{"id":138884,"date":"2024-02-16T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=138884"},"modified":"2024-02-06T10:54:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T09:54:41","slug":"heres-how-a-lingerie-brand-designed-its-new-undies-to-be-totally-biodegradable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/heres-how-a-lingerie-brand-designed-its-new-undies-to-be-totally-biodegradable\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how a lingerie brand designed its new undies to be totally biodegradable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

In the past, underwear was made primarily of cotton and other organic fibers. But in the modern world, we like our undies stretchy and moisture-wicking, so brands now make them with plastic fibers. These fibers do not biodegrade, so they will stay in our landfills for hundreds of years, breaking into tiny particles that will end up in the water streams and ultimately in the food chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something Lisa Mullan, cofounder of underwear brand Uwila Warrior, has thought a lot about over the years. She\u2019s tried to make her undergarments out of sustainable materials, including organic fibers like bamboo and recycled polyester. But at the end of their life span, her products were contributing to plastic pollution. \u201cEven our silk underwear contains some synthetic fibers,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is how it retains it shape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
[Photo: courtesy Uwila Warrior]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Several months ago, Mullan came across a scientific article about a startup that has developed Ciclo technology, which changes the polymer structure of plastic fibers to make them biodegradable. So she reached out to collaborate, and this year Uwila Warrior is launching a collection of underwear and matching camisoles made from Ciclo fibers. They\u2019re the first-ever intimates on the market made with synthetic fibers that will biodegrade in a landfill after a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Ferris, cofounder and CEO of Intrinsic Advanced Materials, the company behind Ciclo technology, previously worked for a garment manufacturer that made uniforms for enormous companies like McDonald\u2019s. \u201cWe used polyester because it was the best material when you consider price, durability, and washability,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we knew that we were contributing to the microplastic crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that microplastics are widely found in the foods we eat and the water we drink. In studies on rodents, microplastics have been found to cause health problems such as endocrine disruptions and neurotoxicity.\u00a0Researchers have also identified that microfibers<\/a>\u00a0are the most prevalent form of microplastic in the water, land, and atmosphere around the globe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
[Photo: courtesy Uwila Warrior]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In nature, microbes consume organic materials, releasing biogases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is how items decompose in landfills. But plastic is made of polymers that are too large for a microbe to consume. Instead, the plastic breaks down into particles that are so small they are imperceptible to the human eye\u2014but they continue to pollute the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twelve years ago, Ferris hired a team of scientists to see if they could find a way to make synthetic fibers biodegradable. The team is led by Sudeep Motupalli Rao, a chemical engineer with an interest in biomimicry. For Ciclo, Rao and his team developed a solution that changes the chemical structure of the plastic, embedding it with countless biodegradable pathways so that microbes are able to consume the fibers. In third-party lab testing done by ASTM and ISO\u2014the gold standard for testing biodegradability\u2014Ciclo polyester biodegraded at the same rate as wool, which is between 2.6 and 3.7 years, depending on the environment it\u2019s in.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
[Photo: courtesy Uwila Warrior]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

But importantly, Ciclo doesn\u2019t change the quality of the polyester; it is exactly as durable and long-lasting as it would be otherwise. \u201cLike other organic fabrics, it only biodegrades under specific conditions, such as in landfills that are rich with microbes,\u201d Ferris says. \u201cThat\u2019s crucial because many brands choose synthetic materials specifically because of their durability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsic Advanced Materials now works with synthetic fiber manufacturers around the world to create Ciclo biodegradable materials, along the way making the process as easy as possible: You simply put a pellet into the manufacturing system, much the way you would use a dye pellet, and it changes the structure of the fiber. Currently the process yields a slight increase in price, roughly on par with going from virgin polyester to recycled polyester. \u201cOur goal is to scale this so that it is price competitive and any brand that uses synthetics can use it,\u201d Ferris says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
[Photo: courtesy Uwila Warrior]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

But for now, the company is still in the process of getting the word out. That\u2019s where early-adopter brands like Uwila Warrior come in. \u201cAs a small, nimble brand, we\u2019re able to try out new things,\u201d Mullan says. \u201cAnd our hope is that we\u2019ll get other brands interested in the material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took a look at the new collection, called Better Briefs, which features underwear and camisoles, and they look identical to the collection the brand was making before. And they\u2019re at a similar price point, ranging from $28 to $58.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferris says that Ciclo\u2019s technology can be embedded in a lot of different kinds of plastic, including single-use plastic bottles. But she believes that society should be reducing its dependence on single-use plastics and shifting to more sustainable solutions like reusable bottles. However, the fashion industry doesn\u2019t have a good alternative to plastic-based materials, which make up 60% of all fabrics on the market<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlastic fibers are incredibly durable, which is both their strength and their weakness,\u201d Ferris says. \u201cBrands will be continuing to use them for the foreseeable future; making them biodegradable is one way to reduce their impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past, underwear was made primarily of cotton and other organic fibers. But in the modern world, we like our undies stretchy and moisture-wicking, so brands now make them with plastic fibers. These fibers do not biodegrade, so they will stay in our landfills for hundreds of years, breaking into tiny particles that will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":138923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Some 11 million pounds of underwear ends up in landfills every day. Lingerie brand Uwila Warrior designed its product to be totally biodegradable","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,13444,11323,12468,19562],"supplier":[14967,23549],"class_list":["post-138884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-fabrics","tag-naturalfibers","tag-textiles","tag-underwear","supplier-intrinsic-advanced-materials-llc-ciclo","supplier-uwila-warrior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138884"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=138884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}