Giving Compass' Take:

•  Organizations are looking to collaborate on creating naturally derived materials that can replace plastic in supply chains within the fashion industry. 

• What other industries are taking steps to reduce plastic use? How can donors support these fashion organizations?

• Read about these seven massive wins in the fight against plastics last year. 

Two organizations–Parley for the Oceans and Biofabricate–are teaming up to prove that sustainable, naturally derived materials can and should replace plastics across industry supply chains.

In the next seven years, Cyrill Gutsch says, they want to see every harmful substance, like plastic, be replaced with a natural alternative.

The fact is that we don’t believe that plastic can be contained by recycling structures. That’s the design failure. The material itself needs to be reinvented.

Compounds like yeast, algae, animal cells, and bacteria now, with current technology, can be manipulated into materials that serve much the same function as materials like plastic and leather.

“The whole environmental cause needs to be owned by the creative industries,” Gutsch adds.

Read the full article on replacing plastic by Eillie Anzilotti at Fast Company.