Textile revolution: alternative materials promise exciting sustainable future.
Recent innovations have made some exciting progress in sustainable materials. For heavily polluting industries, like fashion, such innovations are exciting developments and essential for a more sustainable supply chain. Based on the idea that nature has already provided us with countless technologies to create materials from, several companies have sought an alternative for plastic and other regular materials that leave a much smaller footprint. From pineapple to fungi, let’s take a look at what materials are available!
Textile revolution; alternative materials promise exciting sustainable future.Pineapple
Ananas Anam is an innovative company that repurposes pineapple leaves into sustainable vegan textiles. It's made of the fiber from the leaves of the pineapple plant, normally considered a waste in the existing pineapple harvest. After extracting the fibers, they are dried and converted in a mesh. A leathergoods expert spent years researching a more sustainable alternative to the destructive leather industry. As it is made from a waste product, there is no extra land or water required to produce it. It’s already been used by big brands worldwide in fashion, accessories and upholstery.
Image credits: Ananas AnamMycelium
Mycelium is the network of all wiring of a fungus, like mushrooms. Mycelial networks are very strong, extremely fine and the ability to resist water, decay, and immense internal or external pressures. As they come from nature and return to the soil as nutrients it is the perfect element to use in sustainable products. Multiple companies are experimenting with the promising possibilities and currently producing products that are already being sold to consumers.
Ecovative grows natural mycelium and provides alternatives to leather, plastic, and other products of fossil fuels. By cultivating them at scale under controlled conditions the company is expanding the possibilities of working with mushrooms, with a focus on the networks of mycelia to create durable, sustainable biomaterials. This can be used to produce vegan food, such as bacon, or leather and packaging products for example. The material is even so strong that furniture can be made from it. Imagine sitting on a mushroom chair!
Another mycelium leather producer is Mycotech. They argue that this perfect alternative material has been around for a while, but has yet to breakthrough in people actually wearing the products made from it. With projects such as the “WTF! Wear The Fungi” exhibition with fashion students, it tries to make this material widespread.
So, mushrooms can be a promising alternative for many materials. Recently scientists even discovered fungi that can repair itself, inciting exciting images of a world in which products last for a lifetime because they can repair themself. Although they admitted it is still a long way off, it’s a great prospect and incentive to invest in this kind of research.
Image credits: Mycotech LabSea waste
Seaweed sneakers. Yes, it’s a thing. ER Soulier produces sneakers from ‘’elements that would otherwise be considered waste such as fishnets, seaweed, and seafood byproducts.’’
The shoes are composed of 78.5% recycled elements, ‘’while also utilizing sleepstock leather, natural cork and recycled rubber’’. Designer Eugène Riconneaus started to notice the heavy amounts of sea pollution during COVID 19 lockdowns. He hopes people will start to appreciate marine litter as a source for design and as a way of influencing action for combatting ocean pollution.
Image credits: Eugène RiconneusBananas
Another fruit responsible for exciting innovation. Bananatex ‘’is the world’s first durable, technical fabric made purely from the naturally grown Abacá banana plants.’’ This is almost the same tree as the regular banana tree, except that this one produces fibers instead of fruit. The company grows the plant within a natural ecosystem, so without extra water and pesticides. As with the ananas, the fibers are extracted, turned into paper and then woven into yarn. It’s presented as a true alternative for synthetic fabrics. The open source project took 3 years of research and resulted in a fabric that has already been used in collaboration with global fashion brands such as H&M.
Image credits: Bananatex