The fabric in your gym kit or favourite football shirt is known as polyester. It’s usually a bit thinner and lighter than cotton, sometimes known to be shiny too. Polyester is a synthetic fibre which is used for its quick drying and easy-care properties. Polyester accounts for a huge amount of the synthetic fibres produced in the world but is a really important material for many reasons. However, there are now other ways of producing this.
Recycled polyester takes advantage of post-consumer recycling, by using plastic bottles. As a planet we use around 1.3 billion plastic bottles each day, and many of these find their way into landfill. Re-using these for other purposes is a great way of stopping this happening.
The plastic bottles are melted down into small chips or flakes, which are then spun into a regenerated polyester yarn. Just 5 water bottles are enough to make 1 t-shirt! This process is the most commonly used for recycled polyester.
The plastic molecules are broken down into their original monomers and reformed into a yarn. The benefit of this process is that the quality of the fibre is the same quality as it was when it was first made into a bottle and can be recycled infinitely. This process is the more expensive of the two.
Whilst this is a very positive step, the polyester fabric still isn't biodegradable so would ultimately end up as landfill. However by converting to fabric and clothing, this gives it every chance of hopefully never ending up there!
It reduces the amount of plastics going to landfill, and these materials are not biodegradable.
It reduces the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. From here plastic microparticles finding their way into our eco-system and damage marine life.
It reduces the energy that would be used in production of brand-new virgin polyester by up to 60%. This reduces CO2 emissions in the production of the material.
It reduces the amount of crude oil and natural gas needed to make more plastic because we are reusing existing plastic.
Finally, polyester is a popular material in general to use in clothing because of it's washability and wearability. It lasts an extremely long time, so less need to throw away and replace. It also dries very quickly so no need to tumble dry and usually requires no ironing - saving household energy use.
