Design studio Envisions has worked with engineering company Imat-Uve to make a recycled textile from used clothing usually considered unfit for recycling.
Their textile, called Fibers Unsorted, is a technical fabric made from mixed-fibre clothing that would otherwise have gone to landfill. Instead, it is processed into a product that is durable and high-quality enough to be used in the automotive industry, among others.
Even though recycled fabrics have become more commonplace, textiles are difficult to recycle and the bulk of such waste goes into landfill. The textile industry is one of the most polluting ones out there. Every second, the volume of a garbage truck filled with both used and unused clothing ends up in a landfill. Only a minor share of this waste re-enters our daily lives as low-quality materials, such as insulation.
Textile waste isn’t only high in volume, it contains several types of fibers, materials, colors, and quality levels, which are impossible to sort industrially. Despite the enormous mountain ahead, Envisions decided to take up the challenge of developing a recycled yarn from waste textiles that meets the highest industrial standards.
Fiber Unsorted
Eindhoven, Neatherlands
