High School Outreach & SDG 4: Quality Education

As part of our commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, we designed a tailored science education session for students at different ages. This initiative aimed to promote lifelong learning and scientific literacy by introducing synthetic biology in a real-world context.

Educational Goals

Our outreach approach intended to raise awareness of science understanding, relate biology to real sustainability concerns, and encourage more interest in synthetic biology. We promoted useful and creative science education that allows the next generation to address issues by connecting students at different ages.

• Elementary school: Introduce basic ideas of natural and synthetic fibers, enzymes as scissors, and DNA as life’s guide through stories, games, and hand-craft works to build curiosity and awareness of sustainability.
• Junior high school: Use simple experiments like the potato enzyme activity, group discussions, and interactive tests to strengthen understanding of biological concepts and their connection to everyday sustainability.
• High school: Explore advanced topics such as genetic engineering, DNA, and protein synthesis, applying them to real-world issues like textile waste to develop critical thinking and problem-solving in sustainable innovation.

What We Taught

Impact

After delivering our school educational workshop on sustainable fashion and synthetic biology, we conducted a pre and post survey to assess the educational impact. Students show better understanding toward the knowledge about textile pollution and synthetic biology. It was also observed a clear increase in student willingness to take environmental action and consider synthetic biology as their future study or career path. This reflects the program’s success in fostering scientific curiosity, critical thinking, and sustainable awareness, which are key components of quality education. More detailed analysis about pre and post surveys of educational programmes could be viewed in the Education page (see synthetic biology lesson).

Inclusive Education

Our goal was to make science education accessible for all learners, regardless of age, background, or learning environment. This commitment was best demonstrated through our outreach (see inclusivity page → education ) at Huaxing Children’s Home, a residential facility for orphans and vulnerable youth aged 3 to 18. There, we adapted our “Enzyme Heroes: Save Our Clothes!” lesson plan to meet the wide age range and differing academic levels by splitting students into smaller groups. Younger children engaged through games and storytelling, while older students were introduced to more structured scientific concepts in an interactive way. We focused on emotional development and confidence-building, aligning with Huaxing’s mission of compassion and future readiness. Beyond Huaxing, we expanded our outreach to other vulnerable groups, including populations without access to bilingual education and rural schools. In total, we taught at five different schools, reaching approximately 120 students. To further extend access, we uploaded our audiobook - Bubbles and the Deep Blue Garden (see inclusivity page → audiobook ) with 3 diverse languages to platforms commonly used by individuals with visual impairments. These resources were made multilingual to ensure that language would not be a barrier. Through these initiatives, inclusivity became the foundation of our education program. We aimed not just to teach science, but to empower all children to see themselves in it.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

One of the most environmentally detrimental and polluting industries is the fashion and textile industry, an alarming fact attributable to the industry’s energy and chemical-intensive manufacturing process and rapid generation of textile waste, microplastics, and microfibers (Filho et al., 2022). Furthermore, producing just one cotton shirt requires approximately 700 gallons of water, while a single pair of jeans consumes nearly 2,000 gallons, making fashion the second-largest consumer of water worldwide (Niinimäki et al., 2020). Not only is manufacturing textiles costly in water resources, it also amounts to 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and treatment (European Parliament, 2020). Compounding these impacts, the industry suffers from inadequate infrastructure for wastewater treatment, collection, separation, and recycling, perpetuating a cycle of inefficiency that reinforces unresilient and unsustainable industrial systems.

Although we are limited in directly improving large-scale infrastructure, our solution contributes to sustainable industrial innovations. Using the engineered TfCut2, we break down PET/ cotton blended textiles into their monomers, including TPA, which can be recycled and repolymerised into new PET. This approach allows manufacturers to produce the raw materials from the recycled feedstocks, enabling a circular economy that promotes textile-to-textile upcycling and improves sustainable production. Manufacturers can integrate low-energy, enzymatic recycling units into existing facilities rather than relying only on other energy-intensive chemical hydrolysis or mechanical degradation. Addressing the innovation aspect, we engineered six TfCut2 variants with improved effectiveness on PET substrates as well as combining them with a cellulase cocktail and pretreatment protocol. This innovative approach overcomes the persistent barriers of high crystallinity and morphological complexity in textile blends recycling, which chemical or mechanical methods cannot effectively address. Altogether, our solution advances SDG 9 by strengthening infrastructure, promoting sustainable fashion industry, and driving innovation in the enzymatic degradation of textiles.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The flea market supported Sustainable Cities and Communities by promoting sustainable consumption practices and fostering a stronger, more inclusive community. By encouraging the recycling and upcycling of goods, the event helped reduce waste and lessened the environmental footprint associated with new production. It also provided an accessible and affordable platform for community members to participate, creating opportunities for more equitable access to everyday products.

Beyond the environmental benefits, the flea market served as a space for meaningful social interaction — strengthening local connections and demonstrating how urban areas can become more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

As part of our commitment to community impact and sustainability, proceeds from this and future events will be donated to the Cerebral Palsy Association of the R.O.C. , supporting families affected by cerebral palsy. Many parents of these children work for Story Wear, a local sustainable fashion brand that promotes ethical employment and textile upcycling. Through this initiative, we aim to foster a more inclusive and sustainable community.

Dadaocheng Event:

Our educational outreach aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities by empowering people of all ages to understand and act on issues of waste, recycling, and sustainable living.

Through digital games and booths discussing plastic waste and textile waste, along with DIY activities using recycled textiles, participants not only learned scientific concepts such as enzymatic plastic degradation but also directly connected these ideas to the environmental challenges facing their communities. By showing that enzymes can break down persistent plastics like polyester, we encouraged people to imagine science-driven solutions for reducing urban textile waste. The creative upcycling workshop further reinforced the SDG’s emphasis on sustainable communities by allowing participants to transform unwanted textiles into decorative ornaments. This hands-on activity highlighted the value of reusing materials, reducing waste sent to landfills or incinerators, and fostering a culture of sustainability.

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Our project directly contributes to SDG 12 by promoting awareness, behavioral change, and infrastructure innovation in the realm of textile waste. Through our high school outreach, audio book, and comic book, we educated students and the public about the hidden environmental cost of blended textiles and the challenges of recycling them. These initiatives helped audiences understand the connection between fast fashion, overconsumption, and pollution, while introducing enzyme-based recycling as a tangible circular solution. Collaborations with circular fashion brands like Story Wear and zero-waste advocates like Twine at the Dadaocheng event further enabled us to promote mindful consumption and highlight practical steps individuals can take, such as choosing sustainable materials, reducing clothing waste, and questioning where donated clothes end up.

On a systemic level, our engagement with recyclers and textile companies emphasized the importance of redesigning textile disposal pathways through synthetic biology, helping shift the industry toward closed-loop production.

By addressing both education and infrastructure, our project supports more responsible consumption and production at every level of the value chain.

SDG 13: Climate Action

Climate change arises from increased carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, which drive global warming and trigger the climate system’s responses. The fast fashion industry worsens this crisis, as clothes are produced in massive volumes and discarded more quickly, whether in landfills or incineration, leading to rising carbon emissions. According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production reach a shocking 1.2 billion tons annually, superseding those of maritime shipping and international aviation combined. In fact, emissions from textile manufacturing alone are estimated to skyrocket by 60% by 2030 (UNFCCC, 2018). Due to the growing demand for fast fashion clothing and high replacement rate of clothing, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions to mitigate the irrevocable effects of textile production (Filho et al., 2022).

Our solution aims to degrade blended textiles using a synthetic biology-based approach, thereby addressing the environmental impact of discarding textile waste. By combining engineered TfCut2 and cellulase cocktail, we can effectively degrade PET and cotton blended textile into TPA and repolymerize it into new PET. Through our textile-to-textile upcycling strategy, we promote an eco-friendly fashion industry and prevent further climate change by advancing green technologies and circular solutions.