Stella McCartney unveils first garment made using biological recycling
©Stella McCartney
British fashion designer Stella McCartney unveiled a parka jacket in partnership with US biological recycling company Protein Evolution at COP28 crafted using artificial intelligence and biology to produce raw ingredients of polyester from plastic waste instead of fossil fuels.
The collaboration is the world’s first garment made using biological recycling and marks a breakthrough for the fashion industry as brands work to reduce their environmental impact and seek sustainable alternatives to polyester and plastic.
The parka draws inspiration from parachute styles that have appeared throughout Stella McCartney’s collections and utilising a fabric made using Protein Evolution’s Biopure technology, which transformed rigid packaging waste and industrial textile strappings, formerly used to secure international freight containers, into good-as-new polyester.
This Biopure process leverages AI-designed enzymes to break down polyester waste into the raw materials of new polyester that are indistinguishable to the petroleum-derived raw materials used in polyester manufacturing today to eliminate the need for new fossil fuels to create polyester.
Once these raw materials are re-integrated into the manufacturing process, the result is an infinitely recyclable polyester with a meaningfully lower carbon footprint than polyester produced from petroleum. Biopure is capable of handling a variety of waste streams, from plastic bottles and clam-shells, to industrial textiles and garments.
