Sustainability just got smellier. As part of a new plan to be 100 percent sustainable by 2040, H&M has invested in a wide variety of inventive products that are more environmentally conscious, including something that people are calling “poop fabric.”
Clothing made from cow manure?
Poop fabric is a soft and sturdy material made from, yes, cow manure. Don’t worry, it won’t actually make you smell like a farm. It takes cellulose found in cattle dung and converts it into a hardy fabric. And the most eco-friendly thing about it is that the rest of the poo — the part not used to make clothing — helps fuel the entire creation process.
Inventor Jalila Essaidi has called it Mestic, which I have to say sounds infinitely better.
Dung is serious business, particularly in the Netherlands, where a booming dairy industry has already outstripped the so-called “phosphate ceiling” of 172.9 million kilograms per year. Too much phosphate in waterways can lead to algae blooms, which rob aquatic life of oxygen and are potentially toxic to people. But less manure requires fewer cows, which, for the land of milk, butter, and cheese, is a compromise farmers are hard-pressed to make.
The good news is the onset of the “circular economy”, that turns excess excrement—and the surplus phosphate it contains—into useful products. By “deconstructing” manure, Essaïdi is able to tease out the cellulose within and transform it into bioplastics, biopaper, and even biotextiles.
That’s right, Mestic from “mest”, the Dutch word for manure. While people have sought to recycle a No. 2 before, Essaïdi says this is the first time “manure is genuinely being considered as a valuable resource”. Using manure in this manner also allows us to ease up on other, less-abundant natural resources, such as trees, cotton, or oil: an environmental win-win.
The future sure is looking shitty!
