The Slice from PBS North.

Can we not only reuse old textiles, but can we make them into new fibers that can go into products that we use?

I'm Abbie Clarke-Sather, I'm an associate professor in mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

And we're here touring the Aspire Lab to see the fiber shredder, recycled textiles.

When I saw that a lot of existing mechanical recycling technologies kind of made pieces and chunks of fabric, that's never going to become yarn again, that could become apparel, and I thought, I can do better.

And so ten years later, I do have something that can make fibers and threads that can be spun back into yarn.

This is what we were really looking for.

So we've been working this spring with two senior design teams here at UMD.

I'm here working on anything electrically that's going on in the shredder, and I'm responsible for designing it.

Something that's really interesting about shredding a piece of textile is there is always loss.

We try to find ways to reduce that loss, so that more processed material can come out and make it a little more efficient.

I'm mainly involved in the mechanical assembly of these fiber shredders.

What we really strive for is low power.

This one actually plugs into the wall, which is fantastic.

They've helped us create a scaled up shredder that will shred about five times as much material.

So more like a full towel of material at one time.

Our current scale shredder shreds about 50g, or about a hand towels worth of material at one time.

Reuse the best option.

But once you're done reusing something, let's find something great to do with it.

The Slice from PBS North, presented by The Teberg fund.