Sonja Salmon is a big fan of cellulose, and that’s why she wants to destroy it. “I love cellulose,” she says. “I’m ripping cellulose apart because I love it.” She’s also pulling it apart because the polymer, which is found naturally in wood and cotton, accounts for one-quarter of all the fibers used in textile manufacturing. That means any effort to recycle clothing and fabric to keep them part of the circular economy for as long as possible has to include ways to deal with all that cellulose.
Salmon is working on breaking down the cellulose from discarded textiles and reusing it. Many clothing fabrics are a blend of half polyester and half cotton—individual fibers of cotton and polyester are twisted tightly around one another, creating a yarn that is then woven or knitted into a garment. Taking that structure apart mechanically is challenging, so instead Salmon treats it with cellulases, a group of enzymes that break up the cellulose. “We can chew it up into small enough molecules and fragments that it will actually fall out of the rest of the fabric structure,” Salmon says.
