“Decathlon has replaced elastane in one line of swimwear with a machine-stretch fiber developed by the Lycra Company. The recycling process is currently being tested in collaboration with a recycling partner.”
Prahl said he was encouraged that Lycra’s work with textile recyclers on mixed-fiber recycling technology – another major barrier to textile-to-textile recycling – had shown that Lycra’s T400 fibre does not impede the recycling process when mixed with other materials.
For Jones, sports have always led innovation in the fashion industry as a whole, and will continue to do so. “Athletes can test things in extreme ways all over the world to see if something works,” he says. “Now artificial intelligence is going to impact the field. It’s going to do amazing things, but it’s also going to have a disruptive effect. I don’t know what that is. But from a historian’s perspective, we’re repeating ourselves.”
For now, there are certainly more options for buying better swimwear. Perhaps consumers will help shape the era through the choices we make today, and ultimately how history will judge it.
“Three Things to Heal the Planet” by Ana Santi is published by Houellebecq Balance.
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