On April 17th we continued our virtual Trend Tour series with Fashion and Textile Part II. Three awesome start-ups from the CIRCULAZE short- and long-list 2022 shared their solutions with us.
Fast fashion waste is a major environmental and social issue that urgently needs to be addressed. The production of clothing is a resource-intensive process that contributes to climate change, water scarcity, and pollution. Currently, the fashion industry produces 10% of all global carbon emissions and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply.
Additionally, the disposal of clothing in landfills contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and creates a range of environmental and health problems. Only 15% of clothing is recycled or donated, while the rest is either incinerated or sent to landfills.
After the success of the first Fashion & Textile Trend Tour, we organized a Part II to see more solutions in moving towards a circular fashion industry. From the CIRCULAZE short- and long-list 2022, start-ups Keel Labs, Restorecs, and Circulix joined us to share their Circular Economy solutions in fashion & textile.
Moderated by:
Keynote by:
The Startups:
Founder/s:
Tessa Callaghan, Aleksandra Gosiewski, and Aaron Nesser
Located In:
Morrisville, NC, USA
Keel Labs is providing a scalable and sustainable alternative for designers, manufacturers, and consumers by utilizing materials with a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional textile.
What They Do: Did you know that the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions and that this number is only set to climb in the next decade? That is why Keel Labs, formerly known as AlgiKnit, is on a mission to create eco-conscious, renewable yarns to help lower the impact on the environment. Keel Labs is providing a scalable and sustainable alternative for designers, manufacturers, and consumers by utilizing materials with a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional textiles. Their yarns are made from one of the most renewing organisms on the planet: kelp. Kelp makes a durable fabric yet is easily degradable when a product’s lifespan has reached its end. And what’s even more important, Keel Labs is making these yarns accessible to all. Affordable and circular? Now that’s a catwalk we are ready to walk down.
Founder/s:
Cédric Vanhoeck and Vanessa Counaert
Located In:
Brussels, Belgium
Resortecs’ SmartStitch thread dissolves to make it easy to take apart clothes for reuse or recycling, and their thermal disassembly system Smart Disassembly speeds up the process, bringing a new lease of life to textile.
What They Do: Away from the glamour of the catwalk and magazine spreads, the fashion industry’s dirty secrets have been revealed to the world, front and center is the wastage. Every second, one truck full of textile is wasted across the earth. And when it comes to being wasted, these are not destined for recycling, but for the landfill, with just 1% of all garments recycled. It’s not that this material couldn’t be recycled and reused elsewhere. It could, but was ineffective and laborious — or at least it was. Resortecs’ SmartStitch thread dissolves to make it easy to take apart clothes for reuse or recycling, and their thermal disassembly system Smart Disassembly speeds up the process, bringing a new lease of life to textiles. Circularity and fashion need not only apply to the Spring/Summer and Winter/Fall seasons, the future of fashion is circular.
Founder/s:
Phillip Brandts, Dr. Mateusz Wielopolski, and Christian VoigtMax Große Lutermann & Janis Künkler
Located In:
Berlin, Germany
Circulix’s acceleration solution assesses and evaluates the circularity of your products and processe.
What They Do: Circulix is the circularity acceleration solution that transforms and connects companies. Their solution assesses and evaluates the circularity of your products and processes; based on a unique scoring system, it proposes customized strategies to improve your circularity score and connects you with evaluated partners. Becoming a Circular Economy Pioneer has never been easier. With Circulix, get a realtime view on the circularity of your products & build a circular product portfolio in no time!
