London-based tech startup Vollebak has come up with t-shirts that are crafted out of wood pulp and algae and can be easily composted when you get tired of wearing them. This is the first time a clothing company has introduced t-shirts that are sustainable to such a level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shirt\u2019s fabric is made out of sustainably sourced eucalyptus, beech, and spruce trees that are chipped, pulped, and spun into textile yarn. The ink on the shirts is made entirely from algae that the designers grew in a bioreactor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Instead of passing lake water through a cotton net, we pass water from the bioreactor through a filter,\u201d reads the Vollebak website. \u201cThis process separates the algae, leaving a soupy algae paste. This paste is then dried in the sun to create a fine powder, and this powder is mixed with a water-based binder to make algae ink.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\nSince algae can\u2019t survive out of water, it then turns into a natural pigment which fades to different colors over time. This way, Vollebak designers say that no two shirts end up looking the same after they\u2019ve gone through multiple washes.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n