Dutch designer makes fashion out of cow dung

Loyal FashionUnited readers may remember an article with a similar title three years ago - “Dutch designer makes dresses out of elephant dung”. Though recycling has become all the craze, we are not recycling old articles here; the truth is even better: What seemed outlandish enough to make April 1st headlines back in 2013, has now become reality, almost exactly - a Dutch designer makes indeed dresses out of dung, if cow dung.

“Mestic is all about transforming raw matter into future oppertunities.”

Designer and artist Jalila Essaïdi, based in Eindhoven, has found a novel way to tackle the problem of exceeding the phosphate ceiling because of excess manure in the Netherlands by developing a technology with which manure can be immediately transformed into bioplastic, biopaper and biotextile. The new fabric called Mestic - a Dutch word combining the terms for manure, mest and plastic - was even featured in a fashion show organised by Essaïdi and her team at BioArt Laboratories in June this year.

The show and the new fabric met with so much enthusiasm that Mestic is now being projected as a circular solution that will not only solve the current problem with cow manure - which is causing excessive amounts of harmful phosphorus and nitrogen in surface and groundwater - but will also provide a sustainable source of biomaterials to the manufacturing industry, including the textiles sector.

“Initially we didn't set out to make a fibre; our goal was to create cellulose acetate by directly pulping and acetylating the available cellulose in manure. A logical next step was to spin this into a fibre. ... Mestic is all about transforming raw matter into future oppertunities,” explains Essaïdi. Now, the next step is to reach out and make the new material available worldwide.

Mestic is fashionable and cost-effective

“As far as the technology is concerned, the method of producing bioplastic derived from manure has been patented and we are going to work under a licence with other companies. The partners for this collaboration are the stakeholders that benefit the most from the solution—the farmers and government. With regard to working with brands, we are planning to make the textile available under its own brand, and are already exploring the possibility of other brands integrating the textile into their products”, added Essaïdi.

Over the next few years, a prototype plant is planned to scale up and industrialise the product. Ultimately, Mestic wants to “find a significant positive impact to the global climate objectives” and to “make a serious contribution to a new circular world”.

What could really make this a revolutionary new product is its price and cost-effectiveness: “The raw material of similar fibres makes up a big percentage of the price of the final product. In the Netherlands, for now, farmers pay us 18 euros per square metre manure. This fee pays for the process; so essentially we get our raw material for free.”

Seems like a dream come true for countries like India for example with a long textile tradition and lots of cow dung to be had. Holy cow, we'd say, and again, this is true, it is way too late in the year for another April Fool's joke.

Photo credits: Mestic fashion show: Ruud Balk via mestic.eu; Jalila Essaïdi in the lab via jalilaessaidi.com