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Nucycles: collecting discarded textiles to create new products
Last updated: Jan 17, 2025
Summary
Nucycles collects textiles from local industrial waste in Mexico to create multi-purpose products and accessories. 57% of the fabric's composition used for Nucycle's products is made of collected discarded cotton, since that is the only material that they keep.
Problem
In Mexico, only 15 grams of textiles are recycled per person, and that represents 1% of the textiles produced in the country. Tlaxcala, one of the smallest states in Mexico is responsible of 5.1% of the textile production in Mexico.
Solution
It took 6 years to perfect the cotton collection, sorting and recycling process. It represents a challenge to transform discarded cotton. Once industrial waste is collected, it is sorted by hand into different materials and just keeping cotton textiles. Then it is sorted by color and turned into fluff or a stuffing-like texture; which is converted into threads. Threads are worked to create cloths. By sorting cotton by colour, the final product does not need to be dyed.
Outcome
Creations at Nucycle are result of both artisanal and industrial techniques. Their colour palette respects the same recycling process making each model limited edition. Nucycles currently represents the income of 600 Mexican families.
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Date added: Aug 2, 2022
Last updated: Jan 17, 2025
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