Material Ages

Until the start of the 21st century the idea of a truly circular material world seemed far-fetched at best. Yes, we were able to create fibres from a mind-blowing range of sources with ever more incredible qualities, but the ability to turn those same fibres back into high quality materials for future use was not yet viable. The emergence of a commercial fibre-to-fibre recycling technology launched in 2006 changed that reality and promised a step-change in the way we produced and perceived recycled textiles, not as inferior downcycled materials but as regenerative and continuous resources.

It’s fifteen years since Teijin’s innovation was set to rock the textile world and whilst their technology failed to reach scale, full circularity is finally beginning to feel within our grasp. And, today, it has never felt more important to stop our precious resources ending up in landfill or leaking fibres into our environment and oceans. It has flipped the practice of materials design and recycling from a reactive approach based on upcycling to a more proactive one based on recovery and regeneration. The essential aim is one of ‘preparing materials for recycling’ in the future. Starting with the end at the beginning.

But if we take a longer view on materials development, this is not the only time in our materials history where we can pin-point a fundamental shift in the very nature of our relationship with the resources around us. When we look from this more holistic perspective there are three clear ‘ages of materials’ which can be identified, each providing a world-changing shift in innovation and propelling us forward to the next material revolution.

Our ability to use natures resources in ever incredible ways has shifted more in the last 200 years than the previous 8,000 powered largely by our ability to synthesise and chemically transform natures materials in incredible ways. This has provided an abundance of ‘stuff’ to provide for the world’s increasing needs, but of course has not been without consequence.

In order to move forward into the next materials revolution with sustainability and equity at its heart we must reconsider our relationship with the materials we use, to respect our valuable resources and retain their value for future generations. Recovery technologies are poised to launch us into the next materials revolution, and in the process reinvent our current material stocks and waste streams as the ultimate ‘renewable resources’ of the future.

Article for Viewpoint Colour Issue 09
Styling by Titia Dane (Franklin Till)
Photography by Pim Top