Material World: Oxman Marries Biomaterials and Tech, Drops Biodegradable O° Shoes
Material World is a weekly roundup of innovations and ideas within the materials sector, covering news from emerging biomaterials and alternative leathers to sustainable substitutes and future-proof fibers.
Puma
Puma is part of a multi-brand consortium that just dropped a new garment made entirely from textile waste by using a new biorecycling technology developed by Carbios.
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That garment is a plain white tee, made from mixed and colored textile waste. Using enzymes, the French firm’s tech broke down the polyester into its fundamental building blocks to become biorecycled polyester, with quality allegedly on par with its virgin counterpart. As most recycled polyester used in the apparel industry comes from PET bottles—and only 1 percent of fibers are recycled into new fibers—the consortium hopes that this demonstration of a closed fiber-to-fiber loop shirt will help change that.
“Puma’s wish is to have 100 percent of our polyester coming from textile waste. Today’s announcement is an important milestone towards achieving this and making our industry more circular,” said Anne-Laure Descours, chief sourcing officer at Puma. “We now need to work together to make sure we can scale up this technology to make the largest possible impact. We’re excited to be part of this breakthrough and setting new standards for fiber-to-fiber recycling.”
The consortium—comprised of Puma, Patagonia and PVH Corp, among others—exists to advance the textile sector’s shift toward a circular economy by developing and industrializing Carbios’ enzymatic depolymerization technology to achieve 100 percent fiber-to-fiber recycling. This has the potential to replace petroleum with textile waste to make polyester pieces, which can then be recycled and thus fuel a circular economy.
“It may look like an ordinary t-shirt, but make no mistake, the technology behind it is extraordinary,” said Carbios CEO Emmanuel Ladent. “To achieve ‘fiber-to-fiber’ recycling is a technological feat. Carbios couldn’t have done it alone, so thanks to the collaboration with our consortium partners, we have overcome many technical hurdles together to produce the world’s first enzymatically recycled t-shirt made entirely from biorecycled fibers.”
Oxman
Design lab Oxman has debuted O°, a digital and robotic technology platform that powers the production of biobased textiles that are 100 percent biodegradable at the end of life, as zero petrochemicals, glues or microplastics are used.
O° (pronounced O-Zero) hopes to “remove the complexity inherent in conventional fabrication processes, enabling the creation of consumer products from one material, under one roof, with minimal human intervention through a nearly zero-waste process.” The lab’s first product created using the platform is a collection of shoes made entirely from polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).
“PHAs have long been recognized as a promising alternative to petroleum-based plastics,” said Neri Oxman, founder and CEO of Oxman. “We have successfully elevated the potential of PHA through the development of the O°, a new technology for the design and fabrication of products that seeks to minimize harm in its conception and nourish the environment in its afterlife.”
PHAs can be produced by bacteria that eat atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane and food waste. They reduce carbon in the environment as they grow and are biologically recyclable. As a result, when O° textiles and shoes decompose, they return to the bacteria from which they came. But, just like traditional biodegradable fibers, PHA won’t break down when it’s not used.
“We are thrilled to unveil our first product using this technology,” Oxman said. “The O° shoe is made using 100 percent PHA, is 100 percent biodegradable and has no petrochemicals or microplastics.”
The O° robotic system 3D prints proprietary PHA blends onto a textile that’s 3D knitted on an industrial flatbed machine from 100 percent PHA yarn produced through extrusion and melt spinning. This knitting and printing technology eliminates the cut-and-sew as well as adhesion processes typical of shoemaking. Furthermore, O° uses bacteria not just as a source of material, but also to “encode other functional properties” like pigment production to simplify the manufacturing process.
Modern Meadow
Modern Meadow has partnered with leather leader Esbeco, which will operate as a buyer for the New Jersey-based firm’s Bio-Vera sustainable alternative material.
“Given Modern Meadow’s capability to produce over 500,000 square meters per year of Bio-Vera, our partnership with Esbeco allows them to immediately meet growing commercial customer demand for a high-quality, animal-free and sustainable material alternative that simplifies existing supply chains,” said David Williamson, Modern Meadow’s CEO. “As Esbeco will utilize their own finishing facility to create custom finished hides using our biomaterial, they will have full control to quickly implement Bio-Vera for their discerning and environmentally conscious customers, as well as for their own collections.”
Bio-Vera is made with over 90 percent renewable carbon content, crafted using Modern Meadow’s proprietary Bio-Alloy technology platform of plant-based proteins and polymers. The plant-derived biomaterial is designed to easily integrate into existing production processes. Esbeco will import the next-gen material as a finished product, made to its specifications, before further customizing the material and distributing it to its affiliated companies. Alphenberg and Jess Design will use Bio-Vera to produce acoustic wall coverings and upholstered furniture, respectively.
“We have been on a long journey in search of the right biomaterial that looks, feels and naturally ages like traditional leather and suede that will also help us push design and sustainability boundaries,” said Vincent Bergmans, co-owner of Esbeco. “We have always said, ‘leather should look like leather,’ and when we showed our customers Modern Meadow’s Bio-Vera, they could not see a difference between it and real leather or suede. By using Bio-Vera, we are offering our customers design flexibility and the opportunity to make sustainability progress and claims when marketing their products worldwide.”
Alphenberg and Jess Design anticipate beginning to sell products made with Bio-Vera next month.
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