Interview With Stacy Flynn

Evrnu has invented era-defining polymer regeneration technologies that address one of the biggest environmental challenges of our times: textile waste. Offering environment-sparing alternatives for the world’s highest demand fibres, the social purpose corporation specialises in the molecular regeneration of garment waste by converting it into a high-quality resource applicable for apparel, home and industrial end use applications. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, Evrnu Co-founder and CEO Stacy Flynndiscusses the challenges and future of post-consumer textile waste recycling.

How has Evrnu grown since its inception?

Like many startups, we began at the lab-level where we developed a new recycling platform, NuCycl, that turns 100 per cent cotton waste into 100 per cent regenerated fibre.

Our first fibre made entirely from cotton textile waste, NuCycl Lyocell, can replace and outperform 90 per cent of fibres in the current textile market, including cotton, man-made cellulosic fibres, nylon, and polyester, and is recyclable up to five times without loss in quality or performance.

In just two months of producing this fibre, we were able to provide the technology to our supply chain partners. Within our first few years, we received commitments worth several hundred million dollars. We are now actively expanding facilities and operations domestically to meet the growing demand for our circular materials.

How many brands has Evrnu collaborated with till date?

Early adopters of our technology include Stella McCartney, Adidas, Levi’s, and Target. In the last year, we have also commercialised the material with brands including Carlos Campos, Zara, and Pangaia.

Please tell us more about NuCycl. Is the technology patented? How sustainable is the process?

NuCycl is a patented technology that regenerates textile waste into new, high-performance fibre on a continuous cycle. NuCycl’s ability to organise the molecular fibre structure strength during the recycling process means the resulting fibre can be regenerated more times, thus reducing resource depletion, waste accumulation, and environmental damage.

What kind of impact have you been able to make? Please share a few key milestones.

We are currently building our first production facility in South Carolina, US, at which we will be able to generate 17,000 tons of NuCycl fibre/year (diverting 17,000 tons of cotton waste from landfills/incinerators per year and preventing those landfill emissions, a carbon footprint of -8,000 to -41,000 tons CO2e per year).

The same volume of polyester production might emit 70,000 tons CO2e, yielding a total savings of ~80,000 to 110,000 tons CO2e. The same amount of cotton production would consume more than 34 million tons of water, whereas NuCycl will consume less than 1 million tons of water.

What is the amount of post-consumer waste generated by the disposal of textiles? How much of it is currently being recycled?

Statistics released in 2018 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that 5.8 per cent of total municipal solid waste from consumers, or approximately 17 million tons annually, is due to the disposal of textiles. Furthermore, less than 4 million tons are recycled, perfectly illustrating the need for enhanced, consumer-friendly recycling options.

What factors are responsible for such a huge amount of solid waste due to the disposal of textiles?

It stems from the increase in consumer consumption and the perceived ‘disposable’ nature of apparel promoted by frequent trend changes.

What are some of the major challenges in post-consumer waste recycling?

There are challenges spanning the entire process, including the lack of meaningful textile waste collection, the need to enhance blend separation and viable re-use for the various fibre types, and the need for proper impurity separation and disposal during the recycling process.

There is an overall lack of scaled recycling options for much of the textile waste, and when recycling is an option, there is a need to move away from downcycling and focus on continuous recycling.

What new innovations are you working towards at Evrnu?

Our goal is for all textiles to be successfully recyclable by 2030, creating a net-neutral industry by 2050. In order to achieve that, we are working to process additional textile waste beyond cotton. Rather than tackling impact reduction and recycling from a specific material or technology point-of-view, we have developed a modular chemical and engineering platform to handle most fibre types, which will be critical towards achieving our mission. Our current pipeline includes regenerative polyester, recoverable stretch and blend separation so that multi-fibre blends can be recycled as efficiently as mono-fibre textiles.

Do you plan to start your own brand in the future?

We are just getting started and see multiple opportunities to help achieve our mission at every stage of the supply chain.

Do you see the way we consume textile waste to change in the years to come? What can be expected in the future?

It has to, and it will change due to the ever-increasing impact of global warming on humanity. We will see increased legislation restricting the disposal and/or incineration of textiles and excess merchant inventory. The pressure on corporations and financial institutions from investors will also increase, as will consumer awareness and access to more sustainable alternatives which do not require consumer sacrifice.