Recycled synthetics are not the answer to our problems.
I see a lot of conversations around recycled polyesters and polyamides (Nylon), the marketing messaging from (mainly) fashion brands is that a switch from virgin to recycled is good for the environment. But, as with everything, it’s not as cut and dry as those marketers would have us believe when it comes to sustainable fabric choices.
There are 4 types of fabric that are derived from oil; polyester, polyamide, elastane and acrylic. The first 3 are the main fibres used in sportswear; both polyester and polyamide come in virgin and recycled content, elastane currently is neither recycled or recyclable, although there are some partial bio based options from Lycra and Dupont. Acrylic is mainly used in fast fashion and is big in knitwear because of it’s handfeel and fine wool-like appearance. Acrylic is neither recycled or recyclable and due to it’s natural properties doesn’t last as long as the other fibres, it pills quickly and sheds longer microfibres during washing, which gives the garment a shorter lifespan. Meaning that it is very often not good enough quality to resell so it ends up in landfill, taking decades to degrade, or incinerated.
Oil facility. Photo by Josh Redd.
The most popular recycled synthetic is, without a doubt, polyester. While some of this can be attributed to the increased volume being sold, it also has a growing feedstock in the amount of plastic waste we create. The first thing to note is that there are 3 categories of feedstocks for recycled polyesters; post industrial, pre consumer and post consumer. Post industrial is the largest recycled feedstocks for polyamide as this makes up things like discarded fishing nets and the like. This can be beneficial as due to the nature of these polymers they can be recycled multiple times and they can’t be recreated into other plastics so clothing fibres is a good option for recycling this waste. The down side is that there is only a finite amount of polyamide in the world, so as the demand goes up the price fluctuates more than polyesters. You won’t see many products marketed as post industrial recycled polyester, whether that means they don’t use post industrial plastics is unknown, rather it’s generally agreed that post industrial only works in marketing form when it relates to ocean waste such as fishing nets.
Pre consumer waste is a rather questionable source; why would you be recycling something before the consumer has even used it? There are many stories that have done the rounds over the last few years of excess plastic bottles from packaging suppliers being sent directly to fibre recycling facilities to be made into recycled fabrics rather than being used. How accurate those stories are, I couldn’t tell you. But I do know that sometimes, when it comes to cheap, silicon sportswear accessories, it’s often cheaper to make the minimum order quantities than it is to make the smaller amount you want, the excess is often then incinerated. So while I couldn’t say for definite that plastic bottles go straight from producer to recycler, I can well believe it.
Photo by Nariman Mesharrafa
Which leaves you thinking that post consumer waste must be the better option, right? Well this is where it gets a bit murky. Firstly, the largest producers of plastic waste are Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and Kelloggs. These companies have made countless pledges to deal with the amount of waste and virgin plastic they create. To date, not a single one of their pledges has been met. More needs to be done to hold these companies accountable, and dealing with their waste for them is simply not going to do that. Where justification could be argued for is if these companies met their targets for financial aid to countries that deal with this plastic waste, sorting and collecting it to be sent to recyclers. The US sent more than a billion tonnes of rubbish to Africa in 2020 and yet plastic collectors in Kenya earn less than $0.05 per tonne. If both waste producers and recyclers paid enough to lift people out of poverty then this could be considered more sustainable than it currently is. It is worth mentioning that there are some community based collectors that pay incentives for people to donate their plastic waste, but these are few and far between. Secondly, in it’s clear form plastic PET can be recycled up to 9 times to be made into new packaging. When you take it out of that system to make it into fibres, it can’t be recycled into a new product again, it can only be down cycled into LPG gas if it’s 100% recycled polyester, if it’s an elastane blend then it will be landfilled or incinerated. There are currently no fibre to fibre recycling options available, although there are many currently under going lab testing so this may change in the next few years.
There are, however, some benefits to using recycled polyester or polyamides. They release 70% less green house emissions than virgin and we have a lot of plastic waste to deal with. In fact we could stop oil production entirely and we would not see a plastics shortage for generations.
Ultimately we do need to reduce our reliance on oil, we can’t achieve global goals of halting the temperature rise without addressing the methane being released into the atmosphere which, after agriculture, oil extraction is the largest contributor to. So, if your only choice is between virgin polyester and recycled polyester, then always better to choice recycled. What would really make an impact is asking your favourite brands where they get their recycled fibres from; whether it be post industrial, pre consumer or post consumer waste. And please read my previous post on bio based synthetics to give you an idea of where we should be heading now. Money talks so vote with your wallet where you are able to afford to. If you can’t afford it, it goes without saying this advice is not aimed at you.
