How Can Companies Recycle Clothes Back Into Clothes?

Photo source: Wired
Photo source: Wired

 

Your wardrobe is filled with plastic. Your sweat-wicking workout clothes, your running shoe uppers, your raincoat, your high-performance hiking gear, your office clothing. Check the labels. All of it probably has at least some polyester in it. Actually, that label is polyester, too.

Yes, in case you didn’t know (and the majority of people don’t, apparently?), polyester is a type of plastic made from fossil fuels. It’s the same plastic—polyethylene terephthalate, or PET—found in plastic water bottles that have the number 1 in the chasing arrow on the bottom. But while water bottles can be recycled, it’s almost impossible to recycle polyester.

 

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