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The H&M Global Change Award annually honors early-stage textile innovations trying to tackle environmental issues in the textile and fashion industry, such as reducing emissions, textile recycling and creating cleaner materials. Here are this year’s winners in recycling processes and dyes.
Recycling
DecoRpet, China, has a low-temperature process to remove dyes and impurities from polyester to create high-quality recycled rPET from mixed-composition fabrics, saving energy.
NYLOOP® technology from CircularFabrics, Germany, can recover nylon from blended textile waste without breaking down the fibers.
The waterless recycling process created by Renasens, Sweden, uses supercritical fluids rather than harmful chemicals in its means to extract dyes and additives from polycotton textile waste. The process doesn’t depolymerize or degrade the recovered fibers.
Dyes
Cyanobacteria are the source of biodegradable nontoxic dyes for Brilliant Dyes, U.K. Secondary products from the process include fertilizer and animal feed.
The R&D hub Decarbonization Lab in Bangladesh aims to connect companies with academic research to develop and test low-emission processes in dyeing and finishing.
This year, 10 projects received a €200,000 grant (more than $234,000) and yearlong business support through the GCA Changemaker Programme. The winners were narrowed down from 476 entrants from 69 countries to the top 10.
The award looks for textile innovations across four areas: responsible production (energy efficiency, traceability), sustainable materials and processes (new and recycled fibers, alternative wet processes), mindful consumption (enabling circularity) and “wildcards,” or “unexpected, game-changing ideas that could accelerate industry-wide transformation,” the H&M Foundation describes. The prize’s goal is halving greenhouse gas emissions each decade to reach net-zero by 2050.