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🤔 You’ve no doubt heard of the phrase: “thinking outside of the box” but do you know where it comes from?

🧩 So it originates from the “Nine dots puzzle", first published by Sam Lloyd at the turn of the 20th century, when it was originally called the “Columbus Egg Puzzle” (Strand, 1906)

📏 The idea is to come up with a solution to cross off all of the dots (or eggs) with as few straight lines as possible and without lifting your pen off of the paper.

✖️ In this case, the solution is 4, but it can be generalized into a more formulaic solution for square lattices of higher dimensions: if the lattice is an n x n matrix, the solution is always 2n-2. For instance in this case—with a 3×3 matrix—the solution is 3×2-2=4. But I digress…

🥡 The point here is that in order to solve this puzzle, one literally has to think outside of the box by drawing lines that ran outside of the matrix. Solving the climate crisis and other interrelated environmental issues indeed requires out-of-the-box thinking but especially so in matters related to sustainable production. In fact, we’ll highlight a changemaker today who is quite literally re-thinking the box of packaging itself.

🔎 Breaking down why our materials matter so much to the environment

🏭 From consumer materials such as plastic, cotton and leather to industrial materials like steel, concrete, and glass, how we make things contributes over 20% to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) annually (Drawdown, 2022).

Here is a breakdown of GHG emissions of five key materials:

Out of around 35B tons of GHG emissions per annum (Our World in Data, 2020), fabricating these five materials contribute about a fifth of global emissions:

The first two materials, concrete 🏛️ & steel 🌉, make up about 15% of annual GHG emissions; they are obviously a major part of the built environment along with glass*, however we will tackle these materials in greater detail in a future newsletter issue, in which we will cover industrial decarbonization more broadly.

*glass generates about 90M tons of carbon dioxide (<0.5%) per year (Nature, 2021)

🎭 What the above statistics actually mask is the fact that, while cotton and leather only seem to contribute a combined 2% to global GHG emissions annually, textile production overall contributes up to 10% total to global GHG emissions annually, which is more than international flight & maritime shipping combined! (European Parliament, 2023).

🤯 Below is a mind-blowing quote from the Environmental Justice Foundation:

The reason for this discrepancy is due to a handful of points:

1. 👘 Cotton and leather are not the only fabrics, plastic-based materials also make up the majority (around two-thirds) of textiles (Changing Markets, 2023)

2. 🚢 Logistics emissions, which entail bringing textiles from primarily Asian countries—which represents over half of all garment exports (ILO, 2022)—to markets mainly in the US & Europe

3. 🧺 Usage & post-usage treatment of fabrics, which entail washing and then discarding of clothing; in terms of discarding, around 92 million tonnes of wasted clothing end up in landfills annually! (Earth.org, 2023)

Moreover there are a couple of other environmental impacts, including but not limited to:

• 🚰 Water usage: the global water footprint of the textile industry was estimated at 233 billion cubic meters per year, which is around 30 thousand liters of water per person per year! (Waterfootprint.org, 2016)

• ☣️ Toxic chemicals: cotton alone leverages insecticides and pesticides intensively; in spite of only occupying 2.4% of global arable land, it utilizes ~5% of all pesticides and 10% of all insecticides (Pesticide Action Network, 2018)

🖱️ Let’s double-click on leather briefly, since we’ll be featuring an interview with an innovator who is tackling this problem in particular:

🐮 As we mentioned briefly on our second issue, which focused on organic waste, raising cattle has a large environmental footprint. While cattle is raised for both beef and leather production, leather constitutes about 10% of the value of farmed cattle, meaning that it’s the most valuable downstream product pound-for-pound (One Green Planet, 2021). This means that meat-alternatives—whether lab-grown beef or vegetarian diets—really only solve one part of the problem.

🤔 What sustainable alternatives can make a material difference?

📚 Want to learn more about this topic?

1. “Redesigning apparel manufacturing in Asia” from McKinsey

2. “Sustainability in packaging: Consumer views” from McKinsey

3. “Scaling plastic substitutes is key to tackling pollution” from UNCTAD

📢 Shout-out to Evoware!

♻️ We’d first like to give a shout-out to Evoware. Founded in 2016 in Indonesia, they aim to create a world without plastic waste by distributing one stop solutions for single-use & reusable packaging, and creating collaborative plastic awareness campaigns. Their focus is to reduce marine-bound plastics by developing a patented ocean-based regenerative technologies that turns seaweed into plastic pellets for use in industrial plastic machines.

🗞️ Recent News

👍🏻 Good News

🏭 Southeast Asia’s first bio-based ethylene plant to open in Thailand (Packaging Gateway, 18 August 2023)

🚀 Edible packaging market to hit USD 1B, with Asia-Pacific as the fastest growing geography (Globe Newswire, 17 July 2023)

🧵 Vietnam’s textile sector is getting greener (Vietnam Briefing, 12 July 2023)

♻️ New PET recycling plant starts construction in Indonesia (Sustainable Plastics, 10 July 2023)

👎🏻 Bad News

🌫️ Microplastics, typically a byproduct of textiles & packaging manufacturing, were recently discovered in the Metro Manila air as particulate matter, which is related to our first issue! (Greenpeace, 18 September 2023)

🆘 Asian garment makers call for more help from brands as EU clamps down on fast fashion (Reuters, 23 August 2023)

😞 Cambodia workers pay the price of Fast Fashion (Greenpeace, 11 August 2022)

🎙️ Interview with Adi of MYCL

💡 Why were you initially inspired to tackle the sustainable material issue?

👟 I was initially inspired to tackle sustainable materials for fashion and start Mycotech to use MYCL as a vehicle to create profit while recognizing the fashion industry's shift towards sustainability. We saw the need for eco-friendly alternatives as the industry still heavily relied on animal and synthetic leather.

🛠️ How exactly is MYCL solving it?

⚙️ MYCL is addressing the issue of sustainable materials for fashion by introducing Mylea, which is mycelium leather derived from mushroom technology. Mylea offers a compelling solution with its low carbon footprint and exceptional performance. It has the potential to significantly reduce environmental impact, saving up to 68% in global warming potential, 70% less water usage, and 17% less energy consumption compared to traditional leather production methods. This innovation showcases how Mycotech is actively contributing to a more sustainable and eco-conscious fashion industry through the use of mycelium-based materials like Mylea.

😲 What is a surprising fact about the materials that you work with?

🍄 A surprising fact about mushroom-based materials is that while they are technically derived from edible mushrooms, it's not recommended to eat them. This is because mushroom-based materials like mycelium leather are produced using the mycelium, the root-like structure of the mushroom, rather than the mushroom cap or fruiting body itself. So, although it's edible in theory, these materials are not meant for consumption and are better suited for sustainable alternatives in various industries.

🎬 What actions can readers take now to support your cause?

💁🏻‍♂️ Readers can support our initiative by joining our vision to bring sustainable materials to the larger market, helping people reduce their environmental impact in their closets. They can explore our webstore store.mycl.bio to experience these materials firsthand, and we are also actively seeking partners and investors to help us scale up and take our mission to the next level.

🦸🏻 What do you do when you’re not saving the world?

I enjoy cycling 🚴🏻 and taking leisurely strolls 🚶🏻‍♂️ in both urban and natural settings. I also have a passion for playing board games and wouldn't mind taking a whole day off to indulge in games from morning until midnight with friends and family.

⏭️ Next week, we’ll be wrapping up our waste series (for now), with an issue that focuses on e-waste in particular.

❓ Did you enjoy this week’s issue? If yes, please do forward to your friends who would enjoy the read as well. Also, feel free to let us know what you thought by giving us feedback at [email protected].

🌊 SEA you next week!

Karina & Massimiliano