Fabiola Polli, Ph.D. (CEO of BioFashionTech), Bram Visscher and Laura Claret Fernández have started an endeavor to bring down the waste from the fashion industry, repurposing end-of-life cotton for other applications.
This project, funded by Nationaal Regieorgaan Praktijkgericht Onderzoek SIA through the KIEM GoChem subsidy scheme, aims to reduce fashion waste by attacking the close to 34 million tons of waste cotton textiles that are incinerated or sent to landfills every year. Additionally, 67% of garments are made of plastic fibers, and when disposed of in landfills, 5% of them turn into microplastics that can end up on our plates. A way to circularize these textiles is through fermentation.
BioFashionTech proposes an innovative biotech process to address these issues by recovering and recycling plastic fibers while transforming natural fibers into bio-based molecules. These molecules are then used as secondary raw materials to produce bio-based pigments for textiles. The project aims to optimize this process and test it on larger scale with the assistance of the HAN BioCentre.
This initiative aligns with Dutch government and EU regulations mandating textile recycling by 2050. The technology used is patent pending and does not involve the use of toxic chemicals or the release of harmful wastewater or fumes, contributing to a shift towards a more circular and sustainable textile industry by reintegrating natural colorants into textile production.
