It’s strong, durable and water resistant. It can be used in workout clothes, shoes, bags and jackets.
Unfortunately, it’s also highly damaging to the environment.
Virgin polyester currently makes up over half of the global fashion industry, and the amount used to make new clothing is only set to rise.
By 2030, Greenpeace forecasts this figure to nearly double.
While consumers have grown to expect more environmentally-conscious clothing from the textiles industry, the demand for stretchier, more resistant garments has increased. Polyester suits the latter need, but certainly does nothing to address the former. As it is made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the most common type of plastic in the world, production of polyester depends on crude oil.
Everyday, PET is also used to make millions of plastic bottles that quickly find their way into our oceans and landfill. Rather than adding to the problem, the apparel industry has a responsibility to tackle the growing environmental crisis.
Using recycled PET (rPET) is a great starting point: instead of exhausting our planet’s resources and polluting nature, we can use what is already available and turn waste into wear such as hats, tops, bags and coats.
Below, we count down the top 5 benefits to using Rpet Fabric in the clothing industry.
rPET is short for Recycled Polythene Tetraphyte, also known as Recycled PET. Due to the thermodynamic qualities of PET, it can be heated up, melted and transformed into new materials over and over. Many reusable shopping bags and totes are made from rPET, but the material can also be recycled to make t-shirts, hats, socks, shoes, carpets, fiberfill for winter coats and sleeping bags, upholstery - the list goes on. PET Plastic is out there in our environment in huge quantities; using it again is the most logical and environmentally viable solution.
Creating polyester is an energy and water intensive process that is only exacerbating the fashion industry’s impact on the environment. By 2050, this industry is predicted to still be using 26% of the world’s carbon budget. rPet takes the plastic that has already been made into products like plastic bottles, and grinds it down into small flakes. At this stage, the flakes can be melted to separate out the PET so it can be recycled into new materials. When compared to the production of brand new polyester, rPET consumes 70% less energy, and the co2 emissions are 75% lower.
Globally, humans buy a million plastic bottles per minute. If that statistic alone wasn’t shocking enough, keep in mind that 91% of all plastic is not recycled. That means a constant flow of plastic bottles end up sitting in landfills and polluting our oceans. The last thing we need is to be creating more PET from scratch and adding to the problem. By taking advantage of the PET already in circulation to make new products, we can at least give plastic bottles a second life and stop them from polluting our planet. Even just one kilogram of recycled polyester can keep 60 water bottles from our oceans and landfill.
It helps fight waste in the fashion industry
Every year, seismic waste in the fashion industry sees 48 million mt (megatonnes / 1 million tonnes) of clothes being thrown away. Considering many of these garments are made from polyester that creates harmful greenhouse gases in the process, the industry is responsible for needless damage to the environment. When we launched Ecofera, we did so with a mission to reduce waste and introduce lovers of the great outdoors to the innovative possibilities of sustainable fabrics. In an attempt to combat this rise in plastic waste, we use recycled polyester to produce long-lasting products that our customers love.
Recycled polyester behaves just like regular polyester in the manufacturing process. The result is strong, durable fabric that is comfortable and resilient. So far, we’ve used a total of 83,350 PET bottles that would have otherwise been thrown away to produce outdoor accessories that are soft, sustainable and designed to be worn over and and over.
Check out our latest accessories in our collection here