Tissues able to suck the CO2 of the atmosphere are among the innovations making it possible to deal with the climate emergency.
Examine a garment's care tag and you might find that it was made from pineapple stems or cactus leaves, or that a tote was woven from banana yarn. From mushroom leather to seaweed t-shirts, the search is on for alternative materials with lower carbon footprints. The latest result is carbon-negative clothing made with algae that absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.
" There mode is part of the problem, but it is also part of the solution,” said Nina Marenzi, founder and director of Sustainable Angle, a nonprofit organization non-profit which promotes green textiles during its Future Fabric Annual Expo. " We let's start with materials and make them sustainable, and if fashion supply chains can change, we start to address it. »
New York designer Charlotte McCurdy made a mac bio plastic transparent using seaweed, especially powdered seaweed used in vegan food products. She worked with glass casters to find a way to heat the seaweed and cool it in a controlled way to make it transparent. The tissue is carbon-negative because the algae draw carbon from the atmosphere, which means the mantle acts as a carbon sink.
"Follow carbon - where does it come from? ", Did she say. “Does it come from carbon extracted from the atmosphere millions of years ago and put in the ground? We talk a lot about what happens to fabrics after they're used, but not where they came from in the first place. »
Post Carbon Lab uses the same principle with another algae prototype - clothing that photosynthesizes. The London-based start-up has created a photosynthesis coating, a layer of living algae on the fabric of clothing that absorbs carbon dioxide and emits oxygen, turning carbon into sugar. A large T-shirt - almost a square meter of material - generates about as much oxygen as a six-year-old oak tree, according to the co-founder Dian Jen Linen.
The startup has worked with designers and industry to translate its photosynthesis coating into a marketable product, and Lin said it could be used in shoes, backpacks, curtains, pillowcases, etc. pillow and umbrellas.
The care instructions were rather different from normal clothes, she said. Seaweed harbor was not without perils. "You can't put it in your dark wardrobe. It needs light and carbon dioxide, so you should place it in a well-ventilated area, like the back of your chair. "I wouldn't recommend this liner for your underwear, but maybe for a windbreaker or a jacket. "
Lin and his co-founder Hannes Hulstaert are testing the limits of coating, which she says can be applied to almost any garment, whether it's a full coating or a print. "But he might change color if he's really upset, didn't like the light or the temperature," Lin said. " There most organisms are shaded green. In a healthy state, they are dark brownish-green, orange-green. When it is unhappy it can turn yellow, orange, brown, purple or white or transparent. "
However, it seems remarkably resilient. "We've had samples for three years that have come back to life," Lin said.
Other textiles include the Piñatex , made from pineapple leaves and used by Hugo Boss and H&M, and Mycotex , a substance from fungi. Cactus is the next vegetable-based leather to emerge, the creation of Desserto , a Mexican company that makes leather from leaves.
The challenges facing the fashion industry in its quest to become greener are enormous. The UK throws around 300,000 tonnes of clothing into landfill each year, and some studies suggest global textile production creates 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - more than airlines and shipping combined .
