It all started with baby clothes. When Rosario Hevia became pregnant with her second child, she began to notice how much baby clothes were going to waste. The onesies she bought for her first child, a daughter, were intact, but they didn’t fit her newborn son. So she began to pay attention to the textile waste problem in her hometown in Chile. Hevia’s engineering background allows her to constantly collect data, find solutions, and improve systems. Chile is the largest consumer of fast fashion in Latin America, so the issue is a pressing concern not only for individuals but for society as a whole.
In 2018, while in the hospital holding her one-day-old son, she decided to found Travieso, a marketplace for second-hand children’s clothing and a recycling company. A few months later, she decided to leave her job as the deputy director of financial planning at LATAM Airlines Group to expand the business.
As Treviso’s fame grew in Santiago, Hevia soon found herself with a mountain of worn-out clothes. By the end of 2019, she was receiving up to 400 kilograms (more than 880 pounds) of textile waste each month. Hevia began looking for alternatives to clothing that couldn’t be recycled or resold, which accounted for about 20% of the donated clothing she received at the time. “We approached the Ministry of Environment, municipalities, and large department stores that claim to recycle waste sustainably. Everyone just said, ‘We donate.’ And she insisted, ‘But I mean clothes that are damaged, and they say, ‘Oh, no, you can only throw them away.’ ” At the time, she couldn’t find any viable solutions in Chile.
But Evia kept looking. In late 2019, she learned that an old yarn factory was for sale. And that’s how she found it. She would use textile waste to produce yarn for her new company, Ecocitex (short for Economía Circular Textil (Circular Economy for Textiles)).
Hevia’s insight into Chile’s textile waste comes from statistics published in 2018 by Diario Financiero, which showed that Chile generates 550 tons of textile waste each year. She was hopeful about her yarn-knitting factory. “I can recycle 20 tons a month, so that’s 240 tons a year,” she said. But in November 2021, shocking photos emerged from Chile’s Atacama Desert showing 39,000 tons of discarded clothing dumped in a makeshift landfill. The situation was worse than Hevia had imagined. The photos quickly spread around the world, and the dump was reported by international media outlets including Al Jazeera and the BBC. “What saddens me most about this news is that the problem is spreading all over the world without a solution,” Hevia said. It only made her more determined to make Ecocitex a success.
The company’s San Diego facility has special bins for collecting recyclable clothing and selling old clothing. The recycling fee is 990 Chilean pesos (about $1.20) per kilogram, and clothing in poor condition that does not have non-textile elements such as zippers, buttons or sequins can be recycled.
The fee is there for a reason. “The only way to eliminate textile waste is to educate consumers and engage them in the process,” Rosario said. She explains that it’s difficult for consumers to differentiate between donation and recycling because recycling is a labor-intensive process: “You donate clothes that are in good condition, like you would donate a washing machine that still works, but if the clothes are damaged or stained, that’s a recycling service.”
The process at the factory is fascinating. The Ecocitex employees (Hevia, in partnership with Abriendo Puertas, employs formerly incarcerated women) begin sorting materials that will be sold, recycled, reused, or turned into eco-fabrics (rags used to stuff punching bags, pillows, or furniture). None of the material ends up in the trash, and about a ton is recycled per week. (They could recycle more, but the amount of yarn they produce is only enough to maintain their current sales levels, which keeps them in business.)
Used clothes recycled from yarn mills are cut up and sorted by colour. The bundles of old clothes come in various shades of blue, green and yellow and will eventually be turned into a unique turquoise eco-yarn. The pile of fabric in the chosen colour first goes through a guillotine and then into a large, noisy, old-fashioned machine, which is overseen by an Ecocitex operator.
After the various fabrics are combined and processed to create textured bales, chemical adhesives, disinfectants, antistatic agents and water droplets are added. The entire process involves no dyeing or washing to avoid toxic chemicals being released into the water. Hevia is well aware that the textile industry plays a major role in polluting clean water. Ecocitex yarn is also less susceptible to fading as it is made from clothes that have already been washed and worn.
In the final step, a large machine turns the treated tissue paper into a marshmallow-like fabric, which is then cut into strips to create the first flexible yarn. Finally, another machine twists the resulting strands together, creating a stronger finished yarn. On a recent Monday, Rosario proudly showed off the final result. “I love it so much! Each color is created by hand, based on the original choice of clothing,” she said. The yarn is ready for new creations.
Ecocitex’s next challenge is to attract more companies and brands to achieve a true circular economy. “If we want to solve an industrial problem, we need an industrial solution,” explains Hevia. Ecocitex yarns are currently sold in physical and online stores, on Amazon and Mercado Libre, and on the company’s website.
Currently, Ecocitex’s main sellers are microentrepreneurs, who partner with 67 boutiques, small business owners, and designers across Chile. During the pandemic, there are more knitters than ever before. One of these new knitters is 23-year-old designer Fabiana Avila. She learned to knit during quarantine and creates avant-garde knitwear using Ecocitex yarn. A teacher introduced her to Ecocitex, which sparked her interest in the product, and she began creating new pieces for her own design projects. “The textile industry is one of the biggest polluters of the environment, and we, as a new generation of designers, must be aware of this,” Avila said. “We can continue to create and keep up with the times, but still take care of the environment.”
Avila works as a clothing designer in San Diego. In her free time, she designs new pieces at home with her mother, Evelyn Salazar, or knits sweaters while watching Breaking Bad. During the pandemic, Salazar also taught himself to knit by watching YouTube videos and fell in love with the craft. She helps her daughter create new work: “She’s like my boss, she’s my planner.”
Salazar explained that Ecocitex yarn is more expensive compared to other products on the market. A skein of Vanguardia eco yarn costs 2,990 Chilean pesos (about $3.70). Salazar said that in some markets she can buy a skein of regular yarn for 1,000 pesos ($1.25), but she thinks Ecocitex yarn is a better value. “You have to buy a lot because each color is unique and you can never get that color again. I think that’s great!”
Although she knows she has a long way to go, Hevia remains optimistic. “I’ve been impressed by how quickly we’ve grown. In just two years, we’ve gained 163,000 followers, been on TV, and even had an interview with Vogue today.” She’s also happy to see more people paying attention to the changes. “I feel like we’re finally starting to talk about this, and that’s the first step to real change. Now we need to turn our words into action.”
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