How two former UNC professors are fighting fast fashion

Chris Luft, former UNC professor, did not expect his work with fellow former professor Matthew Parrott to turn into the most impactful thing he has ever been involved in.

After all, Luft is a biologist, and Parrott a chemist — they are like cats and dogs, according to Luft, a rare combination of different scientific disciplines. 

But Luft put those differences aside and embraced the collaborative spirit — the greatest professional lightbulb moment he’s ever had, he said — and partnered with Parrott to pursue a method of polyester recycling, with the aim of decarbonizing the textile industry. 

Their relationship started at UNC as part of professor Joseph DeSimone’s lab, where Parrott’s idea of breaking down polyester into smaller parts began. After some years of professorship at the School of Medicine — while Luft taught at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy — Parrott won an Early Career Award at UNC, allowing him to dive into the idea of breaking down polyester.

Polyester is a polymer — a chemical with a long chain structure — found in plastics, textiles, and many other materials all around us. By breaking polyester down into single units, it can be recycled, reducing the amount of polyester waste and carbon emissions from its production.

“I basically took that kernel of an idea I had in grad school, I exploited it in my lab, and then all of a sudden, one thing led to another,” Parrott said. “Every reaction worked.”

That kernel snowballed into something big. Parrot brought in Luft, who brought in a team of his own and their startup, Premirr Plastics, was born. 

The Premirr plant, with its simple and scalable system designed to attack the polyester crisis, eventually found its home in Garner, N.C. After working with plastic packaging, Parrott and Luft directed their attention towards the fashion industry, a prevalent source of polyester waste in landfills. 

“In the global PET, or polyester world, packaging makes up a third, and textiles make up two thirds,” Parrott said. “So to really make an impact, you got to tackle this textile part of the pie.”

With their innovative system and some luck, Parrott said Premirr was able to get a fast start in this field, being named the 2022 Global Innovator for Fashion for Good, an Amsterdam-based fashion sustainability nonprofit. This ultimately led to Premirr being fully purchased by Syre Impact AB, a Stockholm-based company working to decarbonize the textile industry, in April of this year. 

Using the technology of Parrott and Luft’s NC facility, Syre is partnered with Sweden’s giants- H&M, Volvo and IKEA, among other companies, to reduce their carbon footprint and ensure that products are being made of polyester-recycled materials. 

"Ten percent of the CO2 emitted currently is from the textile industry,” Parrott said. “Any type of dent we can put into that, I can look back at my career and say I’ve done something. I can look at my kids and my grandkids and say I’ve done something. I think that’s what we're energized about, is how we can reduce this carbon.” 

For Parrott and Luft, there’s plenty to be energized about. Between a new EU law that bans throwing away old clothing, therefore forcing clothing into the recycling stream, and computers now being able to determine clothing composition, Luft said that it has been exciting seeing all of the progress take place. 

“We're in good hands. It's happening,” Luft said. “Patience is definitely going to be needed, but there's innovation happening across this sector, and I feel confident that this is all going to come together and it's going to be successful.”

Though they have taken their talents abroad, both Parrott and Luft do not seem to have lost a speck of pride or gratitude for UNC. Parrott said — but wanted to scream from the top of the highest mountain — that they miss working there every day, and Luft called it a magnet for talented, genuine people. 

Edward Samulski, an emeritus professor in the chemistry department, came to UNC in 1988 to create the polymer program. He said he was very intrigued by Parrott and Luft’s research in polymer recycling when they were at UNC. 

“They are both very enthusiastic and positive people, and that helps a lot,” Samulski said. 

Parrott said there are exciting things in store for Syre, like an upgraded plant and new patents. 

But another future he is looking forward to is the one of the next generation. Their impact, he said, is the one that will turn the ship of sustainability and policy.

"Now it’s this next wave of young professionals and students who are really going to have to carry the torch, and figure out what sustainability looks like at UNC, what sustainability looks like in North Carolina, what sustainability looks like in the United States," Parrott said.

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@dthlifestyle| lifestyle@dailytarheel.com

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article's photo caption misstated the plant that Chris Luft and Matthew Parrott work at as Premirr Plastics. The pair currently works for Syre. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.