LONDON, March 23 — A start-up that creates clothes from the leftovers of crop harvests has claimed the biggest portion of the 2018 H&M Global Change Award Prize.

"Crop-A-Porter,” which takes the harvest remains of crops such as oil-seed flax, hemp, sugarcane, bananas and pineapples and turns it into useful bio-fiber for making textiles, has been awarded €300,000 (RM1.44 million) of the €1million prize, following a public vote.

Created by innovators Yitzac Goldstein, Geof Kime and Isaac Nichelson of the US, the concept relies on a closed-loop system dubbed "The Agraloop."

"We seek to help our industry begin to decouple from cotton as the world's dominant natural fibre resource,” said Nelson in a statement. "Winning the Global Change Award means we can begin to unlock huge value for the textile and fashion industry.”

He added: "The grant will be used for optimising our closed-loop technology, protecting IP, and beginning to produce commercial Agraloop BioFibre fiber productions.”

Earlier this month, the H&M Foundation selected five out-there sustainable fashion concepts as joint winners of its third annual competition, putting the question of how to divide the prize money to the public vote.

Following "Crop-A-Porter” was Swedish recycling initiative "The Regenerator,” which uses earth-friendly chemicals to gently separate and regenerate cotton and polyester blends into new, usable textile fibres. The idea was awarded €250,000 of the prize money.

The remaining three winners — an Israeli concept called "Algae Apparel,” a Belgian innovation dubbed "Smart Stitch” and a Dutch idea named "Funghi Fashion” — will each pocket €150,000 to develop their projects.

All five winners will also have access to a one-year accelerator programme provided by the H&M Foundation, Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, offering the support and mentorship required to help the winners make a success of their ideas within the fashion industry.

For more information, click here. — AFP-Relaxnews