With an aim to bring sustainability and circularity in the supply chain Levi’s has launched Levi’s 501 jeans a liquefied pair of old Levi’s as the company aims to bring more circularity to its supply chain.
A chemical process dissolves Levi’s denim and turns that into a new fabric that is then used to create new jeans, according to the iconic jeans brand.
It’s now working with the Swedish company Renewcell, which turns the old jeans into new material.
Renewcell is the brainchild of scientists from Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology, they were looking at ways to break down cellulose fibers found in cotton, wood, and viscose.
Using the known methods for chemically breaking down wood into cellulose to recycle it, the same formula to with cotton and viscose will be used.
According to Renewcell, old jeans are excellent candidates because traditional denim is mostly cotton without other materials such as nylon.
It calls the new material made from the discarded jeans Circulose—a nod to the circularity keeping the old materials in the supply chain for as long as possible.
