Why the most sustainable fashion solution yet could be clothes made out of algae
- Algae is fast and cheap to grow, doesn’t need much water, sucks in carbon dioxide, and its products are biodegradable and non-toxic
- But turning it into material and dyes is expensive – which is why makers are targeting celebrities, to build desirability and demand
Nutritious and fast-growing, algae already has a following as an alternative protein among health fanatics. A new generation of sustainable fashion start-ups want us to wear it, too.
The fashion industry produces more than 100 billion garments annually, about 14 for every person on Earth. Most end up in landfills or clogging rivers and beaches in developing countries. Only a fraction are ever recycled.
Fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of humanity’s emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide, more than international air travel and shipping combined.
For Charlotte McCurdy, a researcher, designer and assistant professor at Arizona State University in the United States, tackling the problem means thinking not just about where castoffs end up, but about how clothes are made.
Synthetic textiles like polyester, the cheapest and most disposable of all, are made from fossil fuels. The dyes used to imbue fabrics with that inky black? They’re derived from crude oil.
So in 2018, McCurdy set about designing a raincoat made from marine macroalgae – better known as seaweed – which absorbs carbon instead. The choice of garment was a deliberate comment on what we wear to protect ourselves against a climate that’s going haywire because of human activity.