lined from years of hardship, an elderly woman walked slowly down the road, quietly going about her business… while wearing a bright red Ohio State sweatshirt, complete with their mascot, Brutus Buckeye! This sweatshirt, probably discarded at one point in a Salvation Army depot in Ohio, found a new owner in the most unlikely place.
And while one can argue the merits of second-hand clothing imports and their effect on African apparel industry, the following conclusion is clear: When we discard our unwanted clothes, they do not go away.
Rather, the “lucky” ones go on to reuse, after being sorted, categorized, packaged, and shipped, often to faraway lands. This fascinating video shows what happens when these discarded duds arrive in India. “Maybe the water is too expensive to wash them,” says one of the sorters, perplexed by the state of the clothing sent by the West.
But what happens when a piece of clothing is too worn to be, well, worn again? Has it reached its end of life? Judging by the millions of tons of clothing ending up in landfills across the world, one would think so. But it doesn’t have to be.
Clothes that cannot be worn again can be taken apart. The “easy” way is via mechanical fibre recycling, which entails chopping the clothing into small pieces to create new fibre. But this process weakens the fibre, which still needs to be blended with a high proportion of new (or virgin, in industry speak) fibre. And only a small percentage of total clothing actually goes through this process.
But this process doesn’t work if your old t-shirt is made of blended fibres. And we absolutely love those stretchy, fitted t-shirts, which usually have a bit of elastane. In fact, it is estimated that up to 20% of the world’s clothing is made up of a cotton/polyester mix, which means these fibres cannot be “born again” as new fibre for clothing.
But perhaps not for long. Over the past few years, a number of research institutes and innovators (like Worn Again, Evrnu, re:newcell, Saxion University, Mistra Future Fashion, Deakin University, VTT, Aalto University and Tampere University) have been developing chemical recycling processes that can get more life out of those blended t-shirts. I have had the opportunity to speak with some of these guys to learn more about how such technologies can transform the way we use – and reuse – clothes. As Worn Again states, such technologies can create “Abundance for Everyone. Forever.”
In other words, there is no end of life. Only end of use.
But we’re not there yet. The processes for turning blended clothing into new fibre still need perfecting – and scaling – to help the industry eventually eliminate the concept of waste. So, in the meantime, there are some practical things that we – the customers who love stretchy t-shirts – can do.
Love our clothes! We can be inspired by the tips from the Love Your Clothes movement, helping us to think about how we buy, use, and pass on our clothing.
For every new piece of clothing we buy, we can gift or swap an old piece… give it to friend, take it to a charity shop, recycling centre, a “take back” scheme, or take it to swishing party.
Pull a Mark Zuckerberg. We should not be afraid to wear the same thing, every day, to work. Apparently, this also helps us to be more successful in our careers.
Check the labels. Until cotton recycling technologies really take off, a blended t-shirt (e.g. cotton and polyester) is harder to recycle than one that is of a single fibre – whether natural or man-made. Let’s go for that 100%.
Tell our friends…and kids. The clothing we love is taking its toll on our earth. At least 350,000 tons of clothing end up in landfills in the U.K. alone. In the US, just 15% of used clothing and textiles are diverted from landfill and incineration. We all have a role to play. Let’s spread the word and bring back our clothes.
And the more that we do that, the more we can give new life to our old clothes.
*This story first appeared on The Huffington Post
Inditex, world’s leading fashion group which operates over 7,000 stores in 88 markets and owns brands like Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe, has invested more than Euro 7 million on sustainability front over the last five years.
The Group has invested in expansion, scaling and modernization of logistics platforms and design centres to boost efficiency and energy saving measures. The start-up of highly-advanced “multi-shuttle” areas at the Bershka platform in Tordera, Barcelona, and at the Arteixo distribution centre (A Coruña) make dispatch time management more efficient and precise and double the speed.
Another area was research and development work focused on store applications for sustainable technology, such as paper saving mobile payments and efficiency technology RFID. Last year, it completed the deployment of RFID technology across its entire Zara store base and has embarked on the process of rolling this technology out in its Massimo Dutti and Uterqüe stores. Other brands like Pull&Bear, with Stradivarius, Bershka and Oysho will follow in 2018. Besides, the number of eco-efficient stores worldwide reached 4,519 in 2016 delivering water savings of 40% and energy savings of 20%.
Furthermore, it also introduced mobile payments in 15 markets in total since it started to roll-out in Spain, the UK, US, Italy and France. Using the online apps of each of Inditex’s eight retail concepts or using a Group app called InWallet facilitate the environmentally responsible replacement of hard-copy receipts with e-receipts. Online orders placed in Spain with any of the Group’s brands have no longer generated hard copy receipts since March 2017 thanks to the e-receipt system named “Paperless”. Zara is also already using this system in the US and the UK.
The Green to Pack project at Zara alone save 22,000 trees and the emission of 1,680 tonnes of carbon every year. In addition to this, it also introduced clothing containers for used-garments in all Zara stores in Spain, Portugal, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland for recycling into new fabrics.
The research and development of more sustainable fabrics is also increasing. Last September Zara launched the second edit ion of its Join Life collection made of Refibra™ fibres. Developed by Austria’s Lenzing Group, Refibra™ fibre are made of pulp from cotton scraps and from sustainably-managed forests.
*This story first appeared on Apparel Resources
During their years working inside the apparel industry, Nicole Bassett and Jeff Denby watched masses of perfectly usable textiles stockpile in dumpsters. They were fully aware that this was a national trend. In 2014, more than 16.2 million tons of textile waste was generated, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Of that, 2.6 million tons were recycled or composted, 3.1 million tons were combusted and 10.5 million tons ended up in landfills.
Recycling more of these materials would have the equivalent carbon footprint impact of removing one million cars from roads, which largely motivated Bassett and Denby to launch the Renewal Workshop.
The Cascade Locks, Ore.-based operation helps brands address textile waste. So far the organization, which launched last September, works with five brand partners who send apparel to Renewal’s 7,500-sq.-ft. space.
“We are trying to figure out solutions for warehouse and distribution centers to deal with returned or damaged products they can’t resell,” Bassett says. “We are refurbishing clothes to put back in the market. But we are also beginning to focus on recycling and upcycling fabrics for other uses once clothes reach the end of their life.”
Filling a Void
Material recovery facilities have difficulties processing textiles and brands have limited resources to dispose of what does not sell or gets returned to them. As a result, textiles, with a recycling rate of 16.2 percent are among the least recovered materials.
The startup is addressing the recovery issue by working within the scope of an organized supply chain.
“Recyclers do not have infrastructure to efficiently collect directly from brands or to process,” Bassett says. “So we created a space to collect and organize materials, based on its value, prioritizing higher value items. This would be renewed apparel that can be resold in its original form.” Renewal cleans, quality reviews, repairs and adds a Renewal Workshop label signifying the clothes are refurbished.
As the company’s volumes increase it will focus on materials that will need more work to be salvaged.
“If something’s too damaged to be sold in its original form but has valuable parts we will move it to an upcycling area where we can make something else out of it,” she says. “Finally, when it’s not salvageable we would put it into our recycling area, where it’s organized by material type, and we will send it to recyclers who will turn it into a new yarn.”
e-commerce Opens Up Business Opportunities
The company sells renewed apparel on an online marketplace.
“What’s exiting is ecommerce has allowed access to used clothes all over the country,” Bassett says. “So I don’t have to hope it shows up in my local thrift store. And customers are comfortable buying online, especially if they know there is a quality control process in place.”
Currently the site is filled with a few thousand items, and brand partners’ shipments come in quarterly. The clothes then go into a large washer. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is used to conserve water. After detergent is added, the CO2 is converted to liquid, enabling the detergent to more easily penetrate fibers. After the cleaning process the liquid is converted back to gas so the clothes don’t have to be dried.
Ibex, an outdoor clothing company in White River Junction, Vt., is among Renewal Workshop’s partners. The manufacturer was already taking back its products from consumers who were done with them and sending what was reusable to charities. If a garment was ruined, the company tried to recycle the garments. But that proved too labor intensive. So material was piling up on the retailer.
“Renewal has provided opportunities to dispose of products properly but, more important, they provide a solution to refurbish, repair and resell products,” says Keith Anderson, vice president of marketing for Ibex. “We appreciate this because … we use fine grades of Marino wool, so there is a lot of value in the fabric and manufacturing.”
Ibex workers must still receive materials and separate what can be refurbished from what cannot.
“What’s different now is we stockpile returns for Renewal, palletize and ship in a consolidated way versus having to store and find outlets for each bucket ourselves. It’s a one-stop solution,” says Anderson.
“We see value in the products returned to us,” he says. “And especially in the days where there’s a focus on a circular economy, we see [Renewal’s model] to be an elegant solution to putting our clothes back into that circular economy.”
*This story first appeared on Waste 360
Federal data estimates that hotels and other hospitality businesses guzzle about 15 percent of the water used commercially (PDF) every year in the United States. The laundries they run to keep guest linens fresh are among the top three consumers — after private and public bathrooms and alongside landscape irrigation.
But an 11-year-old British-born technology firm called Xeros is helping early adopters wring millions of gallons out of water out of their operations — essentially by reverse-engineering and mimicking the fabric-dying process. Xeros machines have been shown to use far less water than conventional high-capacity washing machines — in some cases about a half-gallon per pound of fabric, compared with the more than three gallons per pound that traditional equipment can use, according to the company’s data.
At the Stanford Park Hotel, a boutique property in Northern California with 162 guest rooms, that translated into more than 1 million gallons of water saved in one year. (For those who love numerical comparisons, 1 million gallons is about the same amount needed to fill 20,000 bathtubs.) Other customers, including several Hilton, Hampton Inn and Hyatt locations, also have surpassed that milestone. “Our adoption is starting to come from repeat customers. … That gets you past the new company syndrome,” said Joe Bazzinotti, president of the global commercial laundry operation for Xeros, which makes its U.S. base in Manchester, New Hampshire.
How does the technology work? Xeros uses recyclable polymer beads that, when combined with its detergent, become ionized so that they pull dirt and stains away from the fabric. Rather than filling the entire drum with water, the “extractor” adds it gradually and continually — like the difference between taking a showing and soaking in a bath tub. The dirt is released along with the water into the hotel’s conventional drainage systems, but the beads are captured separately after each cycle, recharged and then reused. The company’s systems currently come in 35-pound and 90-pound models.
“We found that it’s cost-effective, and we’re saving a lot of water,” said Chris Busbin, director of engineering for the Stanford Park Hotel. It has also cut the energy associated with this process in half, because it doesn’t need to heat or cool the water. The property currently uses two machines, which it leases from Xeros along with the detergent and a monthly maintenance visit. Sensors on the systems keep track of how much water each system uses and how many cycles have been run. (Xeros put together an “as-a-service” program to help hotels and other hospitality organizations make the switch.)
“Our sweet spot is definitely hotels,” said Bazzinotti, pointing to installations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and the Caribbean. Another niche market that you’ll see the company more exploit in years to come: industrial laundries and dry-cleaning businesses.
Closing the loop
One thing that the Stanford Park Hotel operations staff examined closely before starting to use Xeros machines about 18 months ago was how often the polymer beads can be used before they must be replaced — and what happens to them afterward. They didn’t want to make progress in water conservation in exchange for releasing harmful substances into the environment. Right now, its beads are recycled quarterly for this particular location, which is a common metric, according to Xeros executives.
David Kaupp, vice president of global marketing for Xeros, said the company uses conventional polymer recycling partners to manage end-of-life beads. “We knew this would be of concern to everyone,” he said. That’s one reason Xeros opted for its model of delivering its machines as a service — so it can better control where the beads wind up.
The company also partnered with chemicals giant BASF back in 2013 to maximize the cleansing properties of its polymer while ensuring they still can be recycled relatively easily.
“On the one side, as a globally active chemical company, we can support Xeros through our global network and the worldwide availability of our materials,” said BASF business development executive Matthias Dietrich when the deal was announced. “On the other side, we can make use of our strong research and development base, which can provide tailor-made plastics with specific combinations of properties.”
While the Xeros executives declined to disclose the company’s total customer count, its financial results published in September (PDF) pegged the total number of machines installed at just under 300. In that same report, the company’s CEO forecasts that Xeros will be installing about 2,000 systems annually by 2020; that could include a licensing deal with a “global OEM.”
It’s also working on adapting its technology for use in leather tanneries, and the financial report also hints at consumer applications.
*This story first appeared on GreenBiz


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Denmark’s Caravell Group began the transfer of production of upright coolers and freezers out of its Danish plant in Aalestrup to a new factory in Turkey. Caravell has stopped uprights production in Denmark to begin moving machinery to Turkey, which is expected to begin producing upright models in January 2007. Chest freezer production will remain in Aalestrup.
This is one of the latest moves from Caravell since it was acquired in July by Metalfrio Solutions Ltda., a leading player in the commercial refrigeration business in Latin America and North America. Caravell has a strong presence in Europe and Russia, and the joining of the companies created a new entity with a global scope. Metalfrio acquired two key European companies in the acquisition—Caravell A/S and Derby A/S, and their respective brands.
The primary motivation for the acquisition is the increasing importance of economies of scale in the product sector. With the acquisition of Caravell, Metalfrio group’s total annual production will grow to more than 370,000 units, bringing competitive benefits to its factories in Brazil, Denmark, Russia, and Turkey. The Brazilian company intends to become one of the three largest global players in its core business. The newly formed group is expected to have a turnover of 200 million euros in 2006.
to Daily News


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Like it or not, Candy Crush Saga remains one of the biggest games around, with countless players clearing like-colored blocks on iOS, Android, and Facebook. Today, the game has been updated with a new expansion that adds a new wrinkle to the Bejeweled-inspired gameplay.
"Dreamworld" is now available to players that have cleared level 50 in the base game. According to Kotaku, the expansion lets you replay classic levels in a new way. Yes, you'll still be clearing candy, but you'll have to be mindful of Odus the Owl. His moon is balanced by two candy colors, and if you clear too many of one color without the other, he'll come falling down. If you're able to keep it balanced for long enough, you'll activate the expansion's new Moon Struck power, which clears all blocks of a single color from the screen.


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Over the next few months you will see (and hear) a lot about Audi’s forthcoming A1 model. Audi make the bold claim of saying they will be “..the first manufacturer to offer a premium car in the sub-compact segment when it launches the Audi A1”, going on to say that “..a young target group will experience new standards of quality, technology, and design.”
Perhaps they have conveniently forgotten about the Mini, since it is BMW’s success in the small-premium sector that has inspired Audi to create the A1 after they ceased production of the A2 in 2005.
Audi are going all out on their pre-launch campaign to raise the profile of the A1, by bringing on board celebrity performer Justin Timberlake as its new brand ambassador in 2010.
“Audi has always been at the forefront of engineering and technology“, says Timberlake, “and I am very excited to be a part of the next evolution conscience with Audi and the A1”.
A spokesperson for Audi said, “As a superstar he appeals to a young target audience that we’re particularly intent on exciting about the compact and efficient A1, which is superlatively well suited for city traffic.”
The undisguised A1 pictured with Timberlake is not the only version that Audi will sell. The A1 will be also offered in Sportback, Cabriolet and Crossover configurations. The A1 will premiere on-line in February 2010, before being shown at the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010.
You can find out more about the A1 via the following links;
Audi A1 Microsite
Audi A1 Fan page on Facebook


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Engaged Capital LLC recently stated that they own a 16.8% stake in Rent-A-Center Inc (NASDAQ:RCII) in a Form 13D/A disclosure that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, May 25th. The investor owns 8,983,609 shares of the stock worth about $91,183,631. The reporting parties listed on the disclosure included Engaged Capital Flagship Master Fund, LP, Engaged Capital CoInvest V, LP, Engaged Capital CoInvest VA, LP, Engaged Capital Flagship Fund, LP, Engaged Capital Flagship Fund, Ltd, Engaged Capital, LLC, Engaged Capital Holdings, LLC, Glenn W Welling and Christopher B Hetrick. The filing is available through Edgar at this hyperlink.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Rent-A-Center by 0.5% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,500,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,099,000 after buying an additional 30,285 shares during the period. Arlington Value Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Rent-A-Center by 32.6% during the fourth quarter. Arlington Value Capital LLC now owns 4,070,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,103 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Rent-A-Center by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,993,468 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,127,000 after acquiring an additional 174,472 shares in the last quarter. Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco LLC bought a new position in shares of Rent-A-Center during the fourth quarter valued at $19,474,000. Finally, Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Rent-A-Center by 0.8% during the first quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,553,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,408,000 after acquiring an additional 12,149 shares in the last quarter.
RCII has been the subject of several analyst reports. BidaskClub upgraded Rent-A-Center from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 13th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Rent-A-Center from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 24th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $5.00 price target (down from $8.00) on shares of Rent-A-Center in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. ValuEngine upgraded Rent-A-Center from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 14th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded Rent-A-Center from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $6.00 to $9.00 in a report on Monday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.20.
Shares of Rent-A-Center traded up $0.13, hitting $10.15, on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. 590,200 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,553,940. Rent-A-Center Inc has a 52 week low of $7.22 and a 52 week high of $13.89. The company has a market capitalization of $554.44 million, a PE ratio of -18.80 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 0.58.
Rent-A-Center (NASDAQ:RCII) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 30th. The company reported ($0.08) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.16). Rent-A-Center had a negative return on equity of 13.81% and a negative net margin of 0.24%. The business had revenue of $698.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $701.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.04 earnings per share. Rent-A-Center’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. sell-side analysts anticipate that Rent-A-Center Inc will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Rent-A-Center, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, leases household durable goods to customers on a rent-to-own basis. The company operates through four segments: Core U.S., Acceptance Now, Mexico, and Franchising. It offers durable products, such as consumer electronics; appliances; computers, including tablets; smartphones; and furniture, including accessories under rental purchase agreements.
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Audi has released a bunch of new pictures of the new Audi S3. Nice looks and performance is out of question!
Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, Audi S3
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With the digital acceleration across industries over the past year and a half, fraud has reached an all-time high in 2021. With the increase in fraud, attacks have gotten more sophisticated, including tactics for phishing, extortion and identity theft, costing businesses $42B over the last year.
As we enter the new year, and with our world only becoming more connected, we’ve gathered the top 4 emerging fraud threats that we will see companies facing in 2022 and beyond.
The Rise of Metaverse Digital Identity Passports
Digital fraud has never been so rampant, and this rise has been largely accelerated by the social media era we are living in. Leading social platforms such as Facebook have pivoted their focus to the metaverse, and are championing the use of “digital identities” for work and leisure. However, although this new technology is on the horizon, with every innovative digital advancement, fraudsters will find a way to capitalize on the new landscape and attack consumers and businesses.
As a result of the new vulnerabilities, there will be an increasing need for nimble digital fraud prevention to keep up with the pace of change. Digital identities are easy to create, so security teams will need to consider how to use these online footprints to accurately identify fake accounts and fraud attempts, while consumers will need to take steps to protect their own digital identities from being exploited by fraudsters.
AI and Machine Adoption for Fraud Prevention Accelerates in E-Commerce
Innovative technologies such as AI and ML have helped automate processes across industries, but as e-commerce has boomed, fraud has gone up exponentially. On average, the e-commerce industry gets hit with 206,000 web attacks per month. And despite 42% of businesses saying that digital fraud hampers innovation and expansion into new channels, only 34% of companies are investing in fraud prevention and mitigation.
With e-commerce booming and no signs of slowing down, AI and ML to defend against fraud will be on the rise in 2022 and beyond. This will help online retailers keep up with fraudsters evolving tactics and will help them spot patterns that might have been missed with manual checks. Using AI and ML will also help merchants analyze historical data and compare it to current transactions, which will be especially beneficial during the busier shopping seasons.
The Rise of Crypto Exchange Fraud
Crypto exchange fraud can be defined as every attack designed to extort value from a cryptocurrency exchange through illegal means. Most attacks happen when fraudsters use stolen credit cards for payment and fake IDs to bypass the KYC checks when buying cryptocurrency, which can lead to high chargeback rates. As with online banks and loan providers, exchanges are highly vulnerable to fraud because, although digital, it is the fastest way to access monetary assets.
We have seen a rise in third-party solutions like Coinbase Commerce and BitPay for businesses who want to accept cryptocurrencies. But despite their popularity, even the most secure cryptocurrency exchanges can’t protect users from advanced phishing and social engineering fraud attacks. As cryptocurrency is still fairly new, there is a lack of awareness of crypto exchange safety and protection methods which will drive the rise of fraud next year.
Economic Instability and Pandemic Fallout Means More Fraud
The pandemic shifted the way we work and play to a more digital environment, and with this shift comes more opportunities for new fraud tactics. Phishing, smishing (SMS phishing) and other similar scams more than doubled in 2020 according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and will only continue to grow next year.
Additionally, with the unstable economy, people were out of work and receiving unemployment and economic stimulus benefits, which will lead to an increase in financial fraud attempts. As fraudsters are able to easily create unlimited disposable email addresses or buy real emails through darket/clearnet marketplaces, they will continue to target vulnerable people online through these scams.
In the new year, we can expect to see organizations capitalizing on new digital innovations across industries; however, these modernized solutions can open businesses and consumers to fraudulent acts. As fraudsters adapt to the digital transformation in nearly every industry, attacks will continue to rise and become more advanced, and the ‘internet crime sprees” will only get better and faster. Advanced detection and prevention strategies and tools in emerging sectors will help reduce cases of fraud and will save time, money and effort in resolving attacks, which will be on the rise in 2022 as we continue to be more connected than ever.


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Santa has been watching. For the aftermarket, 2009 started with cautious optimism and ended with an overall sense of relief. Resiliency and the industry's overall defensive nature overcame financial crisis. In 2009 it was one of the top performing industries. There is a growing sense of optimism among most participants that 2010 could in many ways be an even better year than 2009.
So what did Santa leave in the aftermarket’s stocking? At the top was a dose of unemployment. The job market has been tough during this macro downturn and we question whether the administration’s stimulus has done anything to create jobs. One might argue that the Obama administration views the literal “health” of the nation as more important than finding new jobs for the unemployed. Fortunately, American consumers can’t run up the same debt levels as the government. The financial crisis has tempered spending and encouraged savings. In our opinion, the high level of unemployment is likely to continue throughout 2010, leaving consumers with constrained budgets. This should lead to sustained positive DIY trends and further trade away from higher priced dealers toward welcoming independent aftermarket installers.
Wrapped in sparkly paper was an increase in miles driven. Beginning in June 2009, miles driven started to show year-over-year increases. We expect positive miles driven reports at least through next May. Gas prices will be key to recovery, along with OPEC production. We think as long as the average price per gallon remains below the “psychological” $3 level, miles driven trends will continue to surge. Although the 12-month average miles driven for September was the highest to date in 2009, it was still over 100 billion miles fewer than the peak in 2007. That would imply almost another 4 percent in miles driven growth is needed.
So we have a big red bow, but no new car. The Seasonably Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) has been a hot topic in 2009, whether stemming from Cash for Clunkers impact, theGM and Chrysler bailout or reduced consumer demand due to budget constraint. A recovery to levels seen in the past will be slow. SAAR for 2010 may be up modestly from 2009 but the turmoil in the dealer network along with a price-sensitive consumers should keep volumes high in 2010 for the independent installers.
Luckily, one is never too old for Christmas. The average vehicle age is approaching the 10-year mark and with new vehicle sales likely to remain depressed, we envision the age to continue to climb. Factor in favorable miles driven trends and the likelihood that critical parts such as alternators and starters are likely entering failure rate “sweet spots,” and demand for both DIY and DIFM channels should remain robust.
The 2010 outlook is much better than a lump of coal. Essentially we think the majority of the aftermarke should once again have a good year. We expect to see DIY demand remain solid at least through the first half of 2010. Much of the recent strength in DIY trends has been supported by the struggling macro environment, and particularly high unemployment rates. At some point our economy will heal and the urgency to repair a vehicle out of necessity will diminish, pushing more demand toward the DIFM channel. We think jobbers, installers and WDs should benefit from the dealer fallout and DIFM sales in general should once again widen the gap relative to DIY. Manufacturing should remain stable as demand for hard parts and more collaborative efforts across the supply chain keep business steady. We continue to think the tire segment should be robust given the weak demand for tire replacement over the past couple years. At the end of the day, we think the Obama tire tariff did little more than cost the consumer a lot of money. Essentially, tire prices are likely to be up 10 percent and likely to cost consumers an additional $2-3 billion.
So, no coal in the stocking? We think the major potential detractor from favorable fundamentals will be surges in gasoline prices and thus fewer miles driven. For now, we don’t anticipate a strong economic recovery in 2010, although we expect some improvement relative to 2009. Just remember that nearly 50 percent of the 250 million vehicles on the road are 8 years old or older, providing the aftermarket with a very substantial demand base for maintenance and repair moving into 2010.


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Has Oppo rid the world of the smartphone camera shakes? That’s what it hopes to do with the Smart Sensor, a clever piece of tech that shifts image stabilization from the camera lens to the sensor itself. Why? It’s faster, more energy efficient, and is smartly tuned to be at its best inside a phone. Camera shake ruins pictures, particularly when they’re taken in lowlight, A demo we saw put Oppo’s prototype phone up against the LG G4, and the results were impressive. Oppo wants to have a phone with the Smart Sensor inside on sale before the end of the year. We can’t wait.
We see a lot of wearables at MWC, but the Avegant Glyph is by far the coolest. It may look like a virtual-reality headset, but it’s more like a giant TV screen that’s beamed directly into your eyes, trading out a standard display for 2 million mirrors that send light through adjustable lenses. The headset makes movies and media come to life like nothing we’ve seen before. The Glyph first appeared on Kickstarter, but it’s coming to a store (or website) near you in the next few weeks.
After a pretty lackluster CES, Sony dropped a bunch of new concept devices on the MWC crowd this year, including this futuristic new interactive Xperia Projector. The self contained device allows you to turn pretty much any surface into a virtual tablet, teasing countless possibilities if and when the projector hits store shelves. For now, it’s just really fun to play with.
We’re pretty big fans of the new LG G5, but one of its accessories really caught our eye. The LG Rolling Bot is a small spherical ball that looks a little bit like a headless BB-8 from Star Wars. And just like BB-8, this rolling robot is all about fun. It’s designed to let you roam around your home remotely when you’re at work or on vacation by using the G5 as a controller. But our favorite part might just be the laser pointer, which is perfect for driving your cats crazy while you’re away. We don’t know the price yet, but LG will sell the Rolling Bot later this year.
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Now New Yorkers won't be the only ones who can get their red meat fix at New York Burger Co. The three-year-old all-natural eatery, which has two shops in Manhattan and has twice received best-burger honors from AOL CityGuide, has just been cleared by the state to get into the franchising business.
Owners Madeline Poley and Spiros Zisimatos, who have been plotting their world takeover for a couple of years, plan to start slowly. "This is culinary quality food, so I want to be sure it's done properly," Ms. Poley says.
She adds that she's received franchise requests from as far away as Addis Ababa and Japan, though the first franchises are likely to be closer to home. "I'm just looking to go to Hoboken," she says.
The co-owners are also hoping to see a franchise at John F. Kennedy International Airport. New York Burger Co. is one of the local restaurants in the running for a spot at the new JetBlue terminal, opening next summer, Ms. Poley says.


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Eric Jones has nearly given up on driving in Detroit.
Alphabet Inc's Google plans to launch a version of its search engine in China that will block some websites and search terms, two sources said, in a move that could mark its return to a market it abandoned eight years ago on censorship concerns.
The Void is the latest in a flood of businesses offering whole-body, fully immersive virtual reality experiences for about double the price of a movie ticket.
Science fiction writers and technologists have been predicting the arrival of robot butlers for the better part of a century. So far domestic robots have been relatively pedestrian: robot dogs, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers. Rosie of The Jetsons fame? Not so much.
Virtual reality headset shipments are up thanks to Oculus Go, but VR fever in general is cooling, according to market intelligence company SuperData.
Disillusioned users are leaving China’s most popular social network over growing privacy fears, but doing so comes at a cost
At an abandoned train station in Buenos Aires' working-class suburb of San Miguel, hundreds of Argentines gather with bags of clothes, rice, flour and sugar to trade.
Apple and Facebook have figured out how to keep us glued to their devices and platforms. But they haven’t figured out how to curb the misinformation that plagued them during the 2016 election and have struggled to regain public trust.
Earlier this year, a group of influential software engineers in Google’s cloud division surprised their superiors by refusing to work on a cutting-edge security feature.
Since China banned fireworks across more than 400 cities to reduce pollution, a new entertainment has emerged to fill the skies: drone swarms.


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Coronavirus Resources for Retailers
Resources and information for retailers on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Job opportunities for workers displaced by COVID-19
A listing of retail and other companies hiring due to coronavirus demand.
Economy Has ‘Strong Momentum’ Despite Challenges
Issues have shifted from COVID-19 to inflation and the war in Ukraine, but the economy continues to face uncertainties.


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Pilbara Minerals to limit June-July lithium output on delays in China chemical conversion capacity
Pilbara Minerals will restrict its lithium production in June and July due to reduced demand in the second quarter of 2019 caused by delays in the commissioning of chemical conversion capacity by the company’s key offtake partners in China.
Delays to the construction of chemical conversion capacity at Ganfeng Lithium and General Lithium resulted in lower-than-expected sales of lithium spodumene through the April-June quarter, leading to a reduction in Pilbara Minerals’ output through June and July, the Australian company said on Monday June 17.
The delays in the commissioning of chemical conversion capacity is an industry-wide situation in China, Pilbara Minerals said.
The delays have resulted in lower volumes being shipped from Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora Project in Western Australia over the June quarter, the company added.
Pilbara Minerals’ expects to ship 23,000-45,000 tonnes of lithium spodumene in the April-June quarter, after it sold 38,562 tonnes in January-March.
“It is no secret that the spodumene supply market is experiencing some short-term challenges as the big players, including our cornerstone customers, work to commission and ramp-up their chemical conversion plants in China,” Pilbara Minerals’ managing director and chief executive Ken Brinsden said.
“We have decided to proactively respond to this by working with our long-term partners to assist them where possible during this period. This means that over the coming months we will be moderating production levels to better align our business with expected spodumene demand and use this time to deliver key improvements at the plant,” he added.
Pilbara Minerals produced 22,375 tonnes of lithium spodumene concentrate in May and expects to produce 20,000-24,000 tonnes in June. The company produced 52,196 tonnes in the January-March quarter.
Pilbara Minerals did not specify how much production it would cut at its Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum project, but said it will shut down the concentrator in the second half of July for two weeks to facilitate plant improvement works.
Reduced production will give time for Ganfeng and General Lithium to add conversion capacity. Concurrently, Pilbara Minerals will be working with the two companies to manage its commitments and expects both companies to fulfil their current offtake agreements, it said.
Prices were reported lower at $600-640 per tonne of lithium spodumene on a cfr China and a minimum 6% basis due to the current lower demand for spodumene in China and lower lithium chemical compound prices in the country. This is down from $675 per tonne in the first quarter of the year.
Fastmarkets IM’s latest price assessment for contract spodumene (min 5-6% Li2O) cif China was $600-670 per tonne on May 29, down from $600-700 per tonne on April 24.
Pilbara Minerals stage 1 production has a production target of 330,000 tonnes per year of lithium spodumene - or nearly 43,000 tpy of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) - for June 2018 to 2020.
Stage 2 of the expansion project is set to commence in the September quarter of 2020 to increase the company’s total output by as much as 850,000 tpy of lithium spodumene (110,000 tpy LCE).
Lithium spodumene concentrate is used to produce key battery raw materials lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.


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The cellular sequel to PUBG: Battlegrounds, the 2017 recreation that pioneered the battle royale style, is launching Nov 11.
Seoul-based Krafton Inc. has staked a lot of its future on increasing PUBG into an mental property juggernaut spanning totally different video games and genres of leisure, and PUBG: New State will mark the primary massive check of that technique.
The smartphone recreation is launching in additional than 200 international locations and in 17 totally different languages and it’s already had over 50 million pre-registrations, the corporate stated.
Set in 2051, the futuristic title will characteristic improved graphics and an expansive new battle map for as much as 100 gamers. It will likely be playable on iOS and Android and the corporate has carried out a collection of early exams with choose contributors, which is able to wrap with two days of ultimate testing on the finish of this month.
New State is the most important debut since PUBG’s authentic launch and is seen as instrumental to Krafton’s diversification technique. The corporate bought off to a rocky begin on public markets in August, falling as a lot as 20% after its preliminary providing, nonetheless the inventory has staged a restoration in latest weeks and is now again at its IPO worth. Krafton depends on PUBG for 97% of its earnings.
“PUBG: New State inherits the core of the PUBG IP and could have a competitiveness in and of itself on the worldwide market,” Kim Chang-han, chief government officer of Krafton, stated throughout an internet showcase. Kim has beforehand talked in regards to the firm’s plans to develop the fantasy universe with animated reveals, internet cartoons and films.
Gross sales of the brand new recreation are anticipated to achieve round 2.2tril gained (RM7.8bil) in 2022, in line with a be aware written by Kim Dong-hee, analyst at Meritz Securities Co. China’s regulatory crackdown on the video games sector could have restricted affect on Krafton, Kim stated, and the brand new title will additional cut back the corporate’s reliance on the Chinese language market.
Krafton plans to launch one other PUBG-related recreation on consoles and PC by subsequent 12 months in addition to a survival horror recreation in 2022 that can depict the PUBG universe three centuries into the long run. – Bloomberg


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Some time ago we informed you that DQS CFS had become a member of APSCA, the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors. DQS CFS decided to become a member in order to demonstrate the high level of professionalism of its social auditors. One year after joining APSCA, we are getting the results we had hoped for: DQS is now one of the approved audit firms for Walmart social audits. After many months of dialogue with Walmart’s responsible sourcing team, Walmart has decided to approve DQS for social audits conducted in accordance with Sedex SMETA.
The above article sourcing from DQS HOLDING website. For more information, please send email to firstname.lastname@example.org.


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(Pocket-lint) - Xbox boss Phil Spencer teased a couple of things during the Microsoft press conference at E3 in Los Angeles earlier this year: at least one new Xbox games console to ultimately replace the Xbox One and a cloud gaming platform.
Now the company has revealed more details on the latter.
Project xCloud is in development. It is a streaming platform, much like PlayStation Now, that hosts games remotely, sending you the video of the on-screen action over the internet, while your controller movements are sent in the other direction.
Where Microsoft thinks it has an advantage over PlayStation Now and similar services, such as Nvidia's GeForce Now, is in the catalogue of games it claims will be compatible and the low latency response times that are vital for gaming.
Latency - the amount of time between a button press and the action being registered on screen - is vital for gaming. It is also the biggest criticism of cloud gaming platforms to date.
Indeed, Sony even decided to add the ability to download many of the games it offers through PS Now, so you can play them offline as part of the same subscription. It is thought that feature was added to address some of the latency quibbles put forward by members.
Project xCloud uses Microsoft's Azure cloud network to help reduce latency, plus other technological advancements we are yet to discover.
Microsoft is also keen to ensure its service works across multiple platforms, such as tablets, phones, as well as smart TVs. That way it can provide Xbox gaming wherever you have an internet connection rather than just in the same room as a conventional console.
It also vows to make older and future Xbox games compatible with wireless controllers connected to such devices or even touchscreen inputs.
We should find out more in the near future, as Xbox plans to start public trials of the service next year.


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“Consumers are developing an opinion that Clean Label does not necessarily mean better or added nutrition.” That’s the finding in the Future of Food: Unlocking Consumer Expectations For Food & Beverages Beyond Clean Label, a new report from Kerry. “Hence, there is a desire for food and beverages that stand for more than Clean Label.”
Kerry surveyed 2,100 U.S. consumers who are ingredient and nutrition conscious. The findings showed the evolution of Clean Label and defined what consumers expect and desire from food and beverages in the future.
Based on the research, Kerry believes the following five pillars explain consumer expectations and are also a foundation for the future of food:
- Acceptable ingredients
- Functional ingredients
Let’s look deeper at each of these pillars.
Nutrition: Inherently healthy
Almost 92% of consumers read the nutrition label, and 68% of those focus on the product’s total sugar content. However, expectations vary by age. Baby Boomers focus on reduced sugar, sodium, and fat. Millennials want added nutritional benefits such as protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Associations consumers make with healthy food include:
- Low sugar
- Low sodium
- Low cholesterol
- Zero transfat
- Good fats vs. Low fat/fat free
Acceptable ingredients: Real and recognizable
Unacceptable ingredients include high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and colors, hormones, and mono- and di-glycerides. However, what’s considered unacceptable does vary by age group.
Consumer associations around acceptable ingredients include:
- Made with real ingredients
- Nothing artificial (flavors, colors, preservatives)
- No additives
Functional ingredients: Specifically for me
Kerry found that 65% of consumers want added functional benefits from everyday food and beverages beyond their inherent benefits. Consumer associations regarding functional ingredients include:
- Low calorie
- Added proteins
- Added vitamins
- Added fiber
- Diet sensitivity (for example, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, keto)
- Added benefits (for example, energy, weight, stress)
Taste: Food must taste good
While consumers want taste, they want it “built into the DNA of healthy food.” They are no longer willing to forego taste for health and nutrition. In Kerry’s 2017 survey, 57% of consumers agreed nutrition is more important than taste, but in 2019 only 48% of consumers agreed.
Given consumer desire for lower sugar and sodium or added functional ingredients, Kerry suggests that food manufacturers need to master building back or balancing taste expectations.
Sustainability: Good for all
The importance of sustainability continues to grow. More than 4 in 10 consumers (and 52% of Millennials) prefer to buy from brands that are ethical, and half will switch to a company that supports a cause they believe in. In addition, 53% of consumers expect companies to improve their local communities.
Key sustainability themes are:
- Minimally processed
- Locally sourced: 69% of respondents prefer to buy local/locally grown products.
- Environment friendly
- Sustainably produced
- Ethically sourced
- Fair trade
“Clean Label has become the ‘cost to play’ in the food and beverage industry, for both retail products as well as foodservice solutions,” concludes Kerry. To win over consumers looking beyond Clean Label, Kerry suggests building back key nutritionals and differentiating with taste and sustainability.


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Drug Stocks Down as Sickly £ Forces Pharmaceutical Fire Sale
/EIN News/ Following reports over the weekend regarding a short-fall in the UK’s supplies of essential medicines as pharmacies and drug wholesalers sell them abroad because of Sterling’s weak position against the Euro, Adam Bobroff, trading manager at foreign exchange specialist Foremost Currency, is suggesting practical measures that companies can take to mitigate against the impact of currency fluctuation on imported and exported goods:
“Pharmacies are getting shot of their Euro assets quickly as the Pound looks to make further gains against the Euro (already up 12-15% this year). Pharmaceutical companies can utilise a foreign exchange tool most commonly used by individuals selling property abroad, which allows them to fix the rate at current levels for up to 2 years for a future requirement to guarantee a return on their foreign currency. Forecasts on GBP/EUR are to close the year at around 1.25, so it would be a wise move to fix at today’s rate and effectively remove the impact of currency fluctuation from the equation, ensuring that currency ‘fire sales’ such as has been reported in the pharmaceutical sector are avoided and that vital drugs intended for UK patients are not sold to the Eurozone unnecessarily.”
Tom Flisher / Meredith Molony
+44 (0) 845 3700 655
About Foremost Currency
Launched October 2005, Foremost Currency provides a specialist foreign exchange service for individuals buying or selling property abroad, emigrating and transferring regular payments overseas, and businesses importing and exporting goods. Foremost Currency’s dedicated team members specialise solely in the foreign exchange markets, ensuring the best foreign exchange price and service. The company has grown in turnover by 100% year on year and seen 50% staff growth year on year. It launched the Foremost Property Group in January 2008, www.foremostpropertygroup.co.uk, and EfirstFX, an online trading platform, in April 2009 www.efirstfx.co.uk.


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First Ohr pod opens Saturday
The first of four stainless-steel pods at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art will open Saturday during ceremonies at the museum.
Ceremonies for The Beau Rivage Resort & Casino Gallery pod will begin at 2 p.m. when Eugene Hecht, author of several books on potter George E. Ohr, will present a slide show and will answer questions about Ohr and his pottery.
At 4 p.m., ceremonies for the pod's opening will begin, and that is when visitors will get to enter the pod. The pod will house a new exhibition of Ohr's works: "George E. Ohr: Prized, Honored & Cherished." The installation includes some works that have never been exhibited before.
Activities, music and food are all part of the fun. Admission will be free Saturday.
-- Sun Herald
Red meat and breast cancer
You've probably seen the ads on television from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association with Hollywood cowboy Sam Elliott intoning: "Beef. It's what's for dinner." Well, not so fast, pardner.
Although U.S. beef consumption is down from a startling 79 pounds per person per year in 1985 to around 50 pounds, that's still way too much. We've often reported that eating red meat amps up all causes of death by 20 percent, and now there's even more evidence of the harm it can do. A new study found a 22 percent increased risk of breast cancer among women who regularly ate red meat during their early adulthood (about 10 servings per week) compared with those who ate less than one and a half servings per week.
But fortunately, the study also shows that you're not doomed if you were a youthful red-meat eater. You can slash your risk for breast cancer by making changes in your diet starting right now. If you're premenopausal and you eliminate one serving of red meat from your diet and add one serving of skinless poultry, you'll reduce your risk of breast cancer by over 17 percent; do that post-menopause and your risk declines 24 percent.
We say, imagine how much healthier you'd be if you limited your red meat intake to no more (and often less) than one 3- to 6-ounce serving a week, and added three weekly servings of omega-3-rich fish like salmon and ocean trout and nine servings of veggies and fruit a day.
-- Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz


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Greed, it’s been said, is good.
You know what’s better? Free.
As in, buying and selling stocks for free, with Robinhood, taking sign-ups now.
“Our benefits are zero commissions for listed stocks, and a focus on mobile,” says a Robinhood rep.
Which means you get a zero-dollar way to buy and sell stocks, as opposed to the typical $8-$10 per trade.
All via three taps on a smartphone.
So, you ask, “How do they make money?” They don’t; not yet. They just have some big investors — Google, Andreesseen Horowitz — and a promise to offer more “premium services” in the future.
Before you get too Gekko on us, know that Robinhood isn’t getting you into the high-frequency, algorithmic world of Flash Boys.
This is consumer buying, plain and simple.
Sign-ups start now. You’ll get a beta invite “within a few weeks.”
Until then … Hey, Flash Boys is a really good read.
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
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Location: For Journalists | Press Releases | News of Organic Industry
News of Organic Industry
Swedish organic sales increased by 9.3 % in 2017
The total food market was valued at approximately SEK 300 billion (€30 billion) in 2017, including retail, Foodservice and Systembolaget. According to Statistics Sweden, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), food prices rose by about 2 percent in 2017. Ekoweb has summarized the preliminary sales figures for the organic food market for 2017 which shows that organic food sales increased by 9.3 percent in 2017.


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Automotive News had a chat with Chrysler execs about the next PT Cruiser, which is causing the company some sleepless nights. What do you do next with such a unique vehicle, so strongly steeped in retro cues? The car, which debuted in 2001 and has only had a small refresh since, may go on the new Dodge Caliber platform (which would probably make the folks in Belvedere, Illinois pretty happy), but if it gets a V6 for the next model year, it may end up on the new Chrysler Sebring platform. At this point, Chrysler is gauging the market to see if the vehicle will find any customers interested in a V6 for the vehicle.
Either way, the redesigned PT won't hit the streets until 2009 or 2010, giving the current model an awfully long lifespan.
[Source: Automotive News via AutoWeek]