As the apparel and textile industry continues to meet the challenges of sustainability, one company is putting emphasis on cotton recycling. Evrnu, a Seattle-based advanced material innovation company working to reshape resource utilization and reduce the negative environmental impacts of the textile industry, announced plans at the end of 2023 to break ground on a cotton recycling facility in South Carolina starting in 2024.

At the time of writing, it wasn’t confirmed whether the groundbreaking already took place.

The facility will run primarily on renewable energy and have the capacity to create the equivalent of 80,000 T-shirts every year from recycled cotton clothing, according to an article from Green Biz. While construction will begin early this year, the company doesn’t plan for it to be fully operational until 2025.

Stacy Flynn, founder and CEO of Evrnu, the company started researching the cotton recycling process in 2011. Flynn shared in the article from Green Biz that while studying for an MBA in sustainable systems at Pinchot University, she shredded an old T-shirt, dissolved it in a chemical solution, and used a syringe to squirt it into a bath of sulfuric acid, which re-solidified the liquified cotton into new “threads.” That was the first prototype of the process now called NuCycle, which has now been patented.

The process mechanically and chemically reduces solid cotton to a pulp, then reconstitutes it into fibers for new clothes. Flynn shares that the garments are first separated by a grading machine to select the clothes that are the closest to 100% cotton — the rest are discarded for traditional downcycling.

The end result, according to Evrnu, is a fabric made from recycled cotton that performs like virgin cotton. The bonus is it is itself 100% recyclable.

“By linking the existing waste supply chain to the existing apparel supply chain, we can start essentially creating a closed circuit supply chain as we create new products,” said Flynn in an article from Apparel Resources.

Continued Sustainability Efforts

This is just one of several other efforts that are happening within the apparel industry. Some states, such as California, have attempted to pass recycling laws that would require its fashion manufacturers to help set up free collection sites in every county where consumers can drop off unwanted items. Manufacturers and suppliers are even implementing their own recycling programs in some cases.

For those shops interested in learning more, here are a few resources: