Los Angeles-based materials science company, Everywhere Apparel, has recently launched the world's first 100% recycled and closed-loop apparel line made entirely of GRS-certified recycled cotton.

Circot yarn and fabric, which are free of microplastics, are intended to be a fully recyclable alternative to recycled polyester (rPET), which has been shown to shed even more microplastics than virgin polyester.

Everywhere Apparel has launched its private label-friendly, printable clothes collection to the B2B market and offered its distinctive fiber technology and closed-loop system infrastructure as an open-source to reach as many brands and other partners as possible.

Irys Kornbluth, co-CEO at Everywhere Apparel, said that Everywhere Apparel was founded with the goal of having the greatest possible good influence on the environment, which is why they choose to open source their closed-loop system and make the technology available to anyone who is interested. They assure that this new approach to sustainability has the greatest possible impact by launching with a focus on the blank apparel business.

Circot yarn is spun out of shredded recycled cotton fibers and knitted into a soft, durable fabric that is cut and sewed into Everywhere clothing. Other brands can then utilize these to create their own printed products.

A user just scans the in-built tag with a QR-code to order an envelope to return the shirt (or even scraps) for recycling at the end of its life, which according to Everywhere Apparel is a few years. The shirts and remnants are gathered and color-sorted before being mechanically shredded into spinnable fibers, where the cycle starts again.

According to Everywhere Apparel, there are four different advantages to wearing apparel made with Circot fabric: To begin with, no water is utilized in the manufacture, bleaching, or dyeing of the fiber. Second, closed-loop clothing keeps trash out of landfills. Finally, they lower a company's carbon footprint and, most importantly, do not contaminate the environment with microplastics.

Everywhere Apparel said that when compared to conventional or organic cotton and recycled or virgin polyester, mechanically recycled cotton is the most sustainable garment fiber in the world on numerous parameters.

Everywhere Apparel, founded in 2019, is a venture-backed material science company managed by Stanford-educated engineers. The company’s aim is to create transformative sustainability solutions in the materials space.