Paul Dillinger, vice-president of product innovation, Levi Strauss & Co and Stacy Flynn, CEO of Evrnu dwell at length on the landmark technological breakthrough which can create a circular economy that extends the life of cotton and eliminates waste by breathing new life into used clothing. Textile technology startup Evrnu and global jeanswear brand Levi Strauss & Co have announced the creation of the world’s first jeans made from regenerated post-consumer cotton waste. Using a patent-pending recycling technology, discarded consumer waste has been converted into a renewable fibre. The first prototype, in the form of a pair of iconic Levi’s 511 jeans, the companies claim, represents a future where textile waste would be reduced considerably and cotton garments could be continually regenerated to create a more sustainable world. Paul Dillinger, vice-president of product innovation, Levi Strauss & Co, told Fibre2Fashion, “As a company, we still drive for profitable growth; but it is responsible, not negligent growth. By encouraging better garment care practices and long-term ownership, along sustainable technologies like Evrnu, we hope to resolve some of the tension that obviously exists between growth and sustainability.” Speaking about the breakthrough, Stacy Flynn, CEO of Evrnu, remarked, “In addition to 100 per cent post-consumer cotton, we can also break down pre-consumer garment waste, cut waste and shoddy/short staple cotton as well. We have tremendous amounts of feedstock from various cotton waste sources across the globe. Our technology has been designed with the goal of breaking down the most difficult fibres and blends, so we can make sure everything else can be broken down as well.”
