Recycled Plastic Textiles: From Bottles to Sustainable Fabric?
Recycled plastic textiles have become increasingly popular as fashion brands search for alternatives to virgin polyester. Often made from PET bottles, these fabrics can reduce demand for new fossil-fuel-based materials, but they are not a complete solution to fashion’s waste problem.
Polyester derives from crude oil and polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. This material is made of long chain polymers and can be broken down, recycled, and re-spun into synthetic fabrics. During “polymerization”, ethylene is mixed with dimethyl terephthalate and terephthalic acid and the outcome is liquid PET, which is extruded into fine ribbons. These ribbons of plastic are then cooled and cut up into little chips and melted, while that liquid is drawn and stretched to create a fibre that’s more flexible and stronger than rigid plastic. Understanding how recycled plastic textiles are produced is important because their environmental impact depends on the recycling method, energy use, material quality and eventual disposal.
Using existing plastic waste is one of the main arguments in favour of recycled polyester, it can take nine clear plastic water bottles to make one T-shirt, 25 plastic bottles to make one pair of leggings, and 12 bottles for a Polo shirt. These figures show how recycled plastic textiles can divert existing plastic from waste streams, although turning bottles into clothing does not create a fully circular textile system.
There are two main ways to recycle plastics into textiles: the first one consists of chemically breaking down PET to its base polymers in an extensive process that can create a stronger fabric that can be recycled again; and the second one consists of mechanically breaking PET down, which is the process commonly used to recycle plastics at scale, by processing and melting the plastics before spinning them into new yarn. Compared with producing virgin polyester, both processes can use less energy and reduce dependence on new fossil-fuel-based materials.
Mechanical recycling can shorten and weaken fibres, meaning recycled plastic textiles may lose quality each time they are processed. Chemical recycling may produce higher-quality outputs, but it can require more energy, infrastructure and chemical processing.
While recycling plastics into textiles may seem like an overall obvious, positive option for the sustainability of the industry, there is another issue to be considered. The resulting textile, polyester, is derived from crude oil and polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, and doesn't biodegrade outside of lab conditions. It decomposes by slowly breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming microplastics, which are then responsible for polluting water and food chains, and affecting our ecosystems.
Synthetic textiles release microfibres during manufacturing, wearing and washing. Estimates suggest that between 200,000 and 500,000 tonnes of microplastic fibres from textiles enter the marine environment each year. Recent research has also found that some recycled polyester fabrics can shed more microfibres than comparable virgin-polyester fabrics, although shedding varies according to yarn, construction and garment quality. This remains one of the most serious limitations of recycled plastic textiles.
Recycled plastic textiles can reduce reliance on virgin fossil fuels and give existing PET waste another use. However, they still remain plastic, can shed microfibres and are rarely recycled repeatedly into new clothing at scale. Their benefits therefore depend on durability, responsible production, reduced consumption and effective textile-to-textile recycling systems.
Would knowing that recycled polyester can still shed microfibres change your decision to buy it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
For more on fashion's material obsessions, explore our piece on the industry’s love for leather.
(information sourced on sustainthemag.com)
(Featured image by Kseniya Kopna on Pixels)
(Image 1 by @fashionrevolution on Instagram)
(Image 2 by FLY:D on Unsplash)
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