Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Stretchy clothing could soon be recycled as easily as plastic bottles, thanks to a new elastic yarn that rivals spandex yet melts down and respins into fresh thread. Built entirely from one plastic family, it needs no chemical separation, and could support more circular production and recovery across the textile industry.

Unlike wearables and what could be a gamechanger for everyday lives, researchers at the Fibers@MIT lab have fabricated an autonomous programmable fibre computer in the form of an elastic fibre, which could monitor health conditions and physical activity, alerting the wearer to potential health risks in real-time.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with new filtration membranes based on natural silk and cellulose that can remove contaminants, including ‘forever chemicals’ and heavy metals.

Consumers could one day get to pick sneakers that fit their personal running style if research on a new model developed at MIT reaches commercial scale.

Promotion of green science and technology will be crucial to solve sustainability issues from the root to the end of textiles' lifecycle, a research study has underlined.