Robocops in Rocafort

Hydrogen ions and recycled bottles. The Rocafort Local Police’s major commitment to uniforms, a pioneer in Spain.

• Rocafort Town Council is a pioneer in incorporating this technology from the Valencian company Satara Seguridad.
• The municipality’s officers have also incorporated an innovative portable fire extinguishing device.

The Rocafort Local Police has become the first in Spain to incorporate into its uniforms polo shirts made from 100% polyester fabric made from recycled bottles that neutralise the ammonia in body odour and expel the acetic acid in sweat with hydrogen ions.

Specifically, the polo shirts are made with Nature Fresh fabric by Satara Seguridad, a company specializing in state-of-the-art police uniforms and equipment, and they also have the particularity of fulfilling all these functions while respecting bacteria that are beneficial to the skin.

Rocafort City Council has incorporated these garments, among other police uniforms and complements for its agents, as a sign of its “commitment to sustainability and safety of our Local Police Force and in order to renew equipment with the latest technology available”, says the councillor for Safety and Security, Guillermo José Gimeno.

Unlike traditional methods of eliminating odours in clothing that use silver, copper or carbon ions, this innovative solution does not pollute as it uses hydrogen ions for its production and complies with the ISO 17299-1:2014 standard, as well as having the most demanding OEKO-Tex ecolabel.

It also highlights that this bactericidal treatment “is not lost in the wash or contaminated in this process, as is the case with other technologies,” according to Satara Seguridad’s marketing director, Edmund Valenzuela. Meanwhile, the sustainable production process is certified by the GRS and TC standard, which guarantees the traceability of the production process.

In the same way, the Local Police force of the Valencian municipality will recycle their uniforms in disuse also through the Valencian company Satara Seguridad, which provides a solution to these garments which, as they are the work wear of official bodies, cannot be thrown into a common container or donated.

The company collects the garments, separates the elements that make up the uniforms and transforms them into new textile materials to give them a new life. “In this way, we reduce the pollution that would be generated by incinerating the fabrics and we close the cycle of the circular economy,” explains Valenzuela.

The police equipment purchased also includes the innovative EXO2 portable fire extinguishing device. Compared to the more than 6 kg that a traditional fire extinguisher weighs, this technological solution in the form of a pistol incorporates an immediate fire response system, whose smoke capsules weighing less than 100 grams extinguish fires in just a few seconds and at a distance of between 3 and 5 metres to guarantee the user’s safety at all times.

This new formula, according to Valenzuela, “respects the environment and does not generate toxic gases, unlike classic methods such as fire extinguishers”. The capsules are made of 100% recyclable aluminium without chemical treatments, and the internal compound is made of materials suitable for human consumption.

Finally, “if the material expires without being used, the CO2 footprint is zero, and an accidental spill in any ecosystem would have no consequences beyond fertilising the area,” adds Valenzuela.

Satara Seguridad is a leading supplier of uniforms and accessories for local security forces in more than 700 locations in Spain. The company is committed to the application of R+D in the clothes and accessories it supplies to guarantee maximum safety and confidence to agents in the extreme situations to which they are exposed. In addition, it is the only Spanish company manufacturing and distributing police uniforms and equipment with the ‘Calculate, reduce, compensate’ seal granted by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.