The technology turns traditionally disposable nonwovens into products that withstand 30-plus wash cycles, opening a potential new reusable category across period care, incontinence and bed protection.
New Zealand-based Confitex Technology has won both the 2026 INDEX Award and the 2025 Hygienix Innovation Award for technology that makes absorbent nonwoven hygiene products machine washable and reusable.
At INDEX26 in Geneva, Confitex won the Durable Applications category for its reusable nonwoven bed pads. Industry body EDANA says the proprietary fibre-stabilisation and bonding technology enables the absorbent structure to survive more than 30 machine-wash and tumble-dry cycles while maintaining performance.
Nonwovens move beyond disposability
The award-winning bed-pad construction combines a fast-wicking topsheet with an absorbent core capable of holding more than two litres of liquid, plus a bonded perimeter designed to reduce edge leakage.
Confitex is applying the same washable-nonwoven platform to period pads and liners, incontinence products and other absorbent applications. The company says its reusable pads can contain up to 90% bio-based material, avoid petroleum-derived superabsorbent polymers and have been independently tested for absorbency against disposable equivalents.
Two industry awards validate the platform
The company had already won INDA’s 2025 Hygienix Innovation Award for washable nonwoven sanitary pads. INDA’s official awards record confirms Confitex as the 2025 winner.
Confitex says it is the first company to have won both the Hygienix and INDEX innovation awards for the same broader technology platform.
A new market for durable nonwovens
The commercial significance is substantial. Absorbent hygiene has traditionally been one of the largest single-use nonwoven markets. Making these structures repeatedly washable could allow nonwoven producers to compete in reusable categories previously dominated by woven and knitted textile products.
For material suppliers and converters, the next questions are cost per use, wash durability, drying energy, fibre composition, recycling options and mass-market consumer acceptance. If those economics hold, reusable hygiene could create an entirely new durable-nonwovens segment rather than simply replacing one disposable product with another.
