Spinning their own climate-friendly yarn: US retail corporation Walmart Inc. is partnering with California-based startup Rubi Laboratories to capture carbon emissions generated by its supply chain and convert it into biodegradable apparel collections, Bloomberg reported last week, citing a company statement.

How it will work: Rubi’s modular reactor system captures flue gas — the material generated when fossil fuels are burned for power — to allow for enzymatic capture of CO2, then the system restructures the base molecule of carbon and polymerizes it into long cellulose chains. The cellulose pulp is then spun into fibers, yarn, and textile, the company explains.

Carbon-apparel: Rubi will integrate its modular reactor systems across CO2-producing facilities within Walmart’s supply chain to capture and convert CO2 with the hopes of testing out Rubi’s cellulose fiber performance in prototype garments. If the testing phase proves successful, they will work on designing and developing an apparel collection from the repurposed carbon. Rubi — which has raised USD 13.5 mn to date from investors including H&M Group and Patagonia Inc. — has already successfully created yarn from repurposed CO2, but has yet to do so at scale, Bloomberg notes. In June, Rubi and Danish fashion brand Ganni unveiled the first batch of their carbon-sourced yarn.

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