KPU researchers work to create sustainable T-shirts from recyclable materials

Stephanie Phillips and her students at the Wilson School of Design are collaborating with UBC to turn biomaterials into sustainable fabric

Stephanie Phillips (above) is working to create new biomaterials for recyclable T-shirts. (Kwantlen Polytechnic University/Flickr)

Stephanie Phillips (above) is working to create new biomaterials for recyclable T-shirts. (Kwantlen Polytechnic University/Flickr)

An instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Wilson School of Design is working on creating a T-shirt from recyclable materials found in B.C.

Stephanie Phillips says she reconsidered her approach towards sustainability after seeing how many past season fabrics and clothes are left in the warehouse while working as a textile designer in the industry for over 10 years.

“We as an industry can’t continue like this,” says Phillips, who is also a Sherman Jen Research Chair in Next-Generation Design. 

“So, from the idea that I was creating waste as a designer, I changed and shifted my career into sustainability and sustainable materials from the aspect of textile design.”

Phillips and her student research assistants are working together with research partners from the University of British Columbia to create new biomaterials at the lab. The KPU design team are then taking the fibre they’ve created in the first stage and trying to turn it into fabric.

“There’s not very much [fibre] that exists. I think we are up to maybe 100 grams total, which is not very much,” Phillips says. 

“A T-shirt is about [up] to 400 grams, so we are not quite to a T-shirt quantity yet, and we’re trying to make the first fabric out of it.”

The primary material that the UBC lab and KPU design team are working with is softwood, which is an easily available resource in the province that has generally been used as an export, Phillips says. 

“What the Ministry of Forests, who supports this project, is looking to do is to develop a bioeconomy in B.C., [so] we can make the final product here,” she says, adding it includes implementing new technologies and processes to use the province’s natural resources instead of exporting them.

Clothes made from biodegradable materials contribute to a circular economy, meaning they can be easily recycled and their fibres can be reused. 

“There are other materials that come into play like polyester, nylon, [and] spandex, where we’re looking for function. So those are water resistant and all of those things,” Phillips says.

However, one of the major drawbacks of synthetic materials is that they shed polymers into the water and create microsplastics. They are also difficult to recycle, she says, especially when blended with other materials.  

Phillips finds it fulfilling to bring this research to undergraduate students and contribute to sustainability in the apparel industry. She believes their collective effort could create a snowball effect, bringing small changes to B.C. that could eventually have a broader impact on the world.

“What I hope to accomplish is a fully functional and commercializable fibre that we’re ready to send to production. This is a little bit further down the line, but when we are done with the scientific team, [I hope] we’ve created a new material that is all made in B.C.”