Los Angeles Start-Up Developing a Method to Recycle Polyester

LA-based start-up is working on a new method to recycle polyester, preventing clothing containing the material from hitting landfills.

Ambercycle and its Boyle Heights laboratory, chemists, and engineers have figured out a way to pull polyester, notably a hard-to-reuse material, from used clothing and package it for re-use.

“It seems so archaic to dump material on the earth, or just try and burn it and see what happens,” says Ambercycle Co-founder Shay Sethi. “We've developed all these crazy technologies to make stuff. Why do we not apply those to the other end of the lifecycle?”

Sethi and his business partner, Moby Ahmed, started looking into polyester as roommates during their senior year at UC Davis. At the time, the two were working on new waste-reducing technologies. They realized that recycling methods like the ones used for plastic bottles weren’t sustainable due to the extreme heat needed to melt the material which can compromise the quality.

The duo developed a chemical process to extract polyester from clothing and turn it into a material factories can use to make new clothes. The first product of their process was white polyester pellets which can be used to make yarn which can be turned into new clothes.

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