Rhea's Factory Wins Global Change Award 2026 for AI-Designed Enzymes Enabling Textile-to-Textile Recycling

BERKELEY, Calif., June 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rhea's Factory, a biotechnology company developing AI-designed enzymes and integrated processes for plastic circularity, has been named one of ten winners of the 2026 Global Change Award®, the H&M Foundation's global program for early-stage innovation in the textile industry. Selected from hundreds of applicants worldwide, Rhea's Factory was recognized for RheaCycleTM, a platform that uses machine learning to design enzymes that break down polyester waste into virgin-quality molecular building blocks. RheaCycleTM combines two innovations: AI-designed enzymes and the integrated process built around them. By designing its enzymes computationally, Rhea's Factory can explore a much larger design space than conventional methods and identify high-performing candidates in a fraction of the time and cost. The process runs at mild temperatures with low energy input and returns polyester to virgin-quality building blocks at greater than 99 percent purity, drop-in replacements that re-enter the existing supply chain without process changes. It also processes contaminated and blended materials that make much textile waste hard to recover, with unit economics designed to compete without relying on a sustainability premium. While the Global Change Award recognizes Rhea's Factory for its work in textile-to-textile recycling, RheaCycleTM is a ... Full story available on Benzinga.com