{
  "id": 28584,
  "title": "MIT researchers have designed a recyclable alternative to spandex",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/30/mit-researchers-have-designed-a-recyclable-alternative-to-spandex",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-07-30T12:00:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Anthropocene Magazine",
    "slug": "anthropocene-magazine",
    "url": "https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/07/mit-researchers-have-designed-a-recyclable-alternative-to-spandex/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "MIT researchers have developed a recyclable alternative to spandex, an elastic yarn that could significantly reduce textile waste. Each year, over 11 million tons of textiles end up in landfills or incinerators in the United States alone. The new yarn, made from polyethylene, the same plastic found in milk bottles and grocery bags, could be melted and re-spun into new yarn for fabrics. Traditional high-performance fabrics often combine materials like spandex and polyester or nylon to achieve stretchiness, strength, and lightweight properties. However, this blend makes them difficult to recycle as the polymers need to be separated first. Svetlana Boriskina, a researcher at MIT's mechanical engineering department, explains that 80% of textiles in the U.S. market contain some amount of spandex, making them nonrecyclable. The new yarn, reported in ACS Materials Letters, aims to change this by mimicking the stretchiness and strength of spandex blends but using only one type of plastic. Both the stretchy core and tougher sheath are made from polyethylene-based polymers, allowing the entire fiber to be recycled without the chemical separation required for traditional yarns. The researchers demonstrated this by spinning, melting, and re-spinning the yarn multiple times, maintaining its strength and flexibility. Boriskina believes the technology can be scaled up for industrial production.",
  "summary": "This new polyethylene yarn matches spandex's stretch—and unlike spandex, it can be melted down and re-spun repeatedly.",
  "key_points": [
    "MIT researchers develop recyclable alternative to spandex.",
    "Yarn made from polyethylene, same plastic as milk bottles.",
    "New yarn mimics spandex stretchiness and strength with one plastic type."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}