Sustainability continues to be a growing sector in the fashion industry as the perils of climate change loom large across social, political and economic concerns. While established brands explore their options and new brands emerge to try and replace them with products that are manufactured with smaller carbon footprints, Ambercycle counters with the idea that all the materials that we need to produce new products already exists, can be saved from landfills and indeed be reconstituted into something fresh and altogether better in the long term in a circular ecosystem.
The statistics on waste materials paint an alarming picture. An estimated 15 to 17 million tons of garment and textile waste are dumped at landfills every year, according to the most recent study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). From that total, only about 2.5 million tons are recycled, while about 3 million tons are combusted. That means that there still remains some 10 to 12 million tons of material that would take over two hundred years to effectively decompose. In the meantime, this waste exponentially accumulates to continue to do harm to humans, wildlife, the environment and the ecological system in many ways.
The team behind Ambercycle is determined to change all that. Utilizing a revolutionary and proprietary technology, Ambercycle recently unveiled cycora, a regenerated alternative to one of the most prevalent materials in constant production: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is better known as polyester. Because 51% of all textiles produced are polyester, this innovative material presents unprecedented ways of bringing a new perspective to environmental and social responsibility with regards to the perception, commercial use and consumption of synthetics.
Founded jointly in 2015 by Shay Sethi (CEO) and Moby Ahmed (chief technology officer), Ambercycle is dedicated to reducing polluted landfills of discarded synthetic garments by salvaging and converting them into cycora as an alternative to conventional polyester. This is the realization of a commitment made by both founders when they were still science majors at University of California, Davis and first learned about the limitations of current recycling programs. It came as a sobering shock to Sethi when he discovered through further research that the major companies of the world were far more invested in making new materials instead of finding ways to reuse what’s already there.
The two asked themselves some hard questions: What if new technology could be developed to better separate clothing? What if the same techniques used to make new apparel from new materials could be applied to making new materials from post-consumer apparel? Accustomed to problem-solving, the duo was determined to give the matter serious thought. The potential answers excited them not only as an intellectual challenge but in the possibility of discovering a practical way of providing a solution to one of the more pressing problems of this era.
They soon set up operations in downtown Los Angeles, California where they spent six years studying the problem from different angles through countless trials and errors and networking with environmentalists and fashion industry insiders. Eventually, they were able to achieve their dream and unveiled this groundbreaking technological process of deconstructing existing material and regenerating them into new fibers. Initial funding came via government grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense — which lists environmental sustainability as a national security threat — along with a handful of angel investors including Y Combinator, the Lemelson Foundation and H&M Foundation. They had barely begun to show all that they could do when word was already spreading among fashion professionals about Ambercycle, and shortly thereafter, the company also began working with local organizations in LA as direct sources for material bound for landfills but rescued for conversion.
Sethi described the science behind Ambercycle functions as being similar to how polyester is refined. “Polyester essentially contains the same plastic molecules that are melted and formed in one way to make plastic water bottles or strawberry containers are simply melted and formed in a different way to make polyester yarns and fabrics,” Sethi said.
To create cycora, Ambercycle intercepts post-consumer textiles before they reach landfills, shreds them and separates any extraneous materials. The remaining raw materials are processed through a series of reactors that regenerates them on a molecular level (separating the blended fibers, dyes and other components) to produce cycora pellets, which are spun into all-new fibers, yarns and fabrics.
“Our material is as good as virgin polymer and can be integrated back into supply chains via fashion manufacturers for the end goal of creating viable and sustainable pathways for the process to happen infinitely,” said Sethi. “As more and more fashion brands adapt our technology and use our material, we can all effect a lasting change that can alter the course of the entire fashion industry.”
“Synthetic textiles are inherently durable and lasting,” he continued. “Their value only lies in being used in circulation above ground and not thrown out to pollute the planet. We can now break them down and build them back up at the molecular level in ways that we really can’t with natural fibers. The ability to infinitely regenerate these materials therefore also eliminates the need to extract more raw and increasingly limited resources from the earth. We’re hoping more and more people come to understand that we already have all the material we need above ground. It’s just a matter of resolving not to just waste them but rather find ways to use science to make them useful again. With Ambercycle we can learn together how to live harmoniously with a healthy and socially responsible circular ecosystem of using infinite textiles.”
Another important aspect occurred to them even during the building of their physical infrastructure to take in and reprocess material. The Ambercycle team was aware that they also had to consider some form of digital infrastructure that would allow for full circularity as the endgame. To that end, the brand partnered with respected label, tag and radio frequency identification developer Avery Dennison to create what they called a digital care label. Sewed into the finished garment, it features a QR code for consumers to scan and learn about the product’s supply-chain history. An Avery Dennison application and data platform also shows the production processes as well as the elements that the garment contains. When the owner wishes to dispose of the item, it can guide them through the process of returning it to Ambercycle for recycling so that the path of cycora being “Ambercycled” again at their end of life is a closed loop, seamless cycle.
Cycora was officially launched via introductory collaborations with knitwear label Knarli, designer Madelleine Lyon of Mslyon and emerging brand CBAAF, all of which assert ecological responsibility as a vital part of their respective lines. Even more recently, the company worked with Justin Mensinger, the buzz-worthy designer whose upcycled streetwear creations earned him the top prize of HBO’s fashion competition series “The Hype.” Frombasicstoedgierstreetwear,eachofthese brands utilized variants of the cycora yarns and textiles offered by Ambercycle to suit specific aesthetic and manufacturing considerations, illustrating the versatility of the material for a wide range of prospective brands.
The team behind Ambercycle have described cycora as being made of “vintage molecules” that already carry precious memories. But manufacturers and fashion designers can then write new chapters of its continuing narrative, making this material with a storied past and character more valuable than those new molecules made from oil. And if responsible creatives and shoppers learn to view cycora as an intrinsic part of fashion’s ongoing stories, then the industry can consciously learn about its past, mindfully play a part in its present and set it on a continuous path for their future.
Though Ambercycle is currently focused on polyester, it intends to gradually adapt other materials toward the same purpose.
Sethi said, “We’re hoping more and more people realize that we already have all the material we need and that we can simply figure out ways to regenerate them for new applications. With Ambercycle we can learn together how to live harmoniously with a healthy and socially responsible circular ecosystem of using infinite textiles for an endless variety of fashion.”
