NLight's team presenting at econext conference 2025 About Us
NLight Recycling Inc. is a Newfoundland & Labrador-based startup working to build local textile-to-textile recycling capacity. We started NLight after seeing how much clothing and textile waste is generated every year and how little of it is truly recycled back into new materials. Our goal is to help change that by developing practical, locally grounded recycling solutions that keep more textile waste out of landfill and move Newfoundland & Labrador toward a stronger circular economy.
Our team is building NLight as a pilot-first initiative: starting small, testing carefully, and designing a process that can scale over time in multiple phases. We are focused on recovering value from post-consumer textiles through mechanical and chemical recycling pathways, with an initial emphasis on producing reusable material streams such as reclaimed fibre, cellulose, and recycled polyester outputs. By combining technical development with local partnerships, we aim to create a system that is both environmentally meaningful and operationally realistic for our province.
Our Start
NLight team working on their idea at EcoNext Ideathon 2025 NLight began as an idea developed by students at Memorial University of Newfoundland during the EcoNext Ideathon. While competing, we were challenged to think about practical ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build solutions with real local impact. As we explored different sectors, the scale of the global textile waste problem stood out to us: a high-emissions industry, massive volumes of discarded clothing, and very limited true recycling. That combination made it clear to us that textile recycling was not only an environmental issue, but also an opportunity for innovation in Newfoundland & Labrador.
NLight placing first in EcoNext Ideathon 2025 What started as a student competition concept quickly grew into a serious project. Through research, discussions, and early planning, we saw the potential to build a pilot initiative focused on recovering value from post-consumer textiles right here in the province. The Ideathon gave us the momentum to move from a problem statement to an action plan, and it shaped the way we continue to work today: practical, impact-focused, and committed to building something that is technically sound and locally meaningful.
Our Current Focus
Our current focus is the development of NLight’s pilot project, which is designed to help us validate our process step by step before scaling. We are currently working on technical planning, equipment selection, logistics mapping, and buyer/supplier outreach so that the pilot can operate on a realistic foundation. In parallel, we are also working on funding and partnership development to support implementation, including grant applications and other financing pathways needed to launch and sustain the pilot.
The pilot project is structured in phases so we can build capacity progressively and reduce risk as we learn. Phase 1 focuses on processing textiles into opened fibres through sorting, pre-treatment, and mechanical opening, allowing us to begin operations with a simpler and safer material recovery pathway. Phase 2 expands the system in two parts: Phase 2.1 focuses on improved sorting and stream preparation, and Phase 2.2 focuses on the chemical recycling of mixed-fibre textiles to recover higher-value outputs such as cellulose and recycled polyester materials. This phased approach allows us to move forward with practical milestones while building toward a more advanced textile-to-textile recycling system in Newfoundland & Labrador.
Our Future
In the future, NLight aims to grow from a pilot-first initiative into a full-scale textile recycling operation with the capacity to serve a much larger network of suppliers and partners. Our long-term direction is centered on building a system that can recover more value from post-consumer textiles while improving efficiency, consistency, and throughput. As we expand, we want to strengthen both our processing capabilities and our role in the circular economy by connecting collection, sorting, material recovery, and downstream buyers through a coordinated recycling pipeline.
Newfoundland Shoreline In the mid-term, our goal is to develop a fully automated facility that uses a combination of mechanical and chemical recycling to process post-consumer textiles at much higher volumes than our pilot project. We envision a facility capable of handling multiple textile streams with improved sorting, automated material flow, and advanced recovery processes for mixed-fibre textiles. Beyond Newfoundland & Labrador, we aim to build toward a system that can handle textile waste from across Canada, helping create a national pathway for textile diversion, material recovery, and reuse.
The Founders
Aayushman Srivastava
My name is Aayushman Srivastava, and I am a Senior Mechanical Engineering student at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Co-Founder of NLight Recycling Inc., a venture focused on advancing circular economy solutions through textile waste recovery and material reintegration.
My academic focus and applied experience span core mechanical engineering disciplines, including heat transfer, fluid dynamics, control systems, and mechatronics. I have developed strong analytical and computational skills through MATLAB-based system modeling, energy production modeling, and preliminary solar array simulations. My work has also included the development of floor and site plans, electrical line diagrams, and structured engineering documentation aligned with infrastructure and implementation requirements.
Beyond analytical modeling, I have hands-on experience in rapid prototyping and iterative design, supporting product development and functional validation. I have also worked on image recognition systems using machine learning techniques.
I have been actively involved in competitive engineering design teams such as RoboSub and MUN Baja, and I currently contribute to robotics and systems integration initiatives at Sidus Robotics, where I engage in multidisciplinary engineering problem-solving and applied development.
My commitment to sustainability and renewability is reinforced by industry experience with Natural Forces Solar and Angler Solutions Inc., where I gained exposure to renewable energy systems, distributed generation, and real-world project implementation. These experiences have shaped my interest in building technically sound, scalable systems that align environmental responsibility with engineering efficiency and economic feasibility.
Through both academic and professional pathways, my objective is to contribute to infrastructure and technology solutions that are sustainable, resilient, and engineered for long-term impact.
Aria AzadiPour
Hi, I’m Aria AzadiPour, a third year Computer Science student at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. I’m also a co-founder and director at NLight Recycling Inc. as you might have gathered. The short story is, I’ve always had an interest in solving problems and technology — I started coding at the age of 10 — and as I grew up, I became more aware of the extent of the environmental crisis and seek to do my best in first, having a good theoretical understanding of the issue and second, providing a practical solution to the extent that I can.
As mentioned I developed an interest in coding from very early on and started learning and practicing in my personal time. At the age of 15, I joined Maktab Sharif Bootcamp, the first coding school in Iran, and I was the youngest to ever graduate from there(I wasn’t allowed take the course any earlier). Afterwards, I started working professionally. I have over four years of professional experience as a full-stack software developer, mostly working in startups.
At age of 17, I had my first startup venture, I along-side with a group of friends made a website that was a combination of IMDB and Twitter for the domestic market in Iran. Unfortunately, we were unable to make the venture work but the technical and practical experiences from this venture have been among some of my most valuable.
My interest in understanding the climate crisis was an offshoot of one of my other interests, namely politics, and my personal curiosity. It started mostly by gathering a big picture of what is going on and then slowly and slowly getting more in details about different industries and their roles. I developed an interest for philosophy and in particular environmental philosophy in this time as well, which, helped me a lot in informing my personal efforts in this front.
I hope to do my part in a solution to the climate crisis partly through NLight and I hope that this introduction has given you a general idea of who I am.
Kassy Keats
I’m Kassy Keats, a Newfoundland & Labrador local studying Political Science with a concentration in global politics at Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador. I have a passion for studying the intersection of environmental policy, sustainable development, human rights, and systems-level social change.
This interest in climate policy began in high school debates, where I advocated for stronger pollution awareness and the development of local and national climate strategies. I was passionate about researching climate justice and how the issues manifest in diverse communities globally and affect populations unequally. What started as classroom advocacy evolved into a research-driven commitment to understanding how policy frameworks, governance structures, and community-based initiatives can meaningfully reduce carbon emissions. Combating the climate issue extends further than ourselves- it meaningfully impacts our community and sets a precedent for climate action.
In university, I have continued this research and developed this passion through courses. Over time, my interest evolved from classroom discussions into hands-on research and applied work. I’ve had the opportunity to conduct policy research, analyze sustainability initiatives, develop outreach materials, and translate complex environmental issues into accessible presentation material.
I have continued to take part in extracurricular opportunities, such as climate-related Ideathons hosted by the university, where NLight Recycling Inc. took root. When we started looking into textile waste, I was surprised by how little infrastructure exists in Newfoundland and Labrador to deal with discarded clothing- despite the environmental costs of landfilling and incineration.
Co-founding NLight has allowed me to move from studying climate policy to actively building part of the solution. For me, this work is about more than recycling textiles- it’s about reducing emissions, effectively impacting our community, and proving that climate action through innovation can be done in our own communities.