September is New York Textile Month and I had a wonderful opportunity to join one of the featured workshops by Hybrid Body Lab.

I came across the work by Hybrid Body Lab when I was writing for WGSN on a CMF report, and have been amazed by their work ever since. It is a research lab directed by Professor Cindy Kao at Cornell that focuses of crafting technology and human-surface interaction.

This EcoThread workshop was facilitated by Jingwen Zhu and Megan Wu. The idea behind the EcoThread project is to provide a more sustainable solution for e-textile applications.

Currently, most conductive threads on the market are composed with fiber and metal materials. For example, some conductive threads are fibers covered in copper or woven with copper threads. The mixed composition makes it challenging for these materials to be broken down for recycling. This means the lifecycle of such materials ends after one round of use.

I had heard of bio-thread from social media but hadn’t had a change to explore it yet. I am also relatively new to e-textiles, having only just attended a workshop by Liza Stark two weeks prior to this one – who also joined the EcoThread workshop. However, my knowledge of sustainable CMF makes me admire the concept of EcoThread very much. Combining bio-thread and e-textiles could open new doors for e-textile applications, offering a technology solution that benefits the planet.

The process of making EcoThread involves combining bio-thread (usually a biodegradable, gel-like liquid) with conductive content, such as carbon powder. The mixed material is injected into a liquid solution, where it solidifies into long threads. It starts out like squiggly pasta but forms thinner threads when dried.

EcoThread isn’t perfect, but neither are most materials.

All materials come with pros and cons. EcoThread may not be the most suitable for industries like consumer tech, but instead of forcing a solution, a more practical question to ask is: which industries require the specific qualities of EcoThread?

EcoThreads are biodegradable and conductive. While the workshop showcased a manual production method, it’s not impossible to scale it up to mass production. The material can be made in thread form but could also be produced in larger sheets, similar to bio-plastics we’ve seen from various material labs. Is there an industry that could benefit from these qualities?

Could it be suitable for the medical industry, for example, where masks, gloves, and test kits are often single-use, or anything else that could also require conductivity?

I don’t have an answer to this question, but it leaves us with a vast space for imagination.