Nonwovens seem to be much in the news lately. Most people, when they think of nonwovens, think of wet wipes, but the nonwovens market is much broader than that. Smithers Pira Associate Consultant for Nonwovens Phillip Mango says, “Nonwovens are materials that fit between paper and textiles, with many shared characteristics of both categories. Some are very much like paper, wet laid formed just the way paper is formed, but with longer synthetic fibers and a binder. On the textile side, there are spun bonds such as those used in reusable shopping bags with a lot of textile characteristics. In between, there are other categories such as the air-laid, bulky materials used in adult incontinence diapers, feminine hygiene products. and more.”

Mango explains that nonwovens fall into two broad categories: disposable and durable. Disposable nonwovens are truly disposable, intended to be used once, or perhaps a couple of times. Durable nonwovens can go from a day or two of use to things like headliners in automobiles, the needle-punch nonwoven that goes between the fabric and the top of the vehicle intended to last for the life of the car.

It's a large market. According to Smithers Pira data, in 2017, the global nonwovens market was $42.3 billion ($11.1 billion in North America). Of that $15.9 billion ($4.2 billion in North America) was disposable, while $26.4 billion ($6.9 billion in North America) was durable.