Juan Hinestroza

Rebecca Q Morgan '60 Professor of Fiber Science & Apparel Design

Juan Hinestroza is a Cornell University professor of fiber science and apparel design who has worked with athletic companies on high-performance apparel. He directs the Textiles Nanotechnology Laboratory, which developed a chemical upcycling process that transforms mixed polyester-elastane waste into highly water-resistant coatings that could replace fluorinated finishes (“forever chemicals”) used in apparel, paints and wood treatments.

Hinestroza says:

“Millions of soccer fans will watch their favorite players walk onto the pitch wearing pristine, custom-tailored jerseys. What most don’t see is the staggering environmental cost behind those 90 minutes.

“Today's soccer clubs operate on a hyper-wasteful model: jerseys are custom-labeled and embroidered for individual matches, and specific dates. Because of this hyper-customization, a massive surplus of these shirts is never worn again. The vast majority of these high-performance garments, worn for just a few hours — along with the many team shirts purchased by fans — end up in incinerators or landfills.

“This is a tragic end for materials engineered with incredible molecular precision. Modern soccer uniforms are complex, high-performance synthetic blends specifically engineered with stretch and moisture management. It is exactly this complexity that makes them a recycling nightmare. Mechanical recycling downcycles them into low-value rags, while traditional chemical recycling may struggle to cleanly separate the interconnected networks of polyester and polyurethane-based elastane or Lycra.