The Lenzing Group has won Austria’s annual State Prize for Innovation for its Lenzing Web Technology, a production technique that combines fiber and nonwovens in a single step. By Lenzing’s account, the technique could reduce the amount of non-biodegradable fossil-fuel-derived materials (polyesters, for example) in disposable hygiene products, such as wipes. Web Technology enables the production nonwovens that derive from renewable wood and are therefore free of plastics. “Thanks to a unique self-bonding mechanism, in which the filaments bond with each other during the spinning process, binders, which are found in many nonwovens, are no longer needed,” says Gert Kroner, Lenzing Group’s vice president of global R&D.