Proving that humans still have the capacity to impress every once in a while, the New York Times is reporting that a biodegradable synthetic fabric is almost market-ready, and that it could “completely change the equation by taking technical materials and transforming them into natural nutrients.”
Developed by PrimaLoft, the biodegradable fabric — dubbed PrimaLoft Bio — is already getting applied to samples from brands like L.L. Bean, Houdini and Helly Hansen, the last of which is made “not just from PrimaLoft Bio insulation… but also wooden buttons and cotton fabric and thread.”
“[Microbes are] the Next Big Thing (or next teeny-tiny thing) in an approach to clothing that focuses not just on the materials we use to make what we wear, but what happens to those materials when all the wearing is done,” the story said.
For context, it turns out that there actually are “naturally occurring micro-organisms” that will eat synthetic fibers, it’s just that those fibers are more of “a choice of last resort” (sort of like a rest stop freezer burrito). So to spice up that microbe menu item, PrimaLoft “attached a simple sugar to the recycled polyester polymer” making it “a more desirable food source,” according to their engineers.
And it actually seems to be working. In tests run in both landfill and marine environments, “the PrimaLoft Bio fibers showed exponentially faster biodegradation than many comparable polyesters,” the story said. “In less than a year and a half… about 86 percent of the material had biodegraded in the landfill environment. After 486 days, about 57 percent had biodegraded in a marine environment.”
Before we all start freaking out — we totally can, just hold on — there are a couple fundamental problems with the innovative fabric: it still sheds microplastics and it can’t be used for an entire garment, which means other companies need to get on board for it to really matter.
(Also, is there an outside chance these microbes could eat so much polyester that they turn into not-microbes and take over the planet? Who’s to say. But I digress.)
Still, PrimaLoft thinks their tech “could work for any fleece or polyester-based product made by a fashion brand,” so there is a chance it will become more than just a novelty.
You can read more about it at The New York Times.
