#vollebak

credit: Vollebak 

By Shardell Joseph 

Tech-based clothing company has launched a t-shirt made from wood and algae that is consumed by worms in 12 weeks. 

Vollebak, founded by British designers, athletes and twin brothers, Nick and Steve Tidball, designed the t-shirt that breaks down in soil or in a composter within three months.

The wood pulp sourced to make the t-shirts, including wood from eucalyptus, beech and spruce trees, is from sustainably managed forests. These are then chipped and pulped before being turned into fibre, then yarn and finally fabric.

The t-shit can then be disposed when end of life has been reached by either burying it underground, or putting it in a compost bin, which the company states the three-month decomposing process will begin.

“The plant and algae T-shirt needs the fungus, bacteria and heat from the earth to start to break down,” Steve Tidball told Dezeen.

“So if you want it to disintegrate you have to bury it in the ground or put it out in the compost – it’s not going to happen in your wardrobe,” he added.

Once decomposed either in the ground or a compost bin, the T-shirt becomes “worm food” – transformed into the same matter as the dead plants, grass, and leaves on the ground that are eaten by worms.

The algae makes up the entirety of the green block design on the front of the t-shirt, using a process by growing in bioreactors that turns the aquatic plant into printable ink. The ink passes from bioreactors through a filter that separates out the algae, leaving a thick algae paste. 

This paste is then dried using heat – the sun. This creates a fine powder, which is later mixed with a water-based binder to make the algae ink.

“Algae can’t survive once it’s removed from water, so the algae on the T-shirt is no longer alive,” explained Tidball.

“And because it started life as a plant rather than a chemical dye, the natural pigment in algae is more sensitive and won’t behave like colour normally does on clothing,” he continued.

“As soon as it comes into contact with air it starts to oxidise, which means the green will begin to change colour and your T-shirt may look different from one week to the next as it fades, making every T-shirt unique,” Tidball added.