In London, sustainability-focused clothing brand Pangaia has added two new biobased fabrics to its collection. Made entirely from agricultural waste, PlntFiber and FrutFiber will help the company replace both synthetic fabrics based on petroleum as well as traditional, but water-intensive, plant-based materials like cotton.
Sixty percent of FrutFiber is bamboo, while the balance is comprised of leaf waste from pineapple and banana cultivation. PlntFiber is also 60% bamboo, with the rest of the fabric made of fibers from nettles, eucalyptus and seaweed.
The materials are grown without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, or irrigation. In the case of FrutFiber, the material uses wastes otherwise landfilled or incinerated.
Miles Freeland, Pangaia’s head of global communications, tells Green Queen the company “cannot make any formal claims” of biodegradability or compostability because it has yet to test for these attributes.