Textile solution firm Evrnu is in the business of transformative innovation. And the firm said Friday it developed and launched a breakthrough material made from 100 percent cotton textile waste, that is also 100 percent recyclable.
Its recyclable lyocell material, “100% NuCycl r-lyocell,” is introduced through a premium T-shirt launch with designer Carlos Campos that is, as its name states, 100 percent made of Evrnu’s new NuCycl r-lyocell fiber, now available on the brand’s website for $110.
Christopher Stanev, chief technology officer of Evrnu, said: “For the first time in the history of the textile industry, we can now outperform 90 percent of the market using what is currently perceived as waste. Since we founded Evrnu, we have proven our technologies not only work, but are scalable using existing infrastructure; imagine what our industry will look like when we are done.”
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Creating this fiber meant advancing the existing lyocell manufacturing method, which traditionally processes virgin wood, to instead process textile waste, Evrnu explained. The firm said it used cotton textile waste as its sole raw material, designed to replace and outperform virgin cellulosic and plastic-based materials, which comprise 90 percent of textile fibers, according to the firm. Its material will also offer meaningful impact reductions whilst maintaining its recyclability, Evrnu noted.
Its launch of NuCycl r-lyocell is a moment for Evrnu, as it is the brand’s first commercially available fiber. “Not only does this fiber use cotton textile waste diverted from landfills as its only input, but it can directly replace 90 percent of current textile fibers, including cotton, man-made cellulosic fibers, nylon and polyester. This is a huge breakthrough for the textile industry, which has long been searching for bio-based alternatives to plastic,” according to the company.
Evrnu, founded in 2014, said it is focused on “forging a pathway for the tens of millions of tons of textile waste that end up in landfills or incinerators every year to flow back into the value chain.” To date, Evrnu has raised $31 million in funding and is building a new facility in the southeast U.S. to demonstrate its fiber regeneration technologies at a commercial scale, Evrnu said. Its new facility will service 17,000 metric tons of pulp and 2,000 tons of fiber per year, they added.
The company’s suite of chemical recycling solutions is distinguished in the market for its use of textile waste as a resource: Evrnu breaks it down and regenerates it into new materials that, notably, “outperform both virgin cellulosic and plastic textiles” regarding its strength, endurance, and comfort, in addition to its impressive recyclability of up to 10 times.
Stacy Flynn, cofounder and chief executive officer of Evrnu, said, “We have at least a 20-year push to innovate around climate change to make up for the past 100 years of collateral industrial damage. Our team and partners are dedicated and aligned to outperforming and scaling textile recycling solutions to bring our industry into balance with natural systems.”
Evrnu emphasized that with this launch, the company is demonstrating how textile waste can be used as the sole raw material to “reduce brands’ reliance on both virgin cellulosic and plastic materials,” adding that “Evrnu will continue commercializing 100% NuCycl r-lyocell with a range of brand partners in the coming months, as it works towards developing a larger, closed-loop circular ecosystem for the textiles industry.”
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