What is Recycled Polyester?

plastic bottle
Over half of the world’s clothing is made from polyester, and this number is constantly rising. Polyester is a hugely versatile fabric, that is easy to care for, durable and cheap to produce. Polyester could be the answer to reply to the rapid population growth. Though, it is not. The problem is, polyester is not a sustainable textile option, as it is made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the most common type of plastic in the world. Polyester is made from a lot of energy, water and crude oil - a non-renewable resource – meaning that it takes 20 to 40 years to break down, depending on the environment it's in. Therefore the result is our landfills, oceans and global planet full with harmful waste.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 
SO, CAN WE RECYCLE THIS WASTE? 
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yes, we can recycled polyester and at Life is a Mesh all of our fabrics are made from recycled polyester. Recycled polyester is made from recycled materials (PET and polyester fabrics), by processing existing plastic waste - most commonly single use plastic bottles - and re-spinning it into new polyester fiber.

 recycled polyester

The advantages of Recycled Polyester:

1.Recycled polyester doesn’t require fossil fuels to be produced, lowering the demand for new raw materials extraction and reducing the overall carbon footprint. Its carbon footprint even beats organic cotton.

2.Recycled polyester requires less energy and its production has less around 75% CO2 emissions, when comparing to virgin polyester.

3.Recycled polyester uses about 90% less water than production of virgin polyester and has almost no water footprint, when compared to natural fibres, such as cotton.

4.Recycled polyester helps to reduce waste, by providing a use for post-consumer and post-industrial, and encourages positive recycling behaviours.

5.Recycled polyester gives a second life to materials that are not biodegradable and would otherwise end up in landfill or the oceans, which can minimise the 8 million tons of plastic that find themselves in our oceans every year. This can help to protect marine ecosystems and underwater wildlife that is often endangered by plastic pollution.

recycled canvas

Printed Eco Canvas

 

At last, recycled polyester is such a versatile fibre, from silky soft satin to durable canvas, stretchy lycra or floaty chiffon. With each choice more and more plastics are being recycled into beautiful fabrics, and used in infinite ways.

Which will you choose?

Eco Chiffon made of pre and post consumer

Eco Satin made of pre and post consumer

Eco Lycra made of pre and post consumer

Eco Active made of plastic bottles

Eco Canvas made of pre and post consumer

Eco Shorts made of plastic bottles

  Check out all details about our recycled polyester fabrics  here

 Shop our printed recycled fabrics here


Example blog post
Example blog post
Example blog post