Ravel's Purification Recycling™ technology was intentionally designed to address the industry's biggest unsolved challenges: valorizing hard-to-recycle blends that make up the vast majority of modern clothing, and avoiding disruption and angst in existing supply chains. Ravel does this with feedstock flexibility and a market-based product offering that is 'drop-in ready.'
"There are countless advantages to blended fiber materials for clothing, blends are what make clothing durable, functional, and affordable. But blends are not recyclable with existing infrastructure. That's where Ravel comes in. We're solving a huge problem that other technologies fail to address." says Zahlen Titcomb, CEO of Ravel.
Ravel's process is able to isolate inseparable mixtures like poly-elastane, a popular combination for performance clothing, and purify waste into mono material fiber, using non-destructive and low energy processes. Ravel optimizes for cost, environmental impact and drop-in ready quality.
Jack Wielebinski at One Small Planet explained that "Ravel offers a rare opportunity in recycling: a clear pathway to producing recycled materials that are cheaper than their virgin counterparts. The logic is elegant on a first-principles basis, positioning Ravel to solve one of the most pressing problems in the circular economy. The company's technology transforms complex material blends into virgin-quality feedstock, creating a transparent, low-carbon, cost-effective supply chain, and opening the door for more global industries to adopt circular models."
Textile waste is not a simple feedstock. About 85% of textiles are made up of the top four material categories, and very commonly blended together for products (based on Textile Exchange's recent annual market report). Because Ravel accepts blended materials as the inputs for their process, they have an unprecedented tolerance for feedstock, unblocking the logistically complex and costly problem of isolating pure streams of textile waste. At any scale, this is yet another major hurdle that existing legacy technologies face.
Helen Lin, Partner at At One Ventures, commented: "The biggest driver of success for any recycling business is feedstock. How much of the waste stream that is being utilized is actually usable? How pure does it need to be for the processing to work viably? How far does it need to be transported? Those factors determine unit economics, operational complexity, and ultimately scalability. What impressed us about Ravel is that the team recognized this early and designed their technology specifically around scalability and the feedstock challenge. The result is a solution with broad feedstock flexibility while still producing the high-purity output materials at low cost. In our view, this is the combination of characteristics to enable mass adoption."
By prioritizing industrial and economic feasibility, Ravel has designed its process to be drop-in ready for manufacturers in the existing textile supply chain. A key pillar of this design philosophy is offering a recycled output material that doesn't force unnecessary "green premiums" on the system, or rely on subsidies to cover costs.
As Ravel expands from its Seattle pilot plant to commercial scale operations, the company is focused on validating its technology across the textile supply chain and demonstrating its performance at production scale. With Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation increasing the responsibility of brands and manufacturers for textile waste, Ravel is actively seeking industry partners to validate blended textile waste as a feedstock and to integrate Ravel's materials into existing manufacturing supply chains.
About Ravel
Ravel is a textile-to-textile recycling company specializing in Purification Recycling™ based in Seattle, Washington. Ravel transforms complex blended fiber waste into high-purity raw materials that achieve price parity with existing textile materials. By closing the loop on post-industrial and post-consumer waste, Ravel is building the infrastructure necessary for a truly circular fashion economy. Visit: www.ravelfuture.com
About One Small Planet
One Small Planet invests in companies where positive environmental impact is fundamental to how they scale. The firm backs founders across climate tech who create genuine ecological benefit alongside strong unit economics, rather than treating impact as a secondary outcome. For more information, please visit www.onesmallplanet.org
About At One Ventures
At One Ventures invests in deep-tech startups catalyzing a world where humanity is a net positive to nature. The firm is highly technical and was founded by Tom Chi, former Head of Experience and founding member at Google X. At One Ventures finds, funds, and grows companies that are using disruptive deep tech to upend the unit economics of established industries while dramatically reducing their planetary footprint. To date, At One Ventures has invested in 49 companies, including Colossal Biosciences, Blue Energy, and CUBY Technologies. For more information, please visit https://www.atoneventures.com/.
Media Contact: Kristen Albrecht - [email protected]
SOURCE Ravel
Share this article