Sustainable Fibers 101: Recycled Polyester

Did you ever think that the plastic soda bottle you drink from could end up on your back in the form of a shirt? It can! Recycled polyester uses post-consumer waste like plastic bottles or polyester fabric remnants to create new polyester fabric.

Besides ridding the world of those oh-so-stylish leisure suits from the 1970's, there are other benefits to recycling polyester:

• It reduces the amount of clothing discarded into landfills and reduces toxic emissions from incinerators
• It encourages people to think twice about throwing away their polyester clothing
  
• It lessens our dependence on oil
• It creates less water, air, and soil contamination

Patagonia is a pioneer in the world of polyester recycling. In 1993, they were the first outdoor clothing manufacturer to turn post-consumer plastic bottles into clothing. Through their recycling program, over 86 million plastic bottles were saved from the landfills. That saved enough oil (from new polyester manufacturing) to refill a Chevy Suburban's gas tank 20,000 times! To further their efforts, Patagonia created the Common Threads Garment Recycling program to transform their customers' unusable clothing into new duds. We're proud to carry Patagonia clothing in our store and support their efforts to lessen the environmental impact of the clothing manufacturing industry.

Aventura is another company providing garments made from recycled poly. We carry a number of swim pieces in fun prints and colors.

So, the next time you put out your recycling bin full of plastic bottles, think of it as giving raw material to the green fashion industry!