DESIGN: Biodegradable and vegan-friendly bedding made from eucalyptus fibres.

13. June 2019 | Material | via Dezeen.com

bed 02

The product is designed to be soft and breathable but also to regulate temperature, resulting in a comfortable sleep. (Credit: Dezeen.com)

According to an article on Dezeen.com New York homeware brand Buffy has launched a comforter made entirely of eucalyptus pulp, reducing its ecological footprint while also making it suitable for vegans.

The Breeze duvet uses the natural eucalyptus wood pulp for its case, stuffing and threading, meaning it is fully biodegradable. This simple plant-based formula also means it uses no animal products, so is vegan-friendly. The product is designed to be soft and breathable but also to regulate temperature, resulting in a comfortable sleep.

Buffy is the brainchild of Leo Wang, whose family has been producing textiles in China for decades. The brand launched in 2017 with the Cloud comforter, which combines eucalyptus fibre with an inner made from recycled plastic bottles.

Breeze is its second product, but is the first fully plant-based design.

The eucalyptus pulp is sourced from Lenzing, Austria. Here, pulp is spun and bound into yarn to make the exterior and thread for the comforter, while the fill is made from loose eucalyptus fibres. The materials are then shipped to China, where the quilt is cut, sewn and assembled at partner mills of the Wang family.

"When you take the pulp and turn it into a liquid, you can make a fibre of any shape you please," Wang told Dezeen. "We chose to model it on perfect silk fibre."

One of the ecological benefits of using eucalyptus is that it requires 10 times less water than cotton.

Buffy claims to have helped conserve over 100,000,000 gallons of water to date, by using a significantly less resource-intensive material.

"Traditionally comforters, bedding and textiles, in general, are not very sustainably made and they eat up an incredible amount of source footprint, particularly in the form of water," Wang said.