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Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tons end up in landfills. Fast fashion waste is expected to soar up to 134 million tons a year by the end of the decade, according to Earth.org. In addition to creating an overwhelming amount of waste, the fashion industry generates 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of all wastewater, and it sends half a million tons of microplastics into the oceans. If the fashion industry continues on its current path by 2050 it could use more than 26% of the carbon budget associated with a 2C global warning limit.Moving away from the current linear and wasteful textiles system is crucial to keep the 2C average global warming limit within reach.
A large part of the problem is that fast fashion brands use cheap fossil-fuel based synthetic materials to keep clothing prices low. As a result, polyester has grown to become the number one synthetic fiber and now represents more than half of all global fiber production. It is derived from nonrenewable sources, requires a great deal of energy for extraction and processing and releases significant byproducts. As an oil-based plastic, polyester does not biodegrade like natural fibers. It stays in landfill for at least several decades
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Despite high-profile attempts at innovation, the fashion industry has so far failed to reduce its footprint in a meaningful way. There are nascent efforts to move to a circular economy, in which polyester can reenter the life cycle rather than being wasted, forming a closed loop that saves resources and reduces environmental impact, but none of them have scaled.
H&M - one of the world's largest and most recognizable fast fashion brands - and Vargas, a Swedish impact company builder behind H2 Green Steel and Northvolt, say they believe that they have found the right technology and the right team to take on the challenge.

On March 6 they launched Syre, a new venture to scale textile-to-textile recycled polyester. The co-founded venture, also backed by TPG Rise Climate, aims to rapidly scale textile-to-textile recycling of polyester. H&M Group has secured an offtake agreement with Syre worth a total of $600 million over seven years, covering a significant share of H&M Group’s long-term need for recycled polyester, which is currently primarily sourced from rPET bottle-to-textile.
“Syre marks the start of a great textile shift,” Syre CEO Dennis Nobelius said in an interview with The Innovator. “We plan on working across different industry verticals and with competing brands to put textile waste to use, over and over again.”

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Switzerland’s TreaTech uses its patented catalytic hydrothermal gasification (cHTG) technology to convert waste streams that are usually incinerated into integral products, such as water for industrial use, minerals like phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium used for fertilizer, and methane-rich renewable gas that can be used as an onsite energy solution or injected into the grid network. The aim is to help corporates to become more sustainable and turn cost centers into new revenue streams.
“We give our clients access to the value of their waste,” says TreaTech CEO Frédéric Juillard.

TreaTech reduces the carbon footprint of the waste disposal process by eliminating any form of off-site transportation of waste, he says. The Swiss scale-up, which was spun out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne in 2015, aims to build its modular waste treatment units, which can process three to five tons of waste per hour, next to its clients' facilities. “Our technology is able to convert over 90% of organic carbon of any waste product into pollutant-free, methane-rich gas,” says Juillard. “This gas can be used to power our waste treatment process in a circular way, and the remaining gas can be injected into the grid network, stored or used to power our customer’s other on-site industrial processes.” The process not only replaces the use of fossil fuels, mitigating climate change, it also supports the circular economy by recovering minerals that can be transformed into fertilizer, and clean water which can be re-used on- or off-site, making it a closed loop waste treatment solution, he says, and a potential source of revenue.

- N U M B E R O F T H E W E E K

Percentage of global top-tier AI talent that work in the United States, according to a 2023 update from MacroPolo, a think tank run by the Paulson Institute. In addition to being the leading destination for the world’s most elite AI talent, the U.S. is home to 60% of top AI institutions. Within U.S. institutions, researchers of American and Chinese origin (based on undergraduate degrees) comprise 75% of the top-tier AI talent, up from 58% in 2019. Beyond the United States and China, the UK and South Korea, along with continental Europe, have slightly raised their game as destinations for top AI researchers to work. China has expanded its domestic AI talent pool over the last few years to meet the demands of its own growing AI industry. China produces a sizable portion of the world’s top AI researchers—rising from 29% in 2019 to 47% in 2022—and more Chinese talent are working in the country’s domestic industry. A similar dynamic appears to be taking place in India, the study says. While India remains a significant exporter of top-tier AI researchers, its ability to retain talent is growing. In 2019, nearly all Indian AI researchers (based on undergraduate degrees) opted to pursue opportunities abroad. But in 2022, one-fifth of Indian AI researchers ended up staying to work in India.