Liquid waste garments and birch tree gowns, pulp pill bottles, bioplastic advances and biobased solvents: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of December 19th

The pace of bioeconomy invention and change continues at a frenetic pace. Here are the top innovations for the week of December 19th.

In today’s Digest, liquid waste garments and birch tree gowns, pulp pill bottles, bioplastic advances and biobased solvents — these and more, ready for you now at The Digest online.

#1 World’s first wearable fashion garment made from liquid waste

In Australia, biomaterial technology company Nanollose Ltd created the world’s first wearable garment using the company’s eco-friendly Tree-Free Rayon fibre (Nullarbor), sourced from sustainable coconut waste. The sweater is the first of its kind and marks a breakthrough for an industry that is urgently seeking sustainable alternatives to clothing made from traditional rayon and cotton, which have larger environmental footprints.
Nanollose’s innovative biomaterial technology process begins in a facility where microbes naturally ferment liquid waste products from food industries into cellulose, a cotton-like a raw material that then is transformed into their Nullarbor fibre. Their process to produce cellulose requires very little land, water or energy and a production cycle is just 18 days, compared to the eight months seen in the cotton industry.
“We believe that we are the only company producing Tree-Free Rayon fibres from waste, and we have now reached a point where our technology is moving out of the laboratory and into the factory. Once we achieve this increased scale, manufactures will have an alternative eco-friendly option available to them.” said Nanollose Managing Director Alfie Germano.
More on the story, here.