iVirty is a label awarded to finished items that, as a whole, can be declared “biodegradable” according to a specific specification developed by TECHA Srl, a company of the ARCHA group.
The name reflects the idea of being “virtuous” towards the environment. Products and articles that obtain this recognition can display the iVirty mark, which stands for “Item Virty = virtuous article”, but also “I Virty = I am virtuous”.
The iVirty label is essentially the structured outcome of the experience that ARCHA has accumulated in its laboratories through biodegradability testing on individual materials. Since 2018, the Tuscan company has been among just eight laboratories worldwide – the first in Italy and the second in Europe – to hold TÜV Austria certification for measuring the compostability of plastics.
In recent years, ARCHA has extended this field of analysis to leather and hides, developing a specific technical specification to certify their biodegradability in wastewater or industrial compost.
Now, by combining the standards and protocols used to test individual components, ARCHA has developed a new specification to verify the biodegradability of an article as a whole.
iVirty and finished products
iVirty is aimed at all finished articles and products, particularly in the fashion sector, that want to declare their environmental sustainability evaluated in terms of biodegradability.
Footwear, bags, belts and garments can bear the iVirty mark and communicate to the market their virtuous approach towards the environment.
Companies and fashion houses wishing to place the label on their products must apply to TECHA, which manages the entire evaluation process and laboratory testing.
How the tests work
The shoe, bag or garment to be tested is shredded and mixed with industrial compost, exactly as it would be in a waste treatment plant, in order to verify:
biodegradability
disintegrability
phytotoxicity (impact on plant growth)
To comply with the limits set out in the specification, the article must:
be manufactured with no or only very low levels of certain metals
contain leather, hide, rubber or biodegradable plastics
use adhesives and surface treatments that do not prevent the product from passing the tests
If all these requirements are met, the article can obtain the iVirty label.
A tool for eco-design
The iVirty mark not only allows a finished product to be certified, it also provides a tool for designing new items that are biodegradable in their entirety.
There is a fundamental eco-design dimension: the specification encourages designers and companies to use certain materials instead of others, and to design products that, at the end of their life, can be disposed of without harming the environment.
In this way, iVirty guides the market towards truly virtuous articles, helping to align style, innovation and environmental responsibility.