Nextiles founder Madeline Walker Miller urges inclusive design and textile recycling to make building materials
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Summary
Madeline Walker Miller, CEO and founder of Nextiles, told Canton Township attendees that her company converts textile and automotive waste into insulation feedstock and other products, highlighting pilots for tiny-home insulation and the need for inclusive, community-centered design.
Madeline Walker Miller, CEO and founder of Nextiles, described how her research on marine plastics and a pivot to automotive textiles led to a business that diverts fabric waste into feedstock for building insulation and other products.
"We're a landfill competitor," Walker Miller said, explaining that Nextiles processes textile waste into material used for insulation, furniture fill and other commercial uses. She described pilots that produced insulation feedstock for tiny-home builds and stressed the company’s role in creating local manufacturing outlets for waste streams.
Walker Miller traced her interest to noticing fibers in waterways and realizing the same fibers were in clothing. After moving from fashion-focused ideas to processing automotive textile waste (including leather from airline seats), the company settled on building-insulation feedstock as a primary product intended to improve home energy efficiency and affordability.
She said Nextiles processes thousands of pounds of scrap each month (the speaker cited a processing figure of about 20,000 units of leather scrap per month) and works with waste management firms, manufacturers and construction partners to pilot applications. Walker Miller emphasized that designing inclusive systems from the outset — involving affected communities — makes solutions more practical and durable.
Her talk emphasized mentorship, community partnerships and the challenges women entrepreneurs face when innovations are overlooked until replicated by others. Walker Miller urged attendees to seek partnerships and brainstorm local sustainable ideas that can become practical solutions.
The presentation tied material innovation to local needs (insulation to reduce energy burden) and invited Canton-area collaboration on pilots and design partnerships.
