Introducing the fashion of the future: a T-shirt you can wear a few times, then, when you get bored with it, dissolve and recycle to make a new shirt.
Introducing the fashion of the future: a T-shirt you can wear a few times, then, when you get bored with it, dissolve and recycle to make a new shirt.
Researchers at the ATLAS Institute at the CU Boulder are now one step closer to that goal. In a new study, the team of engineers and designers developed a DIY machine that spins textile fibers made of materials like sustainably sourced gelatin. The group’s “biofibers” feel a bit like flax fiber and dissolve in hot water in minutes to an hour.
The team, led by Eldy Lázaro Vásquez, a doctoral student in the ATLAS Institute, presented its findings in May at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Honolulu.
“When you don’t want these textiles anymore, you can dissolve them and recycle the gelatin to make more fibers,” said Michael Rivera, a co-author of the new research and assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and Department of Computer Science.
Read more at University of Colorado at Boulder
Image: Biofibers made from gelatin in a range of colors. (Credit: Utility Research Lab)
