Cotton or polyester? The debate continues. But it may be leaning in a surprising direction...
Emily Chan of British Vogue recently discussed the dilemma with plastics in fashion, suggesting that recycled polyesters may not be the final answer for the industry. This excerpt got me thinking: **The problem is that the majority of this recycled polyester is currently coming from plastic bottles. While polyester clothing currently isn’t recycled at scale, plastic bottles are much more easily recycled into other plastic bottles – meaning fashion is taking plastic out of a closed-looped system and transferring it to a linear model. “You’re essentially giving [the recycled plastic] a one-way ticket to landfill,” Harding-Rolls comments. “This is a stop-gap, not a future solution.” Moving forward, the fashion industry is set to have less access to PET bottles, due to the beverage industry’s own sustainability commitments. “It is therefore even more important that the textile industry continues to scale and develop at an accelerated pace chemical technologies that can recycle complex textile material inputs,” Riley says. The issues that come with using recycled synthetics have led to Reformation’s commitment to reduce its use of all synthetics to less than one per cent of its collections – whether recycled or not. ** Wow. So, as a result many fashion brands are looking for innovations with natural fibers. This is an exciting turn of events. While we know that each type of fiber has its shortcomings and none of them are frankly perfectly, it would be interesting to learn more about how natural fibers can be improved upon. We've been betting on natural fibers at Gallant International, Inc and Terra Thread, but the pushback has often been that even natural fibers can be stressful for the environments they're grown in. That's why we opted for regenerative organic, with the goal of improving the soils and the local environment through our process. Would love to hear how others are navigating this debate and thoughts on how the industry can balance synthetics vs. natural fibers! #organiccotton #regenerativeagriculture #sustainablefashion #circulareconomy #recycledmaterials #recycledplastics #polyester #sustainability Full piece here: https://lnkd.in/ggf3JZRT