Roughly half the world’s zippers and fasteners come from YKK, totaling an astounding 10 billion zippers in 2024 alone. And at such scale, these little parts have big impacts. That’s why YKK has doubled down on sustainability, from recycled materials and zipper slides that can carry data-carrying digital product passports (DPPs) to new material innovations that allow for circularity.

In this episode, Lauren Parker, director, SJ and Fairchild Studios, chats with Brian La Plante, senior manager, sustainability, of the Japan-based YKK Fastening Products Group, about addressing sustainability's "full hierarchy of circularity."

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