YORK – In our latest Ecotextile Talks podcast, chemical engineer Shivam Gusain discusses the limitations of textile-to-textile chemical recycling and explains why failure should be the first milestone in this type of approach.
Gusain, a former innovation analyst at Fashion For Good initiative and now an independent consultant whose Substack post ‘Crash testing the circular economy’ inspired this conversation, tells our host, Philip Berman, that while the science behind chemical recycling is strong, the conditions of the current system hinder success.
He suggests “investing in failure” to better understand and mitigate these issues and proposes a dedicated failure capital layer to fund early stage trials which, he suggests, will reduce overall failure rates and improve strategic investments.
With the recent high-profile failures and billions being funnelled into next-gen recycling, Gusain asks, “what if we invested in failure, not just success, to reveal the real boundaries of these technologies?
During the podcast Gusain and Berman also discuss why when chemical textile recycling knows its limitations, it’s not ready to accept (them).
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