Ruben Bernal

Fibe

Textiles is one of the most polluting industries. The environmental shortcomings are a result of unsustainable processing and end of life, amplified by the exponentially growing demand for virgin textiles. We transform plant waste from potato cultivation into textiles. This plant cannot be fed to livestock and is challenging to compost leaving farmers to pulverise, incinerate or just leave the plants out to rot. Each year over 260 million tonnes of plant is disposed, providing enough fibre to supply the fashion industry over twice it's current global demand. Our technique involves a combination of biological and mechanical processes - it is non-polluting and uses entirely renewable consumables. Our resulting textile is fully biodegradable, recyclable with other natural textiles and supports cultivation of a superfood. The material is affordable, durable like other natural textiles, washable and potentially antimicrobial. Potato cultivation has been optimised for centuries, this contributes to our crop using 96% less water and 90% less land than cotton. We are excited to partner with fashion brands with aligning sustainable visions to make Fibe collections available soon.