Is Algae the new black?

FASHION TO TAKE THE SHIRT FROM YOUR BACK

Fashion Revolution Week, which happens every year around 24th April (marking the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse) brings people from around the world together to campaign for ground-breaking technologies materials and systems to help transform the fashion sector and avoid further fuelling the climate crisis.

In an industry dominated by synthetic fibres and chemical dyes which require large amounts of water, produce high levels of green house gases and produce wastewater containing substances that are threats to human health, they recently produced a Fashion Transparency Index. This found that only a quarter of major brands publish measurable targets on reducing the use of textiles deriving from virgin fossil fuels. But there are others out there who are busy researching and trying new things ...

Innovative London-based menswear apparel company Vollebak, for example, have been exploring alternatives to the production of carbon black, the pigment most commonly used for black clothing dyes. Extremely harmful to the environment, the extraction process of the pigment from petroleum stored beneath the ground also tends to strip large plots of land of all vegetation and animal life.

Founded by twin brothers and athletes Nick and Steve Tidball, Vollebak uses science and technology to think outside the box and regularly launch new clothing concepts such as the world's first solar charged jacket, or their 'garbage' sweater made from old bulletproof vests and firefighter suits.

Now they've created a t-shirt using eucalyptus, beech and spruce tree pulp from sustainably managed forests and, with the help of a US biomaterials company called Living Ink, coloured it with a black ink made from algae which grows in giant ponds in California. Algae, which captures carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, is also, according to Vollebak responsible for producing 50-80% of the oxygen on the planet. Looking and feeling like a normal t-shirt - the fabric is only spayed with algae dye on one side and is washed with a mango softener for comfort. The t-shirt biodegrades in around 12 weeks, and once the fabric decomposes, the black algae ink remains - locking away the captured carbon within it for up to 100 years.

For more information you can visit their website Here.