Ambercycle

ambercycle is a company that converts end-of-life textile waste into new polyester yarns that can be used to make garments.

Most of the manufacturers use polyester for the clothing, which is approximately 40 million tons per annum, out of which only 5% gets recycled or reused in fashion. With its approach, ambercycle aims to revolutionize the concept of recycling to include environmentally friendly and sustainable elements into the existing approach.

It converts end-of-life clothing into polyester pellets which would otherwise have been made from oil. Then the regenerated pallets are used to create new clothing the same way pellet extracted from oil is used. It uses engineered enzymes to separate polyester with high selectivity from the blended textile waste materials. The separated polyester is then spun into virgin quality fiber. Any kind of waste that contains polyester can be used in the process eg: textile, carpets, bottles, industrial materials, etc.

How does it work:

• The waste clothes are collected.
• The waste is turned into polyester pellets.
• The pellets are turned into yarn
• Clothes are manufactured from the yarn.

The company is currently in the pilot stage of its technology, in Los Angeles. The unit can processes approximately 220 pounds of clothing scrapes every day from local businesses.

The necessary types of equipment can fit into a shipping container that can be dispatched to any location and can be integrated into the existing supply chain. The box can either use the solar panel is placed on its top for power or can use energy from the incineration of leftover materials. Currently, it is only handling textiles but aims to cover plastic packaging, carpets, and other materials in the future.

This can benefit the fashion, apparel, recycling, and other industries to recycle their waste.