MIT engineers design recyclable elastic yarn

Americans discard roughly eighty-one pounds of clothing annually — that's more than eleven million tons of textiles rotting in landfills each year. MIT News reports that MIT engineers have now designed a recyclable alternative to conventional elastic yarns. The team spun yarn from polyethylene — the same plastic used in milk bottles and grocery bags — engineering it with properties that mimic spandex-based materials but can be readily recycled. What makes this breakthrough work: the yarn's core and sheath are both made from polyethylene, so they don't require chemical separation before recycling. The researchers proved the yarn's durability by melting it down and respinning it ten times, finding it remained just as strong as the original. Since eighty percent of U.S. textiles contain spandex — which can't be recycled — this new yarn could eventually reshape how the fashion industry handles textile waste.

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