Three projects in Ghana, Germany and the Netherlands argue that recycling alone cannot manage fashion’s most contaminated, blended and low-value textile waste.
The Biomimicry Institute has completed three case studies exploring how biological decomposition could complement reuse and fibre-to-fibre recycling in fashion’s circular economy. Its Nature of Fashion: Design for Transformation initiative targets the “bottom fraction” of textile waste—mixed or degraded materials commonly sent to landfill, incineration or export because existing recycling routes cannot process them economically.
The programme reframes circularity from a closed-loop recycling problem into a broader “break-down-to-build-up” system. Instead of preserving every discarded fibre as another textile, difficult waste could be converted into biocompatible materials or feedstocks for industries such as packaging, agriculture and medicine.
Three routes for difficult waste
In the Netherlands, Circle Economy is coordinating Erdotex, BioFashionTech, EV Biotech and TNO to examine staged treatment of mixed textiles. The proposed pathway combines processes including enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and gasification, with potential outputs such as biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate bioplastics.
Germany’s Beneficial Design Institute, working with research and technology partners, has explored converting polyester-containing waste into polyhydroxybutyrate through hydrolysis and bacterial fermentation. A complementary pathway uses carbon-rich gasification emissions to cultivate microalgae capable of producing beta-glucan.
Circularity meets environmental justice
The Ghana pilot, led by The Or Foundation, examines textile accumulation around Accra’s Kantamanto Market and Korle Lagoon. Researchers are studying whether microbial communities exposed to concentrated pollution are adapting to metabolise synthetic polymers, while involving local communities in field research and ecological restoration. The project also highlights how waste-exporting economies transfer the environmental consequences of overproduction to countries with limited disposal infrastructure.
Design chemistry moves upstream
The case studies do not establish commercially scaled alternatives to recycling. They do, however, expose a critical design requirement: products must be developed with their eventual breakdown in mind.
For brands and mills, this means examining fibre blends, dyes, finishes, coatings and additives not only for performance and recyclability, but also for toxicity and compatibility with biological treatment. The next test will be whether these pilot pathways can demonstrate reliable feedstock specifications, safe outputs, competitive processing costs and credible lifecycle benefits at industrial scale.
