Recycling fabric is tricky, especially mixed materials such as the hugely popular polyester and cotton blends. What if there was a revolutionary solution that could turn waste fabric into something valuable without harming the environment? That’s the idea behind The Regenerator, a circular technology that uses an earth-friendly chemical to gently separate and regenerate cotton and polyester blends into new, fully useable textile fiber. In short, this innovation will un-mix mixes to create tomorrow’s fashion.

“Winning the Global Change Award is really valuable since it enables us to further improve and scale-up our process. In addition, as a technology driven team, we will get access to industrial fashion networks outside our geographic region and receive end-user input. Through the innovation accelerator program, we can build confidence and make others understand the importance of our research work. The grant will be used for further improving, optimizing and scaling up our process,” says Lisa Schwarz Bour.

Owners of idea: Zengwei Guo, Lisa Schwarz Bour, Erik Nilsson, Tobias Köhnke and Bengt Hagström.
Country: Sweden
Innovation name: Swerea IVF
swerea.se