The Perks of Thrifted Plastic
Plastic bottles are one of the most thoughtlessly discarded items on the planet with less than 20% making it to a recycling plant. Billions end up in landfills around the world each year and the process to incinerate them uses millions of gallons of oil, producing harmful emissions that contaminate our air, water and soil. In terms of sustainability, bottled water is overly expensive, wasteful and tempts us to ignore the precious free resource coming from our kitchen tap.
In the last two decades, the fashion industry has created a thoughtful and creative approach to encourage recycling. If these plastic bottles are recycled, there’s an effective process to return this post-consumer waste to it’s natural state and spool it into thread or yarn to create polyester and fleece, and blend with a number of fibers such as wool, cotton and tencel. This material is not only more durable than natural fibers— it creases less and has better color retention.
Water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate or PET; which you may recognize imprinted in the plastic of a typical bottle. This is the same material we know as polyester fiber, but in a different state. Once plastic PET bottles have made it to a recycling center, they are cleaned and sorted by color. The plastic is then crushed into tiny flakes and melted to regain polyester chemical structure. This recycled material is turned into thread or yarn to be woven or knitted.
Using recycled bottles is cheaper than using traditional, virgin materials and conserves natural resources that would be used in producing a new product or getting rid of the discarded. This process also lessens out dependence on foreign oil and spares our environment and us from needless pollution. As social consciousness about sustainability rises, many clothing companies and designers are choosing to incorporate more recycled PET (called RPET) into their lines. As the interest in and demand for RPET increases, production techniques have improved, making a high quality product.
Essentially, the whole sustainability movement works on the basis of recycling materials as opposed to creating new. Along with sustaining the environment, it’s important for a consumer to sustain interest in their garment and that can be accomplished by the buyer’s emotional investment in the piece. Not only do RPET pieces reflect the consumer’s social consciousness, they actively improve our world. This leads to more attachment to and less chance of discarded apparel, which is the bottom line in sustainability. Please support your local efforts to reuse this valuable material by recycling all plastic bottles. One day it could come back to you in a different, more fashionable form.
-Sarah Kiley
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