IHP Overview

Throughout the iGEM cycle, integrated human practices drove ReneWool’s evolution. The culmination of our integrated human practices work—which included interviews with a diverse array of stakeholders, extensive brainstorming sessions within our team, and implementing EDI initiatives—is a novel, holistic approach to the pervasive issue of blended fabric waste from the textile industry.

In the initial development of our project, our team was motivated by environmentalism and the desire to create an effective solution to global waste. Thus, we were initially drawn to the idea of creating a circular economy solution to textile waste, and designed a system in which bacteria would break down keratin wool waste into amino acids, then rebuild these amino acids into new textile fibers. To ensure this solution would address the issues currently faced by textile recycling efforts, we carefully chose interviewees from a variety of fields and considered the perspectives of all those impacted by the current crisis at each stage of our project.

In these interviews, we collected feedback on our solution’s limitations, impacts, and alternative directions, which led to reimagining our project’s design and goals at several points throughout our engineering cycle. As detailed below, ReneWool gradually expanded to a proof-of-concept method of upcycling blended-textile waste into spider silk, a material which we discovered has exciting biomedical applications. Experts in textile analysis, waste management, biodesign and renewable fabrics helped us refine our project by pointing us towards more significant sources of waste, finding alternatives to over-complicated parts, and advising us on how to scale-up to make a meaningful impact in the world.

Beyond shaping this year’s lab work, our human practices team sought to foster more inclusive practices and policies, which will strengthen our University’s future iGEM teams by creating space for diverse student perspectives in and out of the lab. This is in line with iGEM’s commitment to cultivating a collaborative community which considers all perspectives and is mindful of cultural differences.

Text Analysis Services

During our 2024 project development, we became interested in bioremediation, the fashion industry, and the potential impact of our project on the textile industry’s practices. In order to gain a broad understanding of textile recycling and better understand the composition and qualities of commercialized textiles, we chose to consult an expert with decades of experience in the field of textile science on June 5, 2024. From their experience as a Field Safety Officer (FSO) and supervisor of a Textile Analysis Service at the University of Alberta, we learned that synthetic fibers are a pressing sustainability issue for the textile industry. We gained a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of blended fabrics, textile processing, and of the need for novel solutions to the issue of overproducing and overconsuming textiles.

From this interview, we learned that wool is inherently more flame resistant, more stretchy, or requires less processing than other fibers on the market, such as cotton. This is why we decided to focus on wool as our issue. However, after talking further with the expert, we learned that there are bigger issues like blended fabrics which are challenging for the textile industry to recycle as they are much harder to break down. For example, when burned, wool releases toxic byproducts. Our source informed us that wool products can last for generations if taken care of, but after recycling using a physical process, the shortened fibers have to be blended with virgin fibers to preserve structural integrity. Usually, textile waste is an intricate blend therefore it is hard to recycle it, as it is combed, blended, and then spun into fibers. It is unlikely to find textile waste composed of only one type of material, such as keratin. Hence, our team will incorporate this learning by expanding our initial focus on keratin waste to include other types of textile waste into our system. This will allow us to address the challenge of recycling blended fabrics in the textile industry.

The interviewer also highlighted the issue of fast fashion, which leads to over-consumption and over-production of textiles, resulting in the massive problem of global textile waste. Recognizing fast fashion as a primary contributor to textile waste, we decided to integrate this learning into our project. In order to implement this key takeaway from the interview into our project, we decided that we should share the concept of fast fashion and its negative consequences with the public. The interviewer shared a contact from the University of Alberta’s campus called the HECOL Repair Café. This café focuses on repairing and upcycling old clothes to prevent them from being thrown away. Hence, we planned an educational event on fast fashion in collaboration with the HECOL Repair Café. We wanted to do this event with them as both of our projects resulted from a need to address the negative consequences of fast fashion and also because decreasing production is more environmentally friendly than the textile recycling or disposal process itself. Hence, we ran a table with them on the University of Alberta campus on September 13, 2024, to raise awareness about the issue of fast fashion which had inspired both of our projects. You can find more details about this educational outreach event on our educational page Education
.

Regarding our end spider silk product, we learnt that we would need to research more into how to turn spider silk proteins into spider silk fibers, as the two are structurally different and we may have difficulties in converting the proteins into commercially valuable fibers. Textile production values visual and sensory cues such as adequate tensile strength (determinate of stretch), flexibility, softness, stretchiness, and the diameter of the fiber. The uniformity of the produced fibers is important as well, which are all things we’ll consider as our project progresses. For the future, we also obtained contacts for fabric testing and environmental textile initiatives.

We recognize that often there is a disconnect between the industry and researchers, where what is needed or how something can actually be integrated into the commercial textile industry and the current research developments are not aligned. By actively engaging with this expert, we sought to bridge this gap and enhance our understanding of current textile issues, ensuring that our project was reflective of real-world needs. Our team would like to thank this expert from the Textile Analysis Service at the University of Alberta for their insights and feedback!

Mary Glasper

During the process of refining our project, our team aimed to position it within the textile industry and sought feedback from a textile expert to improve our approach. To do this, we consulted Mary Glasper, a research technician at the University of Leeds and a former volunteer at Waste Free Edmonton (WFE) on June 13, 2024. As she had done a master’s thesis on moth-produced silk and had a background in textile science and waste management, we believed that she could provide us with feedback on our project, which focuses on repurposing wool waste into commercially valuable spider silk fibers.

Initially, our focus was on developing a novel method to repurpose wool waste into commercially valuable spider silk fibers. We chose this approach to sustainably and ethically produce spider silk without using spiders, taking advantage of its remarkable physical properties, such as tensile strength. However, during our interview, Mary highlighted that there are various types of spider silks, each with different applications. From this feedback, we realized that we had not fully considered the specific end-use or community need for our proposed synthetic spider silk material. We had focused solely on its ethical and sustainable production. Moving forward, we will research which types of spider silks are best suited for specific uses such as protection, implants, or tissue scaffolding, adding value to our project by aligning it more closely with real-world demands and applications.

During the interview, we learned that blended fabrics are a significant concern in textile waste management, a point also highlighted by the expert from the Textile Analysis Service at the University of Alberta. They are hard to recycle because they contain many types of fibers which all have different recycling processes. As a result, they make up a significant portion of textile waste in comparison to keratin-based textiles. Initially, we focused solely on wool, but after consulting with Mary and the expert from the Textile Analysis Service, we realized the potential in targeting wool-containing blends. Through this, our project becomes highly relevant as it allows us to repurpose a broader range of fabric waste and enhances the efficiency of the textile recycling process, specifically with fiber blends.

Although both the contact at the Textile Analysis Service and Mary emphasized the need to expand our initial waste sources, Mary provided more detailed guidance on which textile materials we could expand to. For example, she suggested incorporating polyester, cellulose (from cotton), and keratin (from wool) as initial waste sources for our system. We will integrate this feedback into our project to broaden our waste input, transitioning from focusing solely on keratin waste to also incorporating textile blends containing polyester, keratin, and cellulose.

Mary also suggested considering wool waste from sheep shearing as a keratin waste source, rather than limiting ourselves to apparel waste. This wool, often discarded or incinerated due to its low value, presents a significant waste problem in Canada. By targeting this under utilized waste resource, we can expand the scope and impact of our recycling efforts. Along with expanding our initial waste sources to include blends, Mary also suggested expanding our keratin waste sources beyond just wool waste. Wool constitutes only 2% of textile waste, so exploring other sources like down and chicken feathers could be valuable. Chicken feathers, in particular, are a significant waste item from poultry farming and could enhance the reach of our recycling initiative if our enzyme can degrade various keratin materials. For the future, our team will look towards contacting relevant individuals working in the poultry farming industry and rendering companies to determine if chicken feathers are a big waste source item in Canada and if it would be valuable to incorporate them into our system.

To conclude, Mary provided us with valuable recommendations to refine our project's focus. She suggested broadening our keratin waste inputs to include sheared sheep’s waste wool, chicken feathers, and wool-containing blends, and exploring various end products for our synthetic spider silk. We are grateful for Mary Glasper's feedback and look forward to implementing her suggestions to enhance our project.

Shannon Nelson

Following the interview with Mary Glasper from Waste Free Edmonton, our team sought to learn more about the waste wool generated from sheep shearing activities in Canada. Hence, our team visited Shannon Nelson at the Traceable Textiles Studio on June 26, 2024. Shannon has a Master Weaver designation from Olds College and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta. She regularly teaches weaving in the Edmonton Weavers Guild. Our iGEM team gained a better understanding of the Canadian and international wool industries from our meeting and collected some waste wool samples for further testing in the lab.

For background, Traceable Textiles is a local weaving company that hand-weaves wool blankets from waste wool collected from Albertan sheep bred for food production. They are deeply committed to sustainability, ethics, and transparent practices, and formed as a response to a lack of traceability in wool products. They collect fleeces from all over Alberta and surrounding areas, process them, send them to a local wool spinning mill for further processing, and then hand weave the returned yarn into wool blanket products. Traceable textiles aims to use locally produced wool to process it into high-quality textile products.

Sheep farmers in Alberta, a province that often exports its natural resources to be processed by facilities elsewhere, primarily raise ‘meat sheep’ and not ‘wool sheep’. Excess wool from seasonal shearings is consequently burned or buried as (water-absorbing) fertilizer by farmers, who find it more economically feasible to do the above instead of paying additional costs to send it to a wool storage co-operative facility. We learned that the excess wool waste produced seasonally from these sheep shearing activities is unusable for textile manufacturing. Hence, this waste could benefit from our system if it can be used as feedstock to make spider silk.

We also learned that most of the wool waste is produced before the fiber spinning stage, with a typical batch of 50 kg being sent to a spinning mill site resulting in only half of its weight in yarn. Raw wool fibers need to meet several requirements to be turned into yarn. Waste wool can be too dirty, too matted, too short, or not of the right softness for fiber production. However, this waste wool can be used in our system as it is able to be degraded by keratinase.

Hence, after reflecting on the key learnings from this interview, our team integrated Shannon’s feedback by including keratin waste not only from post-textile production, like apparel waste, but also from pre-textile production, such as the wool waste produced before textiles are manufactured, for use in our system. Initially, we had only considered the textile waste generated after it had been distributed to consumers, but after this interview, we recognized that a lot of textile waste is generated even before textiles are produced. To address this gap, our team decided to incorporate textile waste that is generated during the textile sourcing phase, like how the wool from sheep shearing activities is sourced for wool textiles. In this way, we would also be able to alleviate the burden on sheep farmers by providing them with an alternative solution for managing excess wool waste which is often stockpiled or burned on their farms.

To add onto the material sourcing phase for wool textiles, we learned that wool quality is unregulated as there is no system to grade fiber quality. Products produced internationally allow for low-priced wool products which come at the cost of the workers and environment. Dyeing processes both produce toxic wastes and consume large, unsustainable, quantities of water which is environmentally unsustainable and harmful. Canadian wool is often exported internationally to undergo these unregulated processes, mixed with other wool sources, and then processed into products sold globally. It is impossible to trace back the source of the wool or identify where all the dyeing and finishing processes a wool-containing garment or product has undergone.

Our team was disheartened to hear about the realities of the textile manufacturing cycle. As a result, we decided to create an educational lesson plan that focuses on the material sourcing process of textiles and its negative impact on both the environment and workers. In order to do this, our team integrated the learnings from this interview and designed a lesson plan on the textile production of a T-shirt which has been made accessible to the public for educational purposes. Our goal for creating this lesson was to highlight to the public the need to find sustainable and transparent ways to produce textile products. We would like to thank Shannon Nelson for inviting us over to her Traceable Textiles Studio and helping us learn more about the waste wool generated from sheep shearing activities in Canada.

Sarah Graham

After learning about the broad issues facing the textile industry from our previous interviews and refining our project to include their feedback, such as expanding our initial waste inputs, our team had developed a new project purpose and design which was focused on addressing the issue of blended textiles. Given these major changes to our project, we sought out a stakeholder that could provide feedback not only on our new project’s strengths and limitations, but also on its potential within the context of the biodesign industry.

Hence, our team met with Sarah Graham who is the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of LITE-1 on July 3, 2024. We initially met Sarah Graham at the Nucleate Alberta event on May 22, 2024. Sarah is the co-founder of LITE-1, a Canadian start-up that creates vibrant textile dyes from engineered bacteria using a circular, sustainable system. When we first reached out to Sarah, our project focused on the impacts of blended textile waste from the textile industry. However, we have since expanded the scope of our concept to encompass all kinds of textile waste, including what is generated during the pre-textile production stage. Although Sarah’s background is mostly biofabrication within the context of textile industries, she gave feedback on the scalability and sustainability of our project, as well as offering us valuable insight into current issues facing the biodesign industry.

We learned that current innovations in biodesign are interdisciplinary and holistic, seeking to tie historically sustainable methods of production to new biotechnologies. Sarah described how in the past, garments were made from natural sources (such as wool) and were built to last—biodesign seeks to optimize this process, using tools from nature to create sustainable and high quality products. Storytelling, she says, is a big part of how we can make these innovations more accessible to the public. By making connections to historical technologies and painting these innovations as cool and interesting, public opinion of biodesign will be more positive, making these projects more feasible and successful. Having learned this, our team realized that one way we could combat public hesitancy around genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), such as the E. coli used in our system, is through transparency and storytelling. By helping the public understand our process and tie the concept of GMOs to historical examples, such as corn modification, people will be more receptive to our system which uses bacteria to transform textile waste into commercially valuable spider silk proteins.

We also learned that scaling-up is the biggest challenge facing many new start-ups seeking to create and utilize new, sustainable technologies. Whereas synthetics such as petroleum-based plastics have been around for decades, thus needing cheap and optimized processes to produce, new biotechnologies require high costs initially, as they have not yet been optimized. Stakeholders and consumers will not, and sometimes cannot, afford to invest in high cost technologies. However, initial investment is necessary to complete the optimization process and create more efficient, cheap technologies.

Sarah explained that many of these technologies require expensive bioreactors to create a product at a significant scale, and that they have yet to be perfectly optimized to work at maximum efficiency with every run. Sarah pointed out that unless our team develops a way to engineer our feedstock (blended waste) to be identical with every run of our system, it will not be marketable. If our waste has different compositions every time we run the system, our results will vary in success rate, diminishing efficiency and marketability. We will integrate this feedback as we move forward and think of ways to increase the efficiency of our process. Our team would like to thank Sarah Graham for letting us interview her and gain more feedback on our project from the perspective of the biodesign industry!

David Patten

During the halfway point of the iGEM 2024 competition, our team reflected on the interviews we had done so far. We realized that we had received a lot of guidance on our project’s purpose and design. However, we were lacking feedback on our project execution and the educational outreach efforts we had undertaken. To address this gap, we decided to evaluate and improve our outreach efforts within the context of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) by consulting with David Patten, a member of the Department of Biological Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee, on July 19, 2024.

Initially, we had only considered implementing EDI into our outreach efforts, but after talking with David, we realized that we should first start with examining our internal team practices before promoting it externally. During the interview, David emphasized the importance of embedding EDI into a team’s recruitment and operations process. He pointed out that fostering an inclusive environment first starts with how a team recruits people, interacts with each other, and conducts their meetings.

He suggested that one way to improve our EDI practices is to first start with a comprehensive code of conduct that sets clear expectations for behavior and treatment within our team. The code of conduct should also outline how we recruit people so that we can ensure that future iGEM UAlberta teams are diverse and inclusive.

Our team integrated his advice on creating a code of conduct which we finished developing on September 6, 2024.

From our discussion, we also realized that we could improve our outreach by engaging with groups we had not previously interacted with. Hence, our team evaluated our past educational efforts and noted that they had only involved audiences within the city of Edmonton. While this was okay, we recognized the need to expand our outreach to include rural communities. One idea we are considering for the future is hosting educational events in rural areas to involve a wider range of communities. We had the opportunity to implement this plan on August 20, 2024, when we led an arts and crafts activity for kids at the Ardrossan Farmers Market Education
in Ardrossan, Alberta which is a rural community outside of Edmonton. This event allowed us to extend our outreach efforts beyond the city and engage with a less represented audience, helping us broaden our project dialogue.

To conclude, through the interview with David, we realized that we need to first integrate EDI into our team to create an inclusive environment before we can effectively reach out and make a meaningful impact on the broader community. We are grateful for David Patten’s advice on improving our educational efforts and integrating EDI principles into our team operations.

Timo van der Zwan

At the halfway point of the iGEM competition, our team transitioned from focusing on broad learning points, such as topics on the textile industry, to gaining feedback on individual components of our project. We had already received significant feedback on modifying our initial waste sources to address the growing concerns of the textile industry, but we had yet to gain insights on our biosensor and the final spider silk product.

First, we decided to focus on getting feedback for the biosensor, as we had never been able to obtain expert opinions on it before. On July 22, 2024, members of our team met with Timo van der Zwan, who has a PhD from the University of British Columbia and currently works in the textile industry. His thesis focused on studying enzymes for the deconstruction of biomass. As our project integrates biotechnology and enzymatic processes into the textile industry, we believed he would help us learn more about biotechnology, startups, and the feasibility of commercializing our processes. During our meeting, we discussed our project’s strengths, limitations, and potentials within the context of the textile industry and received feedback about our biosensor for the first time.

Timo van der Zwan mentioned that, in order to gain a foothold in the textile industry, new textile-grade materials must offer high performance capabilities mechanically, chemically, and/or sustainably. Cheaper materials are readily bought, as are ‘drop-in fibers,’ which are easily integrated or blended into current textile fiber processing methods. Fibers can either be wet spun or melt spun, with industrial wet spinning processes being more expensive. From him, we learned that since our spider silk product is a protein, it would need to be wet spun. This is a limitation as our spider silk product is considered a ‘premium’ material, meaning it is more expensive due to the spinning processes and also because of its exceptional mechanical properties. In contrast, synthetic fabrics are derived from petroleum, and are much cheaper compared to protein products. Price determines the applications for both types of materials. Hence, we learned that spider silk textiles would have to target a higher-end market and offer unique properties with the promise of sustainability to be truly marketable.

Another limitation, in addition to the high cost associated with spider silk protein products, is the large number of repetitive sequences in spider silk which make it more difficult to synthesize. Recombinant protein production is very challenging to produce and integrate in the industry due to stability issues. Another issue is super-contraction, which is the tendency of spider silk to react strongly with water and contract by up to 60% in water. This is a performance issue because it limits how usable spider silk textiles would be, and decreases its appeal to potential manufacturers. As Timo provided us with the above limitations on spider silk, our team integrated his feedback by exploring other protein production avenues to address these issues. This direction was further informed by a subsequent interview with Dr. Justin Jones, who suggested considering hagfish proteins as a viable alternative.

As Timo works in the textile industry, we also learned that the current sustainability goals of some larger textile companies include reducing the waste during the production process, such as through reducing water consumption, in addition to addressing the post-consumption textile waste. ‘Cutting waste’ which is defined as bits of waste that don’t get used during the production process, results in over 30% of starting material not getting used in the production process. This waste, combined with the challenge of degrading mixed materials, poses a significant issue. Mixed fabrics contain various forms of monomers, and are not equally degradable by the same chemicals which complicates the recycling process. The prevalence of mixed materials and the significant portion of textile waste created before the production process underscores the urgent need for innovative recycling and textile processes. This need aligns perfectly with our project purpose and biodesign as we are offering an innovative biological method—over chemical and mechanical methods—to recycle mixed materials and pre-production textile waste. This is a big strength of our project as we don’t need to invest heavily in obtaining our initial sources as they are usually waste and of low value. Most of our costs are associated with the biomanufacturing process, particularly the carbon feedstock (starch/glucose) and any bioreactor scaling-up processes we undertake. To address the financial viability and future scaling of our project, our team has reached out to bioreactor labs like the Bressler Bioreactor Lab at the University of Alberta.

The main point of Timo van der Zwan’s feedback came when we discussed our biosensor with him. At this stage of our project, our biosensor was a keratin degradation monitoring system designed to generate fluorescent emissions to indicate whether the keratin waste was successfully degraded. Timo suggested that our biosensor might be an overcomplicated solution for monitoring the reaction progress. He explained that simpler methods, such as tracking changes in viscosity and other chemical properties, could be more effective and less complex. Based on his responses, we learned that it might not be necessary to commercialize the biosensor, as visual and physical monitoring of the degradation process in bioreactors is often sufficient. Bioreactors typically mix materials and monitor how easily they mix, reflecting the reaction progress without needing a biosensor. Taking his feedback into account, our team decided to remove the biosensor from our system and shift our focus towards commercializing our project based on our initial waste sources, such as mixed materials and pre-production textile waste products like sheep wool. This shift allows us to concentrate our efforts on leveraging these waste sources rather than investing resources and time into commercializing the biosensor. Overall, we received a lot of feedback and future direction from Timo van der Zwan who we would like to sincerely thank!

Dr. Patricia Dolez

After shifting our project focus to emphasizing our initial waste sources and end product over the biosensor, our team sought to gain a better understanding of the properties of the textile waste we plan to use and the application of spider silk in new fabrics. Hence, we reached out to Dr. Patricia Dolez on August 7, 2024.

Dr. Dolez has been an associate professor in the Faculty of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta since 2017. She currently conducts research on protective clothing and personal protective equipment (PPE). Despite her primary focus on PPE, Dr. Dolez provided valuable insights into the future uses of spider silk and considerations for the commercialization of our project.

We first learned that there are a variety of recycling and degradation processes for textiles and that which method is used is dependent on what fibers are present in each textile. For example, some blends are depolymerized which then results in monomers that can then be reused. When in comparison to recycled clothing that contains cotton, the cellulose within these textiles is dissolved. However, Dr. Dolez did share that there are a few common fibers, such as nylon, acrylic, and elastane, that are consistently integrated into many fabrics that we should take into consideration while developing our project. We also learned that currently one biological method that is being investigated is enzymatic treatments to manage textiles. However, with this process comes several additional considerations when being used in a commercial setting such as, requiring consistent conditions for the enzymatic treatment to be effective. She specifically shared that for our process we would require a very consistent pH environment, and that we should also take into account the total amount of time it would take for the degradation process to be complete. We will keep these factors in mind as we discuss ways to scale up our project and determine the best environment for large-scale production of spider silk.

We then went on to discuss how the chemical treatments that are applied to cotton as well as the length of the fibers of cotton can affect the physical strength of the fabric. Understanding this was important as one of the mixed fabric sources in our system is cellulose, which becomes cotton. These chemical treatments would directly influence the overall ability of the fabric to be degraded by our system. Dr. Dolez explained that the crystallinity of the fiber significantly affects its strength but other factors such as the length of fibers and how they are twisted within the yarn will also contribute to how efficiently the fabric is able to be degraded in our system. Due to the different surface finishes applied onto many fabrics, such as water-resistant finishes, Dr. Dolez also recommended for us to consider how the bacteria within our system would react to dyes and pigments, as some of these components of waste textiles may be toxic to our system.

We also discussed the possible applications of spider silk with Dr. Dolez. She expressed how the potential avenues for spider silk use would be dependent on the performance of the fiber we produce and finding an optimal blend of fibers that mitigate the weaknesses of each separate material. Since strength is a highlighted quality of spider silk, cut-resistant gloves could be a potential application since the fibers are also quite flexible. She also shared that another potential use of spider silk could be the composite manufacturing of polymer matrices since there are many naturally based polymer matrices already. Lastly, when discussing promising aspects of our project, Dr. Dolez believed that our system could be useful within a niche market. With the unique properties of spider silk, we have the potential to address needs in industries that existing textiles cannot meet. Hence, as we are already aware that large-scale production of spider silk is challenging (as learned from Timo van der Zwan’s interview and reiterated by Dr. Justin Jones in a future interview), we have decided not to focus on the fashion industry or resistant fabrics for applications of our spider silk material. Instead, we will focus on the biomedical industry as our spider silk product’s properties may be particularly beneficial in that setting. We will reach out to relevant stakeholders to assess if this is the most promising direction and application for our spider silk material going forward. We are grateful for the valuable information Dr. Dolez shared with us and would like to thank her for her support!

Dr. Michael Chae

As our lab work neared completion, we decided to consult a stakeholder to evaluate how clean and sustainable our project is, especially in comparison to other textile recycling methods that may not be as environmentally friendly. On August 16, 2024, we met with Dr. Michael Chae. With over eight years of experience working in the bioindustrial sector, he currently works with Circular and Clean Technologies at Nait. Since our project’s focus is on developing a sustainable recycling system for textiles, we thought it would be a great opportunity to connect with him and learn what aspects of our project are sustainable and clean

Given the resource-intensive nature of our project, we are always seeking ways to enhance its efficiency. Efficiency is a cornerstone of sustainability, and we prioritize it in the ReneWool project. During our interview, we discussed the challenges associated with sorting and shearing textile waste, and Dr. Chae noted that these challenges are manageable. He explained that most textiles are relatively easy to shear and suggested that investments in AI or sorting machines could significantly boost our efficiency. We also sought his input on our two-step system, and Dr. Chae confirmed that this approach is standard practice in the ethanol industry and is a valuable microbial process. This reinforced the validity of our methodology and its application within the field of textile waste.

​​For our project, we plan to use a bioreactor. We were initially concerned about its sustainability due to its high energy consumption, however Dr. Chae addressed these concerns by highlighting several advantages of our project and methodologies that help mitigate energy use. First, Dr. Chae pointed out that the blended textile waste we are using is inexpensive, and in some cases, we might even receive compensation for taking it. In other words, we could potentially secure compensation from the public and companies, as taking these textiles off their hands would relieve them of the burden of considering disposal methods and its associated environmental impact. Hence, this cost-saving factor would help offset the energy expenses of our system. Second, the production of spider silk, which is considered to be an extremely valuable material for its exceptional strength and versatility, plays a crucial role in our project's sustainability. By converting low-value waste into high-value spider silk, we significantly enhance the economic viability of the ReneWool project. Dr. Chae also mentioned a key logistical advantage, because the spider silk we produce would have negligible water content, we would reduce the costs associated with transportation of the product. In comparison, industries involved in ethanol production often transport products that contain large amounts of water, typically 70-80%, which is not usable. By producing spider silk from waste, we not only address environmental concerns but also generate significant economic value.

Initially, our project’s main focus was on recycling blended fabric waste. However, after talking with Dr. Chae, we learned that the environmental benefits of the ReneWool project extend beyond waste management. He discussed the potential for capturing and utilizing CO₂ emissions generated during the process, drawing inspiration from the ethanol industry. He provided an example of breweries like BlindMan River that have successfully captured and repurposed CO₂ in their operations. This adds another layer of sustainability to the project, as it contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Overall, Dr. Chae offered many valuable insights on how to enhance the sustainability of our project, including the suggestion to explore the use of our CO₂ emissions, a practice some companies are already considering. Additionally, he emphasized that the process we are developing has a great amount of potential to be truly sustainable where even the waste products of our system may be reused as well! Our team would like to thank Michael Chae for allowing us to interview him and for providing feedback on our project from the perspective of the bioindustrial sector!

Dr. Justin Jones

Given the limitations of spider silk that we learned from Timo van der Zwan, including challenges with large-scale production, we sought to deepen our understanding of these issues and explore the most promising applications for spider silk. We also aimed to investigate whether other protein avenues could offer viable alternatives for our project’s future direction. Hence, we chose to interview Dr. Justin Jones on August 28, 2024. With over 30 years of experience in spider silk research and as the Director of the Spider Silk Laboratory at the University of Utah, Dr. Jones provided us with information about the commercial spider silk production process and the properties of the fiber.

Before the interview, our group was somewhat familiar with the challenges associated with spider silk proteins as highlighted in the interview with Timo van der Zwan. Timo had indicated that some of the current issues faced by recombinant spider silk production companies are related to both the manufacturing process and fiber performance. Specifically, the repetitive nature of the amino acid profile of the silk proteins makes the synthesizing process difficult. Another challenge faced is that once the recombinant fibers are produced, they may super-contract, which would limit the applications of recombinant spider silk. Dr. Jones was able to confirm these challenges and provide us with a better understanding of both natural and recombinant spider silk, as well as discuss other novel models being developed for protein production.

We first learned about the differences between native and recombinant spider silk. One reason as to why it is impractical to harvest native spider silk is that spiders are often territorial and cannibalistic which means that we are unable to farm spider silk. Using a bacterial production model, such as E. coli, allows us to produce significantly more spider silk compared to natural silk harvesting, which is a key strength of our project. Another difference between native and recombinant spider silk is the solubility profile of both types of silk, which is related to the size of the proteins. Native spider silk is made of large proteins (approx. 300 kDa), which means that they are less readily solvated. Recombinant silk proteins are comparatively smaller (approx. 65 kDa), and therefore more soluble, meaning that the recombinant proteins would not require harsh acids or chemicals to solvate them, unlike the native proteins. Although having shorter proteins is considered an advantage, recombinant spider silk proteins are smaller because our current science and technologies struggle to produce larger proteins. The repetitive nature of the amino acids was also an initial concern when first using recombinant technology, however, we are currently able to express spider silk gene sequences in heterologous hosts. When continuing our discussion regarding challenges with Dr. Jones, he emphasized that the main challenge currently being faced in recombinant spider silk production is spinning the proteins into usable fibers. The standard technique to do this is wet-spinning where the proteins are solvated into an acid or organic solvent, extruded through a needle, stretched, and then dried. Our team will do more research on how we can construct usable spider silk fibers from spinning spider silk proteins.

We then moved on to discuss novel avenues for protein production that are being studied. Dr. Jones shared that Hagfish are currently being researched for this purpose as they are able to produce an intermediate filament protein whose fibers are nearly as strong as spider silk fibers. Protein production within the Hagfish also does not face as many of the limitations that are associated with spider silk production. For example, although spider silk is able to be produced in heterologous hosts, like E. coli, it has not been able to be produced in significant usable amounts. Comparatively, the Hagfish protein being produced in E. coli, has been able to be produced in large quantities. This Hagfish protein also does not have repetitive sequences, which is another challenge listed earlier about spider silk proteins. Our team was extremely happy to hear about this information, and we will integrate this suggestion into our project by focusing on hagfish proteins as a potential new protein avenue.If we list hagfish proteins as one of the protein avenues that our system can produce, it will help us address the shortcomings of our spider silk material, particularly its challenges with large-scale production. Hagfish proteins also share similar applications to spider silk, particularly in the biomedical field, making our end product potentially interchangeable and opening up new opportunities for our project.

Overall, Dr. Chae offered many valuable insights on how to enhance the sustainability of our project, including the suggestion to explore the use of our CO₂ emissions, a practice some companies are already considering. Additionally, he emphasized that the process we are developing has a great amount of potential to be truly sustainable where even the waste products of our system may be reused as well! Our team would like to thank Michael Chae for allowing us to interview him and for providing feedback on our project from the perspective of the bioindustrial sector!

Lastly, we focused on future steps that need to be taken regarding our project. Two main aspects of our project that need to be addressed are the settings in a bioreactor required to have E. coli that are effective and conducting more research on generating fibers from the proteins we produce. This would include looking into different techniques such as wet-spinning, spinning from air-water interface, microfluidics, and electrospinning, and then determining which one is the most feasible to use with our recombinant spider silk. Regarding the bioreactor, Dr. Jones explained that there are a few key components required. These include a stable and abundant carbon source, such as glycerol and glucose that can be monitored, a nitrogen source to monitor the pH, such as ammonium hydroxide, and the need to achieve a high optical density of E. coli before their induction. We also need to maintain constant selective pressure using an antibiotic that E. coli does not consume, such as kanamycin, to help the bacteria maintain the plasmid. One challenge that Dr. Jones faced when using the bioreactor was that due to the repetitive nature of the amino acid sequence, the bacteria would run out of tRNA’s so the proteins produced would be truncated. However, they overcame this by implementing a dual vector system that added more of those specific tRNA’s that were in high use. Our team will reach out to a bioreactor lab contact to obtain further information and guidance on these next steps for our project. Our team would like to thank Dr. Justin Jones for doing an interview with us and helping us shape the future direction of our project.

Mr. Maenhout

In the early stages of our Integrated Human Practices work, we had interviewed Mary Glasper who had advised us to focus on keratin waste sources rather than post-production wool waste which is not a fast fashion item. Among the keratin waste sources she mentioned were chicken feathers, which are also composed of keratin and are often identified as a significant waste product in poultry farming. Hence, our team decided to reach out to Mr. Maenhout, who manages the poultry farm at Maple Leaf Poultry, on August 28, 2024, to learn more about the potential of incorporating chicken feathers into our system as an initial waste source. Our goals during this interview were to learn more about chicken feather management on both the small production scale and on a commercial scale, whether or not current methods are sustainable, and also gain feedback on the feasibility of our system being implemented within the poultry field.

Mr. Maenhout is specifically responsible for the life side of chicken production. This includes monitoring programs for the growth period of chickens, raising chickens without the use of antibiotics, determining when they can be transferred to the plant, as well as organizing schedules with associated farms. Based on his experience within the poultry industry, he explained how feathers are first removed from the poultry carcass using machines called feather drums after the viscera have been removed and the carcass has been scalded with water. One difficulty with the use of these machines is that the size at which it is set must be precise enough to remove the feathers from the poultry carcass but far away enough as to not damage the meat of the chicken. The feathers then fall into a flume and are then collected by a rendering company who further processes the feathers. The total wet weight of feathers that the rendering company collects from Maple Leaf Poultry is about 30,000 pounds everyday. The rendering company then cooks and denatures the feathers so they then can be processed into feather meal which can then be fed to ruminants.

Mr. Maenhout shared that typically at Maple Leaf Poultry, approximately 70,000-80,000 chickens are processed in this way each day, as chicken is a high meat consultant food that is a part of many different cultures' diets. This also means that there is a significant need for chicken feathers and other unconsumed portions of the chicken, such as the viscera, to be managed. We learned that currently, the process used by Maple Leaf Poultry and the rendering company is the main way that large-scale productions manage their feather waste. According to Mr. Maenhout, this process is quite sustainable as the feathers are able to be reused as feather meal and not be burned or put in landfills unlike other keratin waste products such as wool. With regards to smaller productions and farms where it may not be economically feasible to send their feathers to a rendering company, he shared that they will often place the feathers in compost to break down and be used on their fields as fertilizer which is also a very sustainable method to manage their feather waste. Overall, the current methods of chicken feather management are very sustainable and set an ideal example for how other keratin wastes could be processed and reused.

In addition to gaining the integrable information, we also discussed our project in relation to the Poultry industry with Mr. Maenhout. One of the hurdles he expected us to face when trying to attain feather waste as a feedstock for our system from productions, was being able to source the amount of volume required for our process to be considered sustainable for the company, and for it to become economically enticing to customers who want to invest in our system. Although this may be a challenge we face, Mr. Maenhout also expressed that he thought it was excellent that we were using low-value by-products, such as chicken feathers, and creating products with an increased value, rather than using materials that may have better alternative uses. For example, the giblets of chickens, which are very useful and valuable portions of poultry, are now going into feed since there is little demand by consumers for these products. Overall, we were able to learn a great deal from Mr. Maenhout’s experience and knowledge within the Poultry industry, and how our system could be another excellent alternative way to manage chicken feathers in a sustainable manner.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Mr. Maenhout for his detailed advice and feedback! Our team will incorporate his feedback into our project by not using chicken feathers as an initial waste source, as they are not considered waste items that end up in landfills and can be recycled sustainably.

Bressler Bioreactor Lab

As our project neared its conclusion, our team focused on understanding the economic feasibility and scalability of our process in a bioreactor, which many of our previous interviewers had highlighted. Hence, on September 4, 2024, our team visited the Bressler bioreactor lab. The lab is run by Professor David Bressler who works in the faculty of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta where his lab, The Biorefining Conversions and Fermentation Laboratory, is found. The multidisciplinary environment in the lab allows for various projects in biotechnology, chemistry, industrial microbiology, and biochemical engineering. His lab utilizes chemical, thermal, and biological innovations to convert agricultural products to chemicals, fuels, and value-added commodities, as well as being capable of sustaining dozens of liters of active liquid media in the several bioreactors and fermenters present. The lab is equipped with an advanced analytical suite capable of incredibly detailed chemical identification, quantification, and much more.

Dr. Bressler gave our team access to a tour of his comprehensive and innovative laboratory where he showcased the many fascinating machines and stations that facilitate the diverse, multidisciplinary research. Of great interest to us was the number of bioreactors and fermenters of various sizes and the innovations employed to optimize the processes and increase sustainability. The lab utilizes sensors to detect the concentration of Carbon dioxide and oxygen gasses being outputted from the bioreactor to have greater control over chemical inputs. They are also able to use technology to monitor metals and ions within the solution. The various monitoring methods are utilized together with AI to help determine the best ways to optimize the culture to maximize desired outputs at any time, for whatever product they are aiming to produce. Additionally, to increase sustainability the lab uses glycol for cooling rather than water, and considers environmentally safe ways of preventing carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) emissions, such as burying the gasses underground, which is a strategy the industry employs. We got to see the nanomembrane filter used for the specific separation and filtration of products in the bioreactor. Our team also learned of other, cheaper, methods of separation such as precipitation of the desired product by changing the pH, which may be a strategy of interest for the filtration of spider silk proteins.

Of great interest to our team was the tour of the analytical suite, a room within the lab filled to the brim with incredible machinery capable of nearly every kind of chemical analysis one could want! This room is dedicated to answering the question of “what do I have?” and “how much of it do I have?”. To answer these questions the room is equipped with advanced gas and liquid chromatography, refractive index detectors, NMR, medium and near infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, energy density, temperature, phase change, and so many more machines to answer a broad range of questions and even simulate processes such as distillation. In addition to answering chemical questions, the lab is also equipped with devices to characterize the physical properties of various materials. The tour highlighted the various questions that must be asked to successfully and optimally produce chemicals, fuels, and even proteins. An invaluable takeaway from this tour was learning the many specific and vital questions that one must ask when developing a system to produce recombinant proteins via bioreactor.

After the tour, we asked Dr. Bressler a series of questions about their project, its feasibility, and barriers to scale-up. We learned of the typical problems that must be solved when developing any fermenter system such as: controlling pH, shock from reduced salt compared to flask-grown cultures, heat generation, and oxygenation. These issues will need to be considered for future development of a larger-scale system. Additionally, he shared invaluable feedback on our proposed system, such as the benefits and drawbacks of using E. coli for each component of the system. First, E. coli is a very well characterized organism with many established tools for use in industrial purposes, which is a benefit, however, E. coli is known to be relatively weak in secreting the proteins it produces. We chose enzymes that E. coli is capable of secreting efficiently, but any expansion to the repertoire of enzymes requires consideration of secretion. He also shared insight into the various biotechnology companies that can produce highly specific commercial enzymes, which may be more cost effective than producing them through bacterial secretion. Additionally, he shared concerns of the E. coli secreting cellulases and then simply consuming the resulting sugar as fuel. This would be a great barrier to collecting that sugar as feedstock for a separate E. coli system producing spider silk proteins. To avoid this issue, he suggested creating and studying a single organism system capable of degrading textiles via secreted enzymes, and also capable of producing recombinant proteins such as spider silk. Finally, Dr. Bressler gave the team fantastic advice on working with companies in the biotechnology industry, and the trust and transparency that is required to be successful.

Our team would like to extend its sincere thanks to Dr. Bressler and the team of amazing researchers at The Biorefining Conversions and Fermentation Laboratory for the incredible tour, advice, and insights into our project. We learned a lot about the industrial world and the process in scaling up from academic experiments in shaker flasks to increasingly large and complex bioreactor systems. From the many advanced methods of chemical analysis to measuring the properties of final products. The differences between academic work and industry roles and how to make that transition.

City of Edmonton

On September 5, 2024, our team met with the City of Edmonton Waste Services team, who were working on a non-residential waste strategy, which includes working towards a circular economy. The team’s roles within the City of Edmonton include policy-making for waste reduction in the community, and they wanted to hear about our project since the City of Edmonton currently has no textile recycling policy or system in place. We reached out to meet with them due to our project's focus on textile waste, and since our hometown is Edmonton, we thought it would be important to get a government official’s feedback on our project.

ReneWool is working on a small-scale solution to the textile waste crisis, but there could be future opportunities to upscale. The nature of our project is novel and innovative, where our multibacterial system has the potential to solve real-world issues, but unfortunately, through timing and funding complications, we serve as a proof of concept for upscaling and industry applications. We learned that there is, unfortunately, no funding for novel or innovative ideas when it comes to textile waste. The recent plastic recycling trend is predicted to dominate the recycling funding opportunities, as it now has official federal and provincial policies attached to it. With that, textile waste remains untouched and severely underfunded. Current recycling institutes in the City of Edmonton are controlled by private companies who profit off the city's lack of recycling options. Our project offers a solution to this issue, with a new idea of using microbes to repurpose waste into something useful and environmentally friendly.

Along with feedback, the Waste Services team recommended multiple resources for us to research and potentially draw inspiration from. Specifically, we were shown that Markham, Ontario, is the first Canadian city to ban textile residential waste. The idea then would be to encourage donation and recycling initiatives of clothing within that community. They also brought our attention to a sustainable clothing brand called ANIÁN, located in Western Canada, which focuses on repurposing old textiles to contribute to a circular economy. Although recycling of textiles has a long way to go, movements such as Markham and ANIÁN give hope that sustainable fashion is on the rise, and projects like ours may have a home in Edmonton on a larger scale in the future.

Overall, the Waste Services team was excited and impressed with the direction of our project. From the policymakers’ perspective, our project idea could be a great solution to the lack of textile recycling systems that are currently in place. Their insights into the difficulties of funding innovative ideas further underscore the fact that our project is a needed solution in a city with limited resources for recycling. Although our project won’t be the exact answer to the textile waste problem, it may encourage other creative solutions or act as a stepping stone for similar projects within Edmonton or Canada. Our team would like to thank the City of Edmonton for their insights and feedback!