Overview

From Innovation to Overproduction

It is not only a history of fashion, but one of innovation based on environmental change. From fibers derived from plant and animal sources to man-made fibers, textiles have developed to meet human needs over and over. John Wesley Hyatt developed the first man-made plastic, celluloid, in 1869 as an alternative to ivory, an early example of material innovation due to ethical and environmental reasons (National Inventors Hall of Fame, n.d.). By 1953, polyester entered global commercial production, introducing non-biodegradable plastics into the textile supply chain (British Plastics Federation, n.d.). The 1990s also introduced the era of fast fashion, lowering the price of clothes and making them less permanent, and by 2010, polyester replaced cotton to become the most used textile fiber in the world. Synthetic materials now contribute 35% of ocean microplastic contamination (European Environment Agency [EEA], 2023). One such instance is a sequel to Hyatt's original innovation: just as celluloid reduced the killing of elephants, today we have the challenge of visionary innovation to reduce the environmental price of synthetically producing too much.

The Promise and Problem of Plastics

Plastics were initially famous for all of their advantages. Not only were plastics light and strong, but they were inexpensive and could be molded into all sorts of shapes, which are beneficial for all sorts of equipment that we can see in the real world. However, after industries began growing so rapidly, the downside of plastics was revealed. According to Our World In Data( Ritchie & Roser, 2018), “plastic production has sharply increased over the last 70 years. In 1950, the world produced just two million tonnes. It now produces over 450 million tonnes.” The problem is plastic does not easily break down in nature, leading to long lasting pollution in places we live and also the ocean. When plastic breaks down into smaller pieces whether by nature or manufacture, it becomes microplastics. These components have been found in the human body like blood, semen, breast milk, and also in many animal bodies. In addition, plastic pollution has also caused a significant economic cost due to the cleanup efforts the government needed to make. The world began to slowly realize that this miracle material that was designed to help Earth because of its durable ability, was now contributing to some of the most severe environmental issues.

Synthetic Textiles and the Microplastic Crisis

Textiles are now a major contributor to plastic pollution. Synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon and blends account for 35% of microplastics in the oceans (Boucher & Friot, 2017). When clothes are washed, it releases fibers into the wastewater system, while blended fabrics make recycling extremely difficult. Modern plastics and textiles now worsen environmental problems through overproduction and disposability.

Reimagining the Future

We can't go back in time, so instead of reversing history, we can march toward it with direction. If we are to truly save the planet, we must change from being a linear hoop to becoming a circular one, a shift in which plastic no longer ends up as trash but as part of a regenerative hoop. This means that we need to come up with a solution in which plastic can be reused, upcycled, or biodegradable to harmless components. This led our group to consider how we can innovate and experiment with novel approaches that could potentially see us implement a generative material economy.

Our Enzymatic Solution

By using synthetic biology and enzyme engineering, our iGEM project aims to target one of the toughest challenges: the degradation of PET in blended textiles. By utilizing an enzyme system to transform blended fabrics into reusable monomers, our system aims to create a new cycle for plastic, transforming waste into resources and contributing to a sustainable textile future.

The Role of Human Practice

Science is not enough to solve the problem. To make our project actionable outside the laboratory, the Human Practice team works actively with scientists, industry experts, and communities in order to identify social impacts and adoption barriers. Their feedback directly informs our project design, enabling us to develop an innovation that is not only scientifically useful but also environmentally and socially relevant.

Stages of Human Practice Work

Identify the Problem

Stakeholders: Dr. Liang Nai-yun, Chief Li Jo-hwa, Dr. Chu Jen-you, Ms. Chiang Han-chen, Breaking, New Fibers Textile

Engaging this entire group of stakeholders is what converts our enzyme idea into something that has a chance of working outside of the lab. Technical experts (e.g., Bornscheuer, Zimmermann, Tang, Liu, Beckham) help us define the actual constraints—crystallinity, pretreatment, pH/temperature windows, product inhibition, and assay design—so our experiments test conditions that actually function. Recyclers and labs (TTRI, Jiutai) show us how to navigate current systems using fabrics, what levels of purity and ISO conditions are applicable, where blends fail, and even provide us with real streams to test. Brands and manufacturers (Kingwhale, New Fibers, inBlooom) stress-test for viability in cost, coatings, and functionality so that we don't develop something nobody can utilize; they also raise the issue of LCA and market adoption needs. Innovators like Breaking expand our vision of sequential/multi-enzyme pathways and by-product management, to guide a scalable process design. Public education and involvement complete the KAP gap we measured—building awareness into action and social license for policy and procurement change. In brief, we engage these stakeholders to (1) validate the issue, (2) co-design an industrially feasible workflow, (3) meet environmental and economical constraints, and (4) create the community demand and policy pull needed for practical deployment.

Identify the Problem - Public Engagement

Before proposing a solution, we need to define what the problem is. Through background research and stakeholder discussions, we identified blended textile waste, specifically PET and cotton composite, as one of the most underserved challenges in sustainable fashion. These materials are high in demand, but are difficult to recycle due to the complexity of separating natural and synthetic fibers. By identifying this gap, we focused our efforts on developing a biological solution that could target both components in blended fabrics. This section highlights the environmental, economic, and technological reasons why current systems fail to address these issues and why a new approach is needed.

Public Survey

Purpose: To enhance our project's impact and secure broader recognition and support, we developed a comprehensive questionnaire aimed at gathering public opinions and attitudes toward textile pollution. This feedback will be instrumental in refining our approach and ensuring that our project aligns with societal needs and expectations, ultimately contributing to more effective and widely supported solutions.

Designs of the survey: We conducted a survey targeting the general public of all age groups with various educational backgrounds to promote textile waste awareness to determine the public's level of knowledge and understanding of textile pollution. This survey serves as an indicator of how important and relevant our project is to Taiwan and the world. We divided the survey into knowledge, attitude, social barriers, and practice because we wanted to test how much the public knows about textile pollution, how they will react to textile pollution, what are the social barriers when dealing with textile pollution, and what they will do to fight against textile pollution.

Key Findings from the Survey
Our survey included 706 participants who were mostly mature adults (45-54) and young people of 18 years and below, with most of the responses coming from residents of Taipei, foreign countries, and New Taipei City. It revealed that although people know about textile waste's environmental seriousness, there is still a broad knowledge, awareness, and recycling behavior gap. From these findings, we have focused our educational programs on addressing these areas of need directly. Through awareness, knowledge, and improvement in behavior, we strive to fill these gaps with focused educational materials and outreach initiatives.

32.3% of 706 respondents reported a neutral level of knowledge about the environmental impacts of textile waste, while 37.1% indicated low knowledge (scores 1-2). Only 30.6% expressed high understanding (scores 4-5).

To address this knowledge gap, we conducted interactive education booths at our Dao Dao Cheng event, Elementary school, Junior High School, and High School education to raise public awareness about how textile waste contributes to environmental problems. By helping participants recognize that synthetic textiles shed microplastics and persist in landfills, these lessons also highlight how tackling textile waste directly contributes to solving the larger global challenge of plastic pollution.

32.3% of respondents showed neutral understanding of the link between textile waste and plastic pollution, while 37.1% indicated low understanding (scores 1-2). Only 30.6% reported high awareness (scores 4-5).

To address the lack of understanding, at the microplastics & health booth during the Dadaocheng event, we used games, visuals, and medical explanations from experts to show how synthetic fabrics shed microplastics during washing, making the link of linking textiles to broader plastic pollution more noticeable. In our podcast's second episode, we also unpacked plastics' durability and their connection to textile fibers, making the science accessible to youth audiences.

31.8% did not know anything about local textile recycling, and only 7% responded very high awareness (score 5).

There was much less low awareness of textile recycling facilities among the participants. As a response, participants at the fabric sorting booth actually exercised sorting material into recyclable and non-recyclable categories, which improved right recognition of recycling pathways.

37.1% of 706 participants correctly identified all 5R. Many participants missed one or more, and some mistakenly selected options like React or Resume. To strengthen understanding, we created an interactive game with the junior high students to identify the 5R and its real-world application.

We created an interactive 5R game with junior high school students, linking the principles (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Repair) to real-world actions. Our upcycling activities at the elementary school and Dadaocheng event (e.g., T-shirt tote bags, DIY crafts) helped students embody the 5Rs by practicing reuse and repair.

71.8% of respondents (scores 4-5) believed textile waste has a serious impact on the environment, while 7.9% showed doubt (scores 1-2).

Some respondents underestimated the seriousness of textile waste. So during the panel “Future of Circular Fashion” at Dadaocheng, speakers such as Dr. Yen emphasized the environmental urgency of textile waste. Additionally, our elementary workshop's storytelling highlighted how fast fashion harms ecosystems, using relatable metaphors to shift perception of seriousness.

64.6% of respondents (scores 4-5) agreed that textile waste is preventable, while 10.9% did not believe so (scores 1-2).

While most respondents agreed, ~11% felt textile waste was unavoidable. Our outreach demonstrated concrete solutions: enzymatic textile degradation at our science booths, sustainable fashion showcased by brands like Story Wear and Twine, and student DIY activities (tote bags, crafts). These hands-on examples showed how prevention is both possible and practical.

71.7% of respondents (scores 4-5) agreed that personal behaviors such as clothing choices and washing habits contribute to textile-related pollution, while 7% were doubtful (scores 1-2).

There are a portion of individuals that were doubtful and to ensure this, at our Textile Sorter game booth, players saw how correct sorting by one person significantly affected environmental outcomes. In the ATCG card game, we tied small individual actions (pairing DNA bases correctly) to larger biological processes, reinforcing the power of personal contribution in science and sustainability.

73.3% of respondents (scores 4-5) said they were willing to take action to reduce textile pollution, while only 8.6% were unwilling (scores 1-2).

To move willingness into action, we provided take-home resources (pledge cards, QR codes for podcasts, recycling maps). The elementary students' pledge activity especially encouraged individuals to articulate one action (e.g., donating clothes, reusing fabrics), making commitment tangible.

This model explores the KAP (Knowledge, Attitude, Practice) relationships based on 706 respondents to the public survey. The blue circles represent three knowledge groups of the respondents: 388 respondents for “low” knowledge, 219 respondents for “medium” knowledge, and 99 respondents for “high” knowledge. Respondents were categorized based on their answers to “How knowledgeable are you about the environmental impacts of textile waste?” and circle sizes correspond to the magnitudes of each group. We selected four questions to represent attitude and practice - the (color) circle labeled “Willing to take action” for attitude and the other three circles (“Current actions you take”, “How often you recycle”, and “Consider material before purchase”) for practice. As demonstrated in the graph, there are two thick lines connecting “Low” and “High” with “Willing to take action”. As thickness increases, the strength of correlation between Knowledge and Attitude of the respondents also increases. This implies that regardless of knowledge, respondents are generally very willing to take action for textile waste. However, the lack of strong connection between knowledge and practice shows that even though respondents have a high level of knowledge and a positive attitude towards reducing textile waste, there is still a lack of action taken. Through this Gephi Model, we are able to make implications that the reason for a lack of practice despite positive attitude may be due to other challenging factors such as price, income, consumer expectations or more.

To address these issues, our HP work utilizes education and events to bridge the gap seen in the Gephi Model. By designing school workshops and participative modules, we demystify science into doable learning in terms of hands-on activities and provide simple, tangible steps that individuals can undertake, ensuring willingness turns into comprehension. At the same time, our events at scale, such as the Dadaocheng sustainability fair, offer concrete, community-based means of experiencing sustainable action firsthand, through upcycling workshops, presentations from experts, and cultural storytelling. These experiences not only remove barriers like inaccessibility or lack of awareness but also create social reinforcement, showing participants that sustainable behavior is not just possible, but also desirable. Together, events and education work to close the knowledge, practice gap determined by the Gephi Model.

Identify the Problem - Expert Engagement

In order to come up with an actual solution, we initially had to define the problem. Blended materials, particularly PET-cotton blends, are extremely difficult to recycle since their fibers are tightly woven, often coated or dyed, and possess distinct processing needs. Current recycling technologies reveal this issue: mechanical recycling degrades fiber quality, chemical recycling is energy consuming and generates secondary waste, and biological technologies have not yet overcome challenges like PET crystallinity or incompatible conditions for cotton and polyester. Hence, the system is at fault on three counts—environmentally, by way of microplastic creation and reliance on continuous virgin manufacturing; economically, by way of cost excess in excessive sorting and processing that undermines marketability; and technologically, by way of inefficiency in segregation and treatment of complex mixtures. These limitations showed us the necessity of the changes and drove us to a biological solution that was able to selectively attack both fiber constituents and close the innovation/reality gap to sustainability.

Expert Gallery

Conclusion: This stage ensured our project was grounded in a real, multifaceted issue that affects both the environment and society. By combining expert validation with broad public input, we identified blended textile waste as a pressing but under-addressed challenge, one that demanded a solution informed by both technical limitations and community needs.

Shaping the Solution - Expert Engagement

Once the problem was defined, we focused on designing a solution that was not only innovative but also realistic to implement. Our initial concept involved using enzymes to break down both components of blended textiles. As we gathered feedback from scientific mentors and industry professionals, we refined our approach to better align with practical conditions like temperature, pH, and production feasibility. We adjusted our experimental design to reduce complexity and improve scalability, considering how our system might work in real-world settings. Technical decisions were consistently guided by our goal of creating a solution that could perform effectively under industrial or environmental constraints.

Expert Gallery

Conclusion: Our technical design was established through consulting with experts in enzymology, protein engineering, and metabolic systems. They provided insight on enzyme selection, compatibility, and degradation workflow. Their feedback allowed us to help us recognize the importance of enzyme stability, product inhibition, and the scalability of production methods. These conversations transferred our project into a realistic model with clearer viability.

Social Implementation

Social implementation lies at the heart of our project — transforming laboratory innovation into real-world impact. Recognizing that solving textile waste requires more than a technical solution, we focused on embedding our enzyme system within social, cultural, and policy contexts. Through public engagement, community collaboration, and policy dialogue, we connected science with everyday life.

Our outreach included flea market events and second-hand clothing drives that turned awareness into action, linking sustainability with tangible community benefits. By interviewing citizens on the streets and collaborating with the Resource Circulation Administration (RECA), we identified social perceptions, behavioral gaps, and policy opportunities related to textile waste. These insights guided the design of our solution to ensure it was not only scientifically feasible but also socially adoptable and aligned with Taiwan's national goal of zero waste and circular resource use.

Resource Circulation Administration (Ministry of Environment)

We met Section Chief Hsiao-Ting Wu from the Resource Circulation Administration (RECA) under the Ministry of Environment. It was founded to lead Taiwan's transition toward a circular economy and oversees national efforts in waste reduction, material reuse, and industrial transformation. As part of the Taiwan 2050 Net Zero Pathway, the RECA manages Strategic Action No. 8: Resource Circulation and Zero Waste, designating textiles as one of ten key sectors for systemic reform. The RECA focuses on four lifecycle stages: production, use, recycling, and regeneration. These focused stages link designers, manufacturers, retailers, and recyclers to complete a circular supply chain. Our team met with the RECA to understand Taiwan's textile-recycling progress, the difficulties for implementation, and how young innovators can contribute to sustainable transformation.

Key Insights and Takeaways

Textile circularity is one of the RECA's key areas of promotion under Taiwan's net-zero strategy. Current initiatives include:

• Sustainable Fashion Alliance: Established to connect textile manufacturers, brands, and academia, jointly promoting low-carbon and recycled materials, and enhancing public and industry awareness of textile recycling.
• Public-Private Collaboration: Promoting circular procurement of textiles and providing guidance and subsidies for the development and optimization of textile waste identification and recycling technologies.
• Circular Design Promotion: Founded the Circular Design Center, which integrates exhibition, education, and practical spaces to promote recyclable and re-manufacturable design concepts, fostering a sustainable fashion industry chain.
• Cross-Ministerial Integration: Collaborating with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to incorporate circular economy concepts into the education system and ESG indicators, establishing sustainable industry standards and promoting environmental education.

Impacts

• Policy Alignment: Our project on enzymatic degradation of blended textiles directly corresponds to the recycling challenges identified by the Resource Circulation Administration.
• Technical Direction: Enzymatic degradation can selectively break down materials under environmentally friendly conditions, offering a new pathway for recycling and reuse beyond existing physical and chemical recycling methods.
• Collaboration Potential: The government encourages students to participate in circular innovation and apply their research outcomes in real-world settings.
• Social Value: The interview deepened our understanding of relevant policies and industry practices, confirming that our project direction is highly aligned with Taiwan's national sustainability strategy. This interview also inspired us to incorporate circular economy concept into education outreach.

Flea Market

The outreach in the flea market was effective because it gave immediate feedback on what the public perceives about sustainable fashion. We had street interviews and informal talks and discovered gaps in public knowledge and made participants vulnerable to candid, open discussions. Many of the participants had claimed that they would be ready to change if proper education or simpler recycling programs were available. Aside from gathering valuable information, the event also had a greater social purpose: money raised from our booth and activities was donated to a not-for-profit entity supporting parents who work for Story Wear, a Taiwan-based circular fashion brand that upcycles discarded textiles into new clothing while also providing flexible job opportunities to disadvantaged groups, particularly parents of children with cerebral palsy. By offering these parents opportunities, Story Wear is aiding families that often have to balance financial stability and caregiving responsibilities. As well as underpinning our commitment to sustainability, this also allowed us to play part in a more just and compassionate circular economy.

This phase allowed us to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and public understanding. By tailoring our outreach to different audiences and responding to the awareness gaps identified in our surveys, we fostered meaningful engagement and empowered individuals to see themselves as part of the sustainability solution.

Real Field Implementation

We engaged with industry leaders such as Jiu Tai recycler, Twine, In Blooom, De Licacy, Kingwhale and Mr. Lawrence Yen to understand the economic contrasts of enzyme recycling in real settings. These interactions revealed some aspects such as high labor cost and inefficient pretreatment. They helped deepen our understanding of the social and economic factors that influence adoption which allowed us to refine our direction and ensure our solution aligns with real-world needs.

To extend the impact of our project beyond the lab, we designed outreach efforts that made textile sustainability engaging and accessible to the public. We hosted interactive booths, educational workshops, and community activities that introduced people of all ages to key ideas like microplastic pollution, upcycling, and the role of enzymes in recycling. Collaborations with local brands and organizations allowed us to ground our synthetic biology solution in everyday life. These initiatives responded directly to the awareness and behavior gaps we observed during our initial research, helping individuals understand how their choices connect to larger environmental systems.

Kingwhale

We met Mr. Huang, CEO of Kingwhale. Kingwhale is a Taiwan textile and garment company that manages the entire process from making fabrics to dyeing and producing finished clothing, it focuses on sustainability a lot and the company invests in recycled materials. Our main goal for this meeting is to understand the trends and challenges in sustainable textile fields and seek possible collaboration with KingWhale for downstream recycling from monomers to PET textiles.

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Kingwhale collaborated with sustainable brands to recycle PET textile fabric from old PET clothes.
• Emerging trend and policy direction: Textile-to-textile recycling is becoming a rising trend and may soon be mandated by environmental regulations. However, cost remains the biggest challenge for industry adoption.
• Realistic: Instead of degrading PET cotton blends, we should first work with 100% PET. Most performance wear is made from pure PET, which is already recyclable to a certain extent, aiming on blends may add extra cost and complexity.
• Hidden coatings problem: A lot of fabrics have layers like PU or water-resistant coatings that are invisible but can stop the degradation process, these coatings are hard to remove and is also a challenge for chemical recycling. This means we need to find ways for adaptations or accept the lower purity result.
• Price control while performing better: Even sustainable consumers aren't likely to pay more than 50% extra just for sustainable clothing. This means we have to think more than the science, consider collaboration with larger-scale companies to explore some better price chances.
• Collaboration pathways: Confirmed we're on the right track and expressed willingness to collaborate , through licensing our enzymes or buying our recycled monomers to produce PET fibers.
• Funding opportunity: He recommended exploring Fashion for Good as a potential funding source, but stressed the importance of defining our unique niche to stand out.

Impacts:

Jiutai

We had a meeting with Mr. Wu, CEO of Jiutai, a textile recycling company in Taiwan that recycles over hundred tons of used clothing every month. The goal of this meeting is to plan for a visit for the collaboration on the clothes demand we need for recycling, and also learn the barriers of recycling in Taiwan, for example: policy change.

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Manual sorting is expensive but needed. Jiutai uses labor to separate things like zippers and labels. PET content is then measured using light based machines, but blends are hard to solve and will then be burnt, it shows us where our enzymes could help most.
• Recycling depends on purity and price. Mr. Wu said over 80% of PET clothes can be recycled, but only if they're clean and pure. For blends, there's no affordable solution yet, which is why most companies avoid them.
• Government support matters. Right now, Taiwan's Ministry of Environment offers per-kilogram subsidies, but there's still not enough pressure from brands or laws (like in the EU) to make full recycling happen. He encouraged us to think about policy as part of our project, not just enzymes.

Impacts:

De Licacy

De Licacy is a Taiwan midstream textile manufacturer with over ten years of experience in fabric development and production. It is known for functional and sustainable materials, integrating recycled resources into fabrics for global brands and focusing on innovation. Our goal for this meeting is to seek possible collaboration to turn our monomers back to textiles again.

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Recycling nowadays uses mostly PET bottles as feedstock, with a much smaller portion coming from textiles. Bottle-to-bottle recycling is mature and cost effective, so the price gap between virgin PET and recycled PET bottles is small. By contrast, textile-to-textile recycling still faces high collection and processing costs.
• Market Direction: Performance and outdoor brands drive demand for sustainable textiles. Their customers are more eco-conscious and willing to pay slightly higher prices, making them the most promising first market for new recycling technologies.
• Taiwan's Role: Taiwan is globally recognized for high performance and functional fabrics rather than low-cost mass production. What sets Taiwan apart is its agility in adopting new innovations, which means our enzyme solutions must be cost effective and high quality to meet these standards.
• Collaboration Priorities: To make new textile recycling viable, manufacturers emphasized:
  • Purity of monomers - our enzymatic system must deliver high-quality monomers to compete with chemical/physical methods.
  • Scalability and stability - large-scale, consistent results are critical to gain industry trust.
  • Cost competitiveness - the top concern for manufacturers, since pre-treatment already adds significant cost.

Impacts:

This industry consultation helped us better define the expectations for scaling our enzyme solution. We learned that while PET bottle recycling is mature and cost-effective, textile-to-textile recycling remains expensive due to collection and processing barriers. To stand out, our solution must ensure: high monomer purity, reliable scalability, and above all, cost competitiveness. Taiwan's functional fabric industry provides an ideal entry point, as it is both agile and innovation-driven. In particular, performance textile brands with eco-conscious customers are promising early adopters. This feedback shaped our focus on engineering enzyme systems that are industry-ready and economically viable.

Mr. Lawrence Yen

Mr. Lawrence Yen, Founding Partner at MIH Climate Impact Capital, is an experienced investor and advisor in sustainability-driven ventures, with a particular focus on climate impact technologies. With years of expertise in guiding startups through market challenges, scaling strategies, and building resilient business models, Mr. Yen brings a global perspective on the intersection of innovation, investment, and environmental responsibility. Through the meeting, we gained strategic and market-oriented guidance for our enzymatic textile recycling project. His experience in sustainability-driven ventures offered insights on scaling, business strategy, and global market positioning.

Key Insights and Takeaways

At the very beginning of our project, Mr. Lawrence advised us to pivot our focus from general PET plastic degradation to PET textile recycling, identifying textile-to-textile solutions as an emerging and urgent trend in sustainable materials. He later reinforced this direction, emphasizing the importance of focusing on our core strengths, particularly enzyme innovation, instead of trying to control the full supply chain too early. The consultations highlighted the strategic value of patent protection, targeted partnerships, and resilience in startup development.

Impacts:

These early consultations shaped the foundation of our entrepreneurship strategy. They guided us to prioritize enzyme development as our key value proposition, while planning strategic collaborations for downstream processing and textile manufacturing. This helped us refine our business plan, ensuring that our solution is technically focused, cost-effective, scalable, and aligned with market trends and investor expectations.

InBlooom

Founded in 2008 by three women in Taipei's historic Dadaocheng district, inBlooom is a Taiwanese brand known for its modern designs rooted in local culture. Starting with their signature “Taiwanese Crested Myna” pattern, they focus on creating practical, everyday products with a commitment to social and environmental responsibility. inBlooom uses sustainable materials and partners with NGOs to empower local women through community-based production. In 2022, they earned international B Corp certification for their dedication to sustainability and social impact.

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Conducted an in-depth interview with inBlooom's team as part of our iGEM project.
• Gained insights into their business philosophy, sustainable practices, and the rigorous path to B Corp certification.
• Learned how businesses can balance profitability with social and environmental goals.
• Heard practical guidance on turning sustainability projects into real applications.
• Saw how sustainability can be embedded in everyday products, business models, and community empowerment.
• Used their B Corp experience to inform our own future business model, exploring how a similar framework could support our solution.

Impacts:

The inBlooom advisory turned our enzyme concept into an adoption strategy: make low-cost, regular products a priority, make governance tied to B-Corp values, and partner with NGOs for community empowerment. It also explicitly stated pilot goals and KPIs (measurable test SKUs from monomers; monomer purity/yield, cost comparison to bottle-rPET, LCA, fair-wage proportion) so our lab trials are aligned to market and policy needs.

Twine

Our team had a meeting with Twine (繭裹子). Twine is a Taiwan fair fashion brand that integrates sustainability and fair trade into its clothing and lifestyle products. They highlight collections such as recycled sari series, promoting a transparent supply chain. While Twine mainly focuses on natural materials and fair trade practices, they provide us valuable insights into the market landscape and current industry practices. Our main goal of this meeting is to invite them to participate in our public engagement event at Dadaocheng, where they can showcase their products and promote their brand story, whereas the public can also learn from them.

Key Insights and Takeaways

• Functional wear is produced using recycled materials from major suppliers such as Singtex, rather than in-house recycling.
• Twine itself does not currently focus on synthetic fiber recycling, but sees regeneration as a future direction.
• Emphasized that any collaboration would depend on cost control and market acceptance of recycled materials.
• Pointed out that labor cost is a major barrier to large-scale textile recycling in the current market.

Impacts:

Conclusion

The Integrated Human Practices (IHP) framework has guided our project in addressing complex issues of blended textile waste via stakeholder-led process. We started with consulting textile science and sustainability experts for problem validation and solution design. These were complemented with large-scale public surveys that allowed us to map major gaps in awareness, behaviors, and social barriers to textile recycling. Via the solution development phase, feedback from researchers and industry stakeholders allowed us to refine our enzymatic solution to better align with industrial and real-world realities. We subsequently initiated an extensive outreach effort in partnership with educators, eco-friendly brands, and grassroots communities to influence behavior change and public engagement. In parallel, our consultation with the RECA under Taiwan's Ministry of Environment helped ensure that our solution aligned with the government's priorities such as the Sustainable Fashion Alliance and inspired us to teach the public about circular economy through education outreach. Finally, consultation with recyclers, clothing manufacturers, and environmentalists helped us determine the feasibility and potential pathways toward real-world adoption. This dual process not only established the social and technical foundation of our project, but also ensured that our solution is meaningful, scalable, and rooted in the systems it seeks to improve.