This winter gear is made with plastic bottles rescued from the ocean
Retailers like The North Face are converting entire product lines to
incorporate recycled plastic–and making the case for more to do the
same.
If you need an example of something that is unequivocally bad for the
environment, here’s a suggestion: plastic water bottles. One million are
sold each minute across the world, and though they’re technically
recyclable, only 7% of tossed bottles become new ones. The rest end up
in landfills and waterways.
Some companies are trying to mitigate this industry’s harm. Evian, for
example, has pledged to create all of its plastic bottles from recycled
plastic by 2025. And in recent years, the apparel industry has stepped
up to make an impact by integrating recycled plastic bottles into supply
chains. Adidas is integrating recycled plastic into its shoes, and the
clothing startup Aday has developed a jacket spun from 41 reconstituted
water bottles.
One of the sectors for which incorporating recycled plastic makes the
most sense is outdoor gear. That industry began gravitating toward
synthetic materials like polyester and acrylic because they were cheap
to produce, and performed well in extreme conditions. But manufacturing
synthetic threads is as detrimental to the environment as making plastic
bottles is. They both, after all, originate as crude oils, and not only
are the processes water and energy intensive, they also require the use
of chemicals that contaminate the environment.
Companies like The North Face recognize that their use of synthetic
materials is at odds with their sustainability goals–but also crucial
for delivering their outdoorsy customers the high performance gear they
expect. The ThermoBall, for instance, is one of the brand’s signature
jackets. It’s got a quilted look as a result of its design, which
features clusters of synthetic insulation designed to trap heat.
This fall, The North Face rolled out an updated version of the
ThermoBall, called the ThermoBall Eco, which is made from recycled
materials. The shell is made from recycled polyester, and the insulation
includes at least five plastic bottles that otherwise would’ve ended up
in landfill.
“Sustainable business practices are a part of our DNA,” says Tim Bantle,
general manager for The North Face’s urban exploration and mountain
lifestyle divisions. In 2017, the company introduced a “climate
beneficial” beanie made with wool sourced from a sheep farm that
sequesters carbon, and earlier this year, launched a collection of
shirts and sweatshirts made from plastic collected from Yosemite, Grand
Teton, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.
The ThermoBall, Bantle says, is one of The North Face’s largest product
collections, and being able to convert the whole line is a testament to
how much materials innovation has evolved. “There are so many areas
across our products where we could switch to more sustainable practices,
but sometimes the technology or science hasn’t caught up,” he says. “In
this case, everything lined up.”
What’s also happening now is that some brands, like Aday, are launching
amid all of these advances and incorporating them from the get-go. The
Seattle-based company Arvin Goods is still new–it launched in 2017–and
from the beginning, it’s been committed to creating basics like socks
and underwear from recycled materials
Just this week, it rolled out its latest product line: A beanie made
from a material called Polylana. Developed by a global organization
called The Movement, which is working to push the fashion industry in a
more sustainable direction, Polylana is essentially an alternative to
100% acrylic threads. The thread is formed from a combination of
proprietary pellets created to mix seamlessly with recycled polyethylene
terephtalate flakes–or in regular English, ground-up plastic bottles.
In contrast to 100% acrylic, Polylana threads use 76% less energy, 85%
less water, and result in 76% less waste.
For Arvin Goods, working with Polylana threads made sense when rolling
out a beanie line. Most beanies are made from 100% acrylic because it’s
cheaper than wool, the other commonly used material, and less scratchy.
“Acrylic is nasty, chemically,” says Arvin Goods cofounder Dustin
Winegardner. “It uses a lot of water and energy.” By sourcing yarn for
its beanies from Polylana, Arvin Goods can reduce acrylic use by 60%.
(Polylana still has to be mixed with 40% acrylic to retain the “loft,”
or slightly fluffy quality to the yarn that people expect in beanies,
but ideally that could be switched out for a more sustainable material
eventually.) “We say that our beanie is a reduced-impact choice,”
Winegardner says.
What’s most promising about these developments is the partnerships that
brought them about. The North Face sources its insulation from
PrimaLoft, a company that also supplies Patagonia (which has been
incorporating plastic bottles in gear for several years) and other
outdoor apparel companies. Polylana also supplies yarn to retailers like
Esprit and Dorothy Perkins, neither of which are particularly upscale
or environmentally conscious brands. These partnerships show that
incorporating plastic bottles into supply chains is not only the right
move, from an environmental standpoint–it’s also economically feasible
for a variety of brands. And soon, for consumers, wearing plastic
bottles may become the norm, not the exception
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