With the average European acquiring 19 kg of clothing, footwear and household textiles every single year, the environmental impacts of the textiles industry have been thrust into the limelight. The textiles industry has the 5th highest consumption of raw materials, just behind food, housing, transport, and household goods, along with the 5th highest greenhouse gas emissions. Lowering the industry's footprint to reduce resource depletion and emissions and to bring fashion in line with global climate and sustainability objectives is therefore crucial.
Given an ever-increasing consumption of products, innovative companies have turned to addressing these impacts.
This article is the second in our series on tackling textile sustainability. In our first article, one approach deals with addressing the problems associated with textile waste and recycling. The other aims to find, develop, and scale alternative textile technologies of tomorrow that are more sustainable than the cotton and polyester of today, which we explore in this current article.
Turning Waste into Wearables
One of the most promising frontiers in sustainable textiles is the upcycling of existing waste streams. The textiles industry has traditionally relied on virgin stocks, either from large-scale, often labour-intensive farming, or from plastics ultimately derived from crude oil, both of which have massive environmental impacts. The production of cotton alone takes up 2.5% of all total global arable land. Utilising waste streams can solve two problems at once by finding a new use for agricultural waste.
Banana stems are usually burned after their bananas are harvested. What if they became breathable fabrics instead? 29Acacia utilises fibres made from banana plant stems and, rather than cutting them down and burning them after a harvest, they instead are macerated and processed with an enzyme mix. This produces soft, breathable, and versatile fibres that match the performance of cotton and viscose at one-tenth the carbon footprint of cotton. If adopted widely, this could reduce open-field burning, a major source of CO2 emissions in tropical regions. The model also incentivises farmers by paying for the discarded stems, creating a circular economy that benefits both agriculture and fashion.
What if yesterday’s potato field became tomorrow’s T-shirt? Fibe has found a way to obtain soft, cotton-like fibres from potato stalks and stems. With potatoes being the world’s fourth most important food crop, there are tens of millions of tons of renewable feedstock that could be transformed into fabrics. The sheer scale of potato cultivation globally gives Fibe a strong feedstock advantage, but the logistics of collecting potato stalks and stems at scale remain a challenge. Currently, potato stalks and stems are chopped and left to decompose in fields after harvest. Collecting and transporting them at scale will require new supply chain solutions, possibly involving partnerships with farm equipment manufacturers or local cooperatives.
Fungal Future with Mycelium
Could mushrooms redefine what we think of as leather? Ecovative have pioneered the use of mycelium to create sustainable leather alternatives. Their AirLoom™ hides are grown in a matter of days to weeks, using agricultural byproducts as feedstock. The resulting material is fully biodegradable, plastic-free, and can be tanned and finished like animal leather. Mycelium can be grown indoors in vertical farms in just days to weeks, minimising energy and space requirements compared to cattle farming (see our Forward Feature “Mycelium, a natural wonder”, which describes some of the pioneering work by biomaterials company Ecovative). Mycelium-based leather is already attracting luxury brands and appearing at fashion shows thanks to its unique texture and sustainability credentials. However, durability and cost parity with animal leather remain key hurdles before mainstream adoption.
Brewing Up New Materials
The beverage industry produces vast quantities of organic waste, much of which ends up as low-value animal feed or compost. The industry is however not new to upcycling, with the yeast spread Marmite famously being made from spent brewer’s yeast.
Could your next tote bag therefore start life in a brewery? Arda Biomaterials is upcycling a different brewing by-product called ‘brewers spent grain’, which is produced after the sugar has been extracted from barley to brew beer and whisky. It is usually sold as low-grade cattle feed or turned into biogas, but Arda is turning this brewery by-product into a useful leather-like material. Their production process enables the creation of custom leather textures, which is shown in the tote bags they created in collaboration with Been London. Arda’s approach exemplifies industrial symbiosis, where waste from one sector becomes feedstock for another. If scaled, breweries could become unexpected players in sustainable fashion supply chains.
Colourful fibres
Improving the sustainability credentials of textiles isn’t just about the base material; it extends to every aspect of textile production. Given the importance of visual appeal in fashion, a key aspect for consideration in textiles is colour. Traditional dyes and pigments are often derived from petrochemicals and can be highly polluting.
Inspired by the vibrant metallic blue of the marble berry, Sparxell has developed plant-based, biodegradable pigments and structurally coloured films made entirely from cellulose nanoparticles. The technology works by producing the desired colour in a manner similar to how a morpho butterfly’s wings are colourful without containing pigments. Their technology offers a more sustainable replacement for plastic-based sequins, metallic threads, and even glitters in the fashion industry. By replacing petrochemical-based pigments, Sparxell addresses microplastic pollution from decorative elements, which is one of the most overlooked sustainability issues in fashion.
Beyond pigments, technologies like supercritical CO2 dyeing and digital printing are reducing water use in colouration. These methods eliminate toxic dye baths, cutting water pollution, which is a major issue in textile hubs like Bangladesh and India.
Investment trends
Venture capital is flowing into textile innovation, and fashion giants are increasingly partnering with biotech startups. This signals growing confidence that sustainable materials can meet performance and aesthetic demands.
Looking Forward
The scale of change required in the textiles industry will not happen overnight. As a society, we will need to embrace an array of solutions, from reducing our consumption, recycling more of our waste fabrics, to more sustainable sourcing of textile feedstocks and the development of new technologies.
A formidable challenge lies in convincing both consumers and businesses to move away from conventional fabrics. At the moment, these are inexpensive, performant and ubiquitous. Although innovators are already on their way to matching or even exceeding the performance of some conventional materials, price and consumer awareness will likely present bigger hurdles. Most textile technologies examined in this blog post are still being produced at very small scales. It is almost certain that costs will come down with numerous incremental innovations developed during scaling up production.
This leaves the most difficult factor of all, convincing consumers to want green textiles. There is already promising research showing people do care about sustainability in fashion, but are often put off by the high price tag. Continued innovation and a robust marketing campaign highlighting the benefits of more sustainable fashion would be useful in further driving public perception of the industry.
Regulation is helping set the stage for progress in industry. For example, the EU is proposing legislation to mandate extended producer responsibility and minimum recycled content in textiles. Similar frameworks could accelerate adoption of sustainable fabrics globally, much like renewable energy policies did for solar and wind.
In addition to challenges, the requirements for new technologies present exciting opportunities for innovators and businesses to capture the fashion world’s attention with clean and green fabrics.
Will tomorrow’s wardrobe be grown, brewed, or engineered? The race is on.
Peter is a patent technical assistant in the Chemistry team. Peter graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MChem degree in chemistry with first-class honours. As part of his degree, he completed a year-long industrial placement at GSK, where he worked in cheminformatics. His work centred on developing and implementing explainable AI methods for drug discovery, which formed the basis of his master’s thesis. During his studies, he completed a summer internship at TU Darmstadt in Germany, researching molecular dynamics simulations of ferroelectric liquid crystals. He also spent time in the university rocketry team, running quantum-mechanical simulations of liquid propellant combustion.
Email: peter.kenda@mewburn.com
