According to Marty Anderson, senior director of business development at Material Return, the company was created in response to a growing volume of textile waste from a local cut-and- sew operation. “There was a need to try to figure out what to do with a bunch of textile waste,” she said. Molly Hemstreet, founder of the worker-owned cooperative Opportunity Threads, was tackling textile waste while building a sustainability-focused business. Dan St. Louis, Director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center, saw brands struggle to find circular, domestic production. Partnering with economic development expert Sara Chester, they launched the vision for Material Return.

Their goal: turn the region’s textile waste into sustainable yarn, benefiting both industry and community. With support from the Western Piedmont Council of Governments, they mapped more than 200 regional textile companies. Collaborating with NC State’s Wilson College of Textiles, they conducted waste audits and developed a business plan.

After 15 years in an upholstery factory, Bob Carswell, research and development director for Material Return, had seen more than his fair share of textile waste heading straight for the landfill. Frustrated by the waste but fired up about the possibilities, he joined the effort to turn scraps into something far more valuable, new yarns from the recycled waste fabrics.

Material Return operates under the umbrella of the Industrial Commons. “It gives us a chance to incubate within an area where we have other companies to rely on,” said Anderson. “We kind of all work as an ecosystem and try to work with each other and learn from one another on what works, what doesn’t work.”

The company’s operations center around a closed-loop or “circular” model, where waste is collected, deconstructed into fiber, and spun into new yarns. “All of the waste that we gather that will be used in textile and textile recycling has to go through a process that breaks up the fabrics and deconstructs them down to fiber,” said Anderson. “And then we are able to work with our customers, make a yarn, and pretty much [customize] for each end use.”

Anderson emphasized that textile waste is a significant environmental issue, driven largely by consumer habits and the rise of fast fashion. She explained that much of this waste results from items that are either unsold due to color or pattern mismatches or quickly discarded by consumers. “The EPA estimates has estimated that every American throws away more than 81.5 pounds of clothes annually, leasing to a total of over 11.3 million tons of textile waste in America alone,” she said. This underscores the urgent need for more sustainable systems of recycling and circular production.

ReturnTex™ is Material Return’s primary yarn product and can be developed to meet a customer’s specifications. Each product goes through a research and development process that allows each customer to indicate the needs for their final product. 

The process, while more complex than traditional yarn production, has proved effective in maintaining competitive pricing. “Our aim is that our recycled yarns can be at parity with virgin fiber yarns,” said Anderson. “[For many] of our customers, the push is sustainability and eco-friendliness of their clothing. So, for them, it’s an opportunity to reuse the fiber, and so they’re willing to pay for it because they get a great marketing balance from it.”

One of the company’s key local partners is a nearby hosiery manufacturer, The Sock Factory, that both supplies fiber waste and purchases finished yarns. “We have also purchased recycled ReturnTex™ yarn from Material Return to use in a wool sock program that we are knitting currently,” said Jennifer East, project coordinator and business development associate at The Sock Factory. “Working with Material Return allows us to reduce the amount of canister waste in our factory by repurposing it for up-cycling through Material Return’s yarn product.”

Geographic proximity makes the relationship logistically sound as well. “Since they are located only 30 miles down the road from our factory, it makes it cost effective for us to transport our canister waste as well as getting recycled yarn that we are purchasing from Material Return in a timely manner,” East said.

Anderson said local production is a defining characteristic of Material Return’s operation. Almost all of the company’s aggregation is done within 75 miles of Morganton. Even when working with national partners like Smartwool®, which partnered with Material Return on the Second Cut™ sock take-back program, the yarns themselves are produced locally. “Smartwool® set up the take-back program so MR could recycle the post-consumer goods,” said Anderson.

The company’s client base is diverse, ranging from international brands to small boutique textile companies. “We have Smartwool®, of course, this international company, and then we have some small boutique customers as well, who may only use two or three thousand pounds of our yarn a year,” said Anderson.

For smaller brands without enough volume to contribute their own waste stream, ReturnTex™ still provides a sustainable alternative. “The smaller brands don't tend to make as many garments or whatever their application is, so they don't have as much waste,” said Anderson. 

In addition to apparel, the company is exploring applications in home goods and hospitality. “We are looking at a program right now to recycle towels [from] a large hotel chain and put [them] back into yarns that could be made back into towels and made into canvas fabrics,” Anderson said. “It’s a mix.”

As Material Return continues to grow, expansion remains a long-term goal. The company is investing in equipment upgrades to meet performance expectations. “We’re always looking at the newest opportunities to make the best yarn,” said Anderson. “That’s something that we are continuously working toward—how do we optimize a recycled yarn to make it more like a virgin fiber yarn?”

As a business embedded within The Industrial Commons ecosystem, Material Return benefits from peer collaboration and shared resources. “It’s really kind of an interesting way to work,” said Anderson. “I’ve never worked this way before, and it’s fantastic.”

Through a combination of regional sourcing, product innovation, and partnership with like-minded manufacturers, Material Return continues to refine and expand a recycling model rooted in Western North Carolina’s manufacturing history, with growing relevance in today’s textile economy.

Learn more at TheMaterialReturn.com.