United States

California’s attempt to build a large-scale textile recovery system is unfolding with limited precedents and incomplete data. Julie Cerenzia, Director at Cascadia Consulting, explains how the modelling behind the SB 707 debate draws on international comparisons, industry assumptions and evolving market realities to estimate the environmental and economic potential of diverting textile waste.

Northwestern University researchers have developed a mathematical model showing that fashion trends follow recurring cycles of roughly 20 years, based on analysis of around 37,000 images of women’s clothing spanning more than a century. The study provided quantitative backing to a long-cited industry observation and indicated that trend patterns have become more fragmented in recent decades.

Textile waste in the United States remains largely invisible within municipal systems, even as millions of tonnes of clothing are discarded every year. Mattias Wallander, CEO of USAgain, argues that the challenge is not technological but structural, rooted in fragmented local regulation, constrained collection networks and the economics of scaling recovery infrastructure.

Each year, Californians discard approximately 1.2 million tonnes of textiles, costing local governments an estimated $99 million in landfill fees. A new state law, SB 707, shifts that cost directly to producers through a mandatory extended producer responsibility framework—the first of its kind for apparel in the United States. Research from USAgain and Cascadia Consulting Group examines what it will take to make the system function.

Smart textiles capable of monitoring vital signs, resisting bacteria and storing solar energy are the focus of growing research interest. A review of research on MXenes, microscopic two-dimensional materials that can be printed onto fabrics, suggests clothing could function as real-time health monitors while also serving as flexible power sources for wearable electronics.

Fibre lithium-ion batteries could be woven into textiles to power devices or act as wearable controllers, a new study has concluded. It found two obstacles still block practical use. Encapsulation must keep out moisture and oxygen without losing flexibility, and mathematical models must predict how yarn length and chemistry affect output in garments.

Researchers have completed a multi-kilogram-scale pilot facility that converts agricultural and forestry waste into textile-grade dissolving pulp. Using a patented co-solvent pulping process, the system delivers cleaner processing with lower energy use while avoiding toxic byproducts, opening pathways for distributed pulp production from materials that are currently burned, landfilled, or left to decay.

Researchers have developed a prototype knitting machine capable of producing solid three-dimensional objects rather than flat textile sheets. By controlling stitch direction and layering, the system enables complex shapes with variable stiffness. The approach functions similarly to additive manufacturing and could expand how knitted structures are designed for technical and biomedical applications.

Researchers traced the evolution of wearable technology from an early smart shirt developed for battlefield monitoring to current textile- and skin-based approaches used in hospital, rehabilitation and assistive contexts. The work showed how fabrics and epidermal interfaces could collect, process and deliver data unobtrusively, supporting applications ranging from patient monitoring to navigation support and injury prevention.

Researchers at the University of Maine have found a way to grow a natural waterproof coating from edible fungi, offering a potential replacement for plastic films used on paper cups, food packaging and other everyday items. The process is simple, scalable and biodegradable, showing how nature-inspired solutions could help cut single-use plastics and microplastic pollution.