Dr. Anura Rathnayake, the Sri Lankan scientist who is a product of the University of Moratuwa, was able to win the 3rd place at the ‘Global Change Award’ organised annually by the H&M Foundation with his revolutionary innovation ‘Content Thread’, which facilitates sorting and recycling of clothes using a digital thread.
The competition was carried out in order to encourage the introduction of game changing new technologies that are safe, sustainable and promote climate positivity. This prestigious event was held on April 5 at the ‘City Hall’ in Stockholm, Sweden, which is also world famous for hosting the Nobel Peace Prize banquet each year.
Dr. Anura Rathnayake, who went off to win the world despite of the fact he was born in a remote border village in Sri Lanka, developed his concept and competed against approximately 3,000 revolutionary technological concepts presented by 130 countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
His bold creativity and disruptive innovation that made the ‘Content Thread’ concept stand out among other innovations and brought immense pride to the motherland is truly an inspiration to everyone. His concept addresses one of the major barriers in textile recycling, which is not knowing what the clothes are made of.
Even though natural ingredients are mostly used in manufacturing textile, at the end of its life cycle, they are thrown into the waste system making the Textile Industry the second biggest contributor to pollution. Attempts taken to recycle the textile waste deem useless mainly because of the complexity of the ingredients used to produce ready-made products. When a garment is sorted incorrectly when recycling, it can obstruct the whole recycling process and all these facts have turned Textile Recycling an expensive and a difficult task.
This is where the ‘Content Thread’ concept comes in. In this concept, by attaching a digital tag to each garment at manufacturing stage, a digitised ‘ingredients list’ that gives recyclers all the information needed to recycle the garment are created.The tag which is in the form of an RFID thread, looks and feels much like a normal thread and lasts over the garment’s lifetime, driving economic improvements that reduce waste throughout the entire supply chain, and powering the recycling process at end of life. The ‘Content Thread’ will save precious natural resources, help reinvent and speed up the shift to a circular waste-free fashion industry and could be used in a wide range of fields such as medical, automotive, military, naval among others.
The Global Change Award judge board as well as world famous researchers believe that this indeed will be the start of a new era in the Textile and Fashion Designing Industry.
Dr. Rathnayake’s road to success was a rather rough and filled with obstacles and his life story of how he suffered to become a man who revolutionises the world leave us awed. Rathnayake Mudiyanselage Anura Sarathchandra Rathnayake lived in a remote border village called Nikawewa in the Welioya area, which was under the terrorists’ grip for three decades. He is the eldest of four and received his primary education from Buddhangala Madhya Maha Vidyalaya in Padaviya, Parakramapura.
In a time and society where education was merely a dream, he made it his sole aim to win in life with immense interest and effort in studies. Neither the cruel war nor the oppression could destroy his tenacity. Dr. Rathnayake passed the G. C. E. Advanced Levels Examination in the Mathematics stream with excellent grades and may have been the only student from a remote border village who was selected to the Engineering Faculty of the University of Moratuwa then.
He recalls the financial support he received in order to successfully carry out his graduate studies from the philanthropists retired Brig. Galgamuwa, Brig. Harangoda and Nayomi Perera with respect and gratitude. Considering poverty to be a blessing to his life, he went on to become one of the brightest students in the University of Moratuwa and received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 2002. In year 2004, he moved to England and received his Master of Science in Engineering in 2007 from the University of Bolton. Not stopping there, on June 21, 2015, he received his Postgraduate Degree related to new researches and his Doctorate Degree related to new dimension of electronic, smart textiles from the Nottingham Trent University in England, crowning himself with the highest qualification in his education journey.
Dr. Rathnayake, who is committed to revealing his path to success to children in his own village, organise and conduct seminars for Ordinary Level students in remote schools in the Welioya area along with his fellow scholars every year. During his studies in Nottingham Trent University he awarded scholarships to several students from the Welioya area who were granted university entrance yet again proving his humanitarian qualities.
Recently “Supporters for Innovations” organisation held a ceremony to felicitate Dr.Anura Rathnayake at the hotel Nippon in Colombo. The chief guest on the occasion was Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka. In addition to Minister Ranawaka, Dean Faculty of Engineering at the Moratuwa University, Prof. K.K.C.K. Perera, Veteran Actor Sathischandra Edirisinghe, Media Advisor to the Sri Lanka Army Sisira Wijesinghe were among the speakers.
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