Recycled plastic in clothing- is it sustainable?
Co-Written by: Karolina Lagercrantz, ICM & Carissa Kirk, Threading Change
[7-minute read]
A new big trend within the world of ‘sustainable’ fashion is that of giving recycled plastics a new life in the form of clothing. Numerous new and hip companies are emerging, all offering the same promise: If we buy their leggings, swimsuits or shoes we shall save the world from the horrors of plastic pollution! Problem solved!
Or is it?
In this blog post, we invite you to think more critically about the promises of sustainability made by companies using recycled plastics in their clothing. How sustainable is it to use recycled plastics in fashion? What are the opportunities and what are the challenges? By asking these questions, we want to illustrate the importance of understanding all the unintended consequences that may emerge as we try to innovate for sustainable change.
So, how is plastic used in clothing?
The majority of the recycled plastic (rPET) that is used in fashion is made of a material called polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET. PET is a thermoplastic polyester resin, which utilizes petroleum in the production process and is used to make bottles, textiles, and packaging of all types. Its chemical structure makes PET strong, light, and flexible – and therefore very popular (Highsnobiety). Up to 60% of the clothes in our closets contain synthetic (plastic) fibres such as acrylic, nylon, and polyester. Greenpeace forecasts this amount to nearly double by 2030. The athleisure trend is one of the main reasons for this growth, as more consumers are looking for stretchier, more resistant garments.
An individual doing yoga in athletic attire. Image courtesy of
Wesley Tingey.
On the one hand, production from rPET does offer some environmental benefits when compared to utilizing virgin PET polyester in clothing. A 2010 life-cycle assessment of PET bottle-to-fibre recycling found non-renewable energy savings of 40-85 percent, which suggests that potential GHG (greenhouse gas) emission reductions of 25-75 percent could be achieved. These are considerable results, however, it’s important to note that the bulk of the benefits (less energy use, less C02 emitted) come from the initial production process itself.
AKA: because not as much is being made from scratch the garment requires fewer new resources, making recycled plastics a more favourable option. Using recycled polyester lessens our dependence on petroleum as a source of raw materials, as this is a core input in the creation of PET. Additionally, polyester accounts for approximately 60 percent of the world’s production of PET, about twice what’s used in plastic bottles. Therefore, developing a non-virgin supply chain for polyester fibre has the potential to massively impact global energy and resource requirements, (Fashion United).
Various recycling bins, image courtesy of Paweł Czerwiński.
Yet, the elephant in the room remains the fact that recycled plastic is still plastic and therefore participates in the plastics economy. First, by creating a commodity chain that relies on recycled plastics, such as PET bottles, there is an inevitable demand for more plastic at large. As Highsnobiety puts it “Recycled plastic garments signal a miracle cure – a solution to pollution, powered by the same consumption systems that created it“. This is problematic, because recycled plastic garments then only function as an inadequate band-aid solution to our addiction to plastics, as it feeds off that very same addiction.
Second, recycled plastics will eventually become plastic waste. Clothes made with recycled plastics will bring the same problems as clothes made of virgin plastic (i.e. creation of microplastics and difficulty recycling). As The Guardian writes “85% of the human-made material found on the shoreline were microfibers and matched the types of material, such as nylon and acrylic, used in clothing”. This issue is compounded by the fact that there are limitations to plastics recycling.
Image of various recyclables, including bottles commonly used in clothing. Image courtesy of Nick Fewings.
There are two ways to generate recycled PET: mechanically and chemically. “Mechanical recycling is taking a plastic bottle, washing it, shredding it and then turning it back into a polyester chip, which then goes through the traditional fibre making process. Chemical recycling is taking a waste plastic product and returning it to its original monomers, which are indistinguishable from virgin polyester. Those can then go back into the regular polyester manufacturing system,” explained Magruder to FashionUnited. Most rPET is obtained through mechanical recycling, as it is the cheapest of the two processes. However, “through this process, the fibre can lose its strength and thus needs to be mixed with virgin fibre,” notes the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.
TLDR: mechanical recycling is most common by far, but it diminishes the quality of plastic, reducing the number of times the material can be reused overall and increasing the likelihood of an item being binned.
Conclusion
Does clothing made of recycled plastics contribute to a long-term solution then? It is very possible that a simple visit to the thrift store would create the same energy and CO2 savings as buying clothing made of recycled plastics, if not more (Highsnobiety). Yet, in our opinion, it all depends on how these new brands position themselves within the circular ecosystem of plastic consumption. As long as there is plastic pollution, finding ways to make use of that plastic is an essential part. But, (and this is a big but), this cannot be the end-goal. The use of recycled plastics in clothing production must be a compliment to other actions, such as the 1 % for the Planet initiative. When it comes to sustainable and circular innovation, one thing is strikingly clear: We must constantly reevaluate our solutions as they emerge and we cannot settle for the easy options.
How would you address the use of plastics in clothing and is recycling a feasible option? How would you improve our current system?
Join our conversation.
About the Authors
Karolina Lagercrantz is the Marketing and Communications Intern at ICM Falk Foundation. Originally from Stockholm Sweden, but based in Vancouver, Canada. She is passionate about debunking sustainable solutions in order to catalyze real, just, and sustainable change.
The ICM Falk Foundation is a private family foundation with a strong legacy of supporting innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Their aim is to make a world free from waste possible by funding, facilitating, and fostering ideas for how to implement circular and systems design at a local scale.
ICM’s current efforts are focused on plastics upstream innovation primarily within Vietnam and Asia. We want to move the conversation away from recycling to that of reduction and fundamentally rethink our consumption of plastics.
References
Rakestraw, A. (2019, September 05). Here's how clothing constructed from recycled plastic is actually made. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/recycled-plastic-clothing/#:~:text=Compared%20to%20making%20garments%20from,75%20percent%20could%20be%20achieved
Stanton, A. (2020, September 23). Why are synthetic fabrics so popular-and what can we do to move away from them? Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/synthetic-fabric-plastic-pollution
Plastic & clothing. (2019, May 11). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/plastic-clothing
Greenpeace Malaysia. (n.d.). The Recycling Myth. Retrieved March 20, 2021, from https://wayback.archive-it.org/9650/20200316150237/http://p3-raw.greenpeace.org/seasia/PageFiles/936685/The%20Recycling%20Myth%20-%20Malaysia%20and%20the%20Broken%20Global%20Recycling%20System.pdf
Shen, L. et, al. (2010, August 03). Open-loop recycling: A LCA case study of PET bottle-to-fibre recycling. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344910001618
Elven, M. (2021, March 09). How sustainable is recycled polyester? Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/how-sustainable-is-recycled-polyester/2018111540000
O’Connor, M. Inside the lonely fight against the biggest environmental problem you've never heard of. (2014, October 27). Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/oct/27/toxic-plastic-synthetic-microscopic-oceans-microbeads-microfibers-food-chain
