SaltyCo Textiles
SaltyCo’s textiles are produced from natural fibres grown using salt water (image: Choreo).
It takes on average 10,000l of fresh water to produce a kilogram of cotton. If my rudimentary maths is right, that means that a single 30g cotton sock uses up 300l of what might otherwise be clean drinking water. This fact riddles me with guilt about all the orphaned socks I havelost in my life.
Equally horrified are the SaltyCo team, a group of recent graduates from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College’s joint Innovation Design Engineering MA. Building on what began as a student project, they set out to produce textiles using salt-tolerant plants, thereby helping to preserve the fresh water that makes up just 3 per cent of the world’s water supply. “Right now, the most sustainable material is polyester made from recycled plastic bottles, which still uses a lot of water and takes a tonne of time to biodegrade,” says Antonia Jara Contreras, SaltyCo’s chief procurement officer. “So even though it is one step ahead, it’s not really enough.” By contrast, textiles produced from natural fibres grown using salt water would represent a sea change.
The group’s first product is insulating stuffing, which they aim to launch in late 2022. Early samples show a soft, naturally water-repellant material that is three times more insulating than wool, and which can be used inside puffer jackets, pillows and duvets. The team have also developed samples of a woven and nonwoven fabric, although the company is unable to reveal precise details of the processes behind its materials. “It involves us getting covered in lots of fluff, that’s for sure,” says Julian Ellis- Brown, SaltyCo’s CEO.
“Right now, the most sustainable material is polyester made from recycled plastic bottles, which still uses a lot of water and takes a tonne of time to biodegrade So even though it is one step ahead, it’s not really enough.”
The information that the company does share, however, is encouraging. Working with a saline farmer in Scotland, the team grow a salt-tolerant crop native to many parts of the world. “The biomass we process into our textiles doesn’t use any fresh water when it’s growing, it sequesters huge amounts of carbon dioxide, and it’s plant-based,” says Ellis-Brown. As the company’s chief technology officer Finlay Duncan notes, saline farming is an effective way to repurpose disused farmlands: “In areas of the world where farmland has been lost quite rapidly to things like rising sea levels, you end up with salinated land, and poor irrigation practices can end up salinating and damaging lands.” Eventually, they plan to license their fibre extraction process to other manufacturers in more water-scarce areas.
Saline agriculture is still in its infancy, and SaltyCo is the first to explore making materials using salt-tolerant crops. “Almost the entire world’s infrastructure for agriculture is based around [a limited number of crops], so it’s tricky trying to introduce a new crop into those cycles,” Ellis-Brown explains. “It’s not only the agriculture itself – all the machinery [only] fits those crops.” In spite of these hurdles, the SaltyCo team say that they are committed to adapting existing manufacturing processes to suit their new fibres. “We want to make sure that we don’t create something which forces the market to introduce completely new processes,” stresses Neloufar Taheri, the company’s chief operating officer. “That would be unsustainable in itself.”
Words Helen Brown
This article was originally published in Disegno #28. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.
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